You know what type of writer they call me? Consistent. As I always post on time. Anyways, I just read some SICK yugioh fanfic, and now I'm all hyped again. Thanks to "State of the Meta."

Remember what I said about Jalexis comfirmed. Yeah about that. Uh, I have decided (temporarily) to put that on hold for a sec. Not sure who ends up with who right now. It'd just ruin the story if I confirmed stuff. I just know that someone ends up with someone, you get what I'm saying?

Finally, anyone feel like this story is WAYY too angsty for its own good? I mean, don't get me wrong, sarcastic generic OP self-inserts are far worse (shots fired), but angsty-ness reaches a certain level where it just becomes repetitive and BORING. So less angsty-ness, I promise. More interesting stuff. Ooh, and you know what would be nice in GX fanfic?

Duels.

I'm a genius

It definitely wasn't the first time in life that Chazz was depressed about his life. Sure, his brothers had been a pain, and dying kind of sucked, and even seeing his arch nemesis, Jaden, becoming corrupted was pure torture. But nothing could have prepared him for what was currently staring him right in the nose.

It had been a regular morning, as regular as life on Duel Island could get. Chazz was shocked that Jaden had even accepted the deal with them the night before. And contrary to his suspicions, the former Slifer hadn't fled or burned the entire Duel Academy while left unattended.

Currently, Chazz was uneasy for multiple reasons, not in the least because he was allying with a king of darkness to fight darkness, but he pushed those emotions away for the time being. Instead, he occupied himself by sorting through his deck, theory crafting new ways he could push out his Armed Dragon even faster.

Lost in thought, he didn't notice until too late that he was nose to nose with a flyer nailed onto the bulletin board, stating, in bright, hot pink text, "Academy Dance." Which only reminded him of Alexis Rhodes.

To say the least, his endeavors with her had not been fruitful. His first declaration of love to her, if he recalled correctly, had resulted in the near destruction of the entire island and a madman on the brink of obtaining immeasurable power. Following, he had been rejected time and time again, with the excuse that dueling was her only love.

Chazz scoffed out loud thinking about it. Any fool who paid half a mind's attention could tell that Alexis was in love with Jaden. From her blushes whenever Jaden had brushed by her during lunch, or the looks she had shot him in class when she thought no one was looking.

Admittedly, no one had been looking -except for Chazz. Most of the time, if he wasn't looking at his cards, he was looking at Alexis. A bit stalker-ish, but all for the sake of unrequited love. Which mitigated the creepiness. He hoped.

Even when Jaden had shifted personalities into a cold, calculating figure, Alexis was the only one who wholly trusted him. The others all held varying degrees of distrust towards Jaden, all but Alexis. She had single handedly convinced the rest to strike a deal with Jaden instead of imprisoning him as well as leave him alone for the night.

Which meant that she had also been the most hurt when Jaden had snapped and pushed them away in the hospital. Jaden had hurt Alexis badly. Which meant that Chazz wouldn't forgive him, no matter what happened. Ever.

And there he was drifting into thought again. He silently berated himself for being so aloof and uncharacteristic, knowing that he had an appearance to maintain. Unfortunately, that brought him back to his current predicament: he had no girlfriend. Which meant that Chazz Princeton, the greatest duelist of all time, had no one to bring to a school dance.

Between dying and this, his tattered ego would not survive for very long.

Chazz created a mental list of all the potential girls he could ask to the dance; Jasmine, too flighty; Mindy, too dumb; Blair, well, Chazz definitely wasn't a lolicon; Syrus, still MIA…

Which left only Alexis Rhodes.

Chazz Princeton, came a metallic voice from behind him. Chazz whipped around only to find himself staring at a woman dressed in white and red, carrying half a nunchuck, with the other half ending in a paper fan. That wasn't the shocker though. The real surprise came from the fact that she was hovering two feet in the air.

Chazz gulped, seeing the menacing look on her face. Wait a second, is that Cyber Angel Benten? he wondered in astonishment. Clearly, it belonged to Alexis, as she was the only one who used Cyber Angels on the island. But since when did Alexis Rhodes have a duel spirit?

Benten watched him coldly, awaiting a response. "Uh, hi Benten." Being confronted in such a sudden way had unfortunately taken away Chazz's ability to speak cohesively. "Um, just out of curiosity, what are you doing here?"

Miss Alexis Rhodes requires your presence, Benten intoned, ignoring Ojama Yellow's desperate attempts to flirt with her. At the moment, the ojama had pressed his face just inches away from Benten's, batting his eyelashes in what could be considered "flirtatiously." Mostly though, it was just creepy.

To Benten's credit, she stared straight through the three foot tall lewd figure as if he were invisible, maintaining a stoic expression as drool began forming on the corner of Ojama Yellow's wide grin.

Chazz also did his best to ignore his own duel spirit, with some success. "Do you know why she's asking for me?" he asked, addressing Benten.

Negative. However, Miss Alexis Rhodes's summons are of a private matter, thus secrecy is greatly appreciated. Chazz almost laughed. Bastion had nothing on Benten's vocabulary.

"Got it. I'll go immediately." He turned and started walking, before realizing that he had no idea where he was going and froze. "Pardon me, but you don't happen to know where Alexis is do you?"

She was last in the forest near the Slifer dormitories when she asked me to find you, Benten replied, before flying away, most likely to find Alexis.

Too many thoughts were whirring in Chazz's mind as he quickly made his way to the indicated location. Alexis apparently had a duel spirit now, and it was pretty much implied that she could see them. But how?

"Any ideas?" he asked his Ojamas as he kicked a small pebble in the path absently.

No sir! Yellow responded in a happy manner. But does it matter? That chick is hot. Green and Black nodded in the affirmative.

Chazz groaned and rubbed his temples. What a wonderful day this had been. Not only that, but if Alexis really could see other duel spirits, she'd see the Ojamas. Not the greatest first impression to be sure.

After around the tenth refrain of "Here we Go Around the Mulberry Bush" by the Ojamas, Chazz finally snapped.

"You guys are about the most annoying creatures on the planet, did you know that?" he muttered, glimpsing the signature red, dilapidated Slifer dormitory in the distance. The Ojamas merely cackled infuriatingly and saluted.

But Chazz kept wondering what exactly was so urgent that he needed to be "summoned," in the words of Benten. He prayed fervently that it wasn't because the darkness was back. Maybe Alexis wanted to ask him out to the dance?

Haha, in your dreams boss! Ojama Black screeched. Chazz sighed. Thinking out loud was a bad habit he would need to kick at some point.

Five minutes later, Chazz stood outside the entrance to Jaden's old home, and he found himself thinking of the boy. Not the Supreme King, or whoever the heck he was now, but Jaden Yuki. Who never cared about winning or losing, always about having fun. Who was always hopeful even if there was no hope left. Who had taught Chazz what it really meant to be a duelist. Who had given Chazz the strength to stand against his brothers.

The sight of Jaden's previous abode was enough even to make the Ojamas fall silent.

No matter how hard he tried to maintain an unexpressive mask at all times, Chazz felt tears forming at the corners of his eyes and he hastily wiped them away.

"So those are your duel spirits, huh?" came a soft voice from behind him. It seemed that people really wanted to sneak up on him today for some reason. This time though, Chazz didn't need to turn around to know that it was Alexis speaking.

"Yeah," he mumbled, not looking at her. He paused, before asking, "When did you find out? That you could see duel spirits, I mean."

Alexis sighed, apparently reliving a memory. "It's a long story that involves a crazy woman and a deck of cards." Chazz didn't press her. When it became clear that she wasn't going to continue, he cleared his throat politely.

"I believe you called me here?"

He heard Alexis swear from behind uncharacteristically. "Oh god I totally forgot!" she said, sounding frantic. "I kinda got lost in the moment. Jaden's missing from the hospital!"

It took a total of three seconds for Chazz to react properly to that sentence. During the first second, his brain processed the words. During the second second, he realized what that implied. And then his legs became so weak that he almost fell to the ground.

"What."

Sure, Chazz had suspected that this sort of thing might happen. For gods sake they had trusted the King of Darkness. That was the equivalent of making a deal with the devil! But somewhere in his heart, deep down in the farthest recesses, Chazz had held a hope that maybe Jaden would come back. That he would still be the outgoing, kind person that had charmed his way into everyone's hearts.

Maybe, he had thought. Maybe there is still a chance. Unfortunately, it seemed that they had been proven wrong.

"I checked his old room," Alexis said, clearly trying to suppress the emotion in her voice. "Some stuff's been moved, which means that he came back…" Chazz got the feeling Alexis wasn't talking about Syrus.

"That's why I was searching here, since I thought he might be nearby. No such luck though."

Chazz's gaze wandered towards the forest. "Have you notified the others?"

Alexis sighed. "No. Zane got caught in some incident involving a Cyber Style deck, and Atticus is apparently nowhere to be found. I guess I'll have to settle with you than," she joked, trying to life the mood.

He chuckled. "Alright then. Let's go find our Slifer slacker, shall we?"

And with that, they headed into the forest.

They decided to split up to cover more ground, but ultimately their search was fruitless. No signs of Jaden could be found, not even a single footprint. Chazz lost track of time as he wandered across swathes of trees and undergrowth, but could not find a single clue that might get them closer to locating Jaden. Eventually, the sun began to recede behind the trees, only streaks of red and orange illuminating the way.

Leaves crunched under his shoes as he walked. "Any signs guys?" he asked his Ojamas.

Nossir, they said sadly, hanging their heads.

A distance away, Benten returned to Alexis, indicating that Jaden was yet to be found, to which Alexis only huffed in annoyance.

"It's just so frustrating!" she finally burst out after another five minutes of hopeless search. "I thought that maybe he really had changed a little since he came back. But…" her voice trailed off. Benten watched impassively, floating alongside Alexis, but even in her neutral expression there was a tiny flicker of emotion.

But like any good anime, just when all hope seemed lost, the trees suddenly gave way to a massive cliff that overlooked an ocean, stretching on for as far as they eye could see. And slouching precariously close to the cliff's edge, lazily grasping a fishing pole currently cast out to sea, his back facing her, was none other than Jaden Yuki.

He seemed so lackadaisical sitting there, an average schoolboy who didn't have any darkness or secrets, fishing without a care in the world. For a moment, Alexis completely forgot that it was the Supreme King. She wanted to call out towards Jaden, maybe challenge him to a friendly duel. And then Alexis saw Yubel in her human form, snuggled close to Jaden, eyes closed, and snapped back into reality.

It was Jaden in his most vulnerable state. Alexis knew that she had caught him in a very private moment, and tried to move away before she was discovered.

"I know you're there," came Jaden's voice, surprisingly neutral. "No use in hiding." Alexis cast Benten a look, but the duel spirit merely shrugged as if to say, not much we can do about it.

Alexis stepped past broken logs onto the cliff, a few feet away from Jaden. A few awkward moments of silence passed between them. Jaden was focused intently on his fishing line, apparently engrossed in the activity.

"Did you catch anything?" asked Alexis softly, not quite sure if breaking the ice was possible at the current moment.

"Some, but I just release them when I do," came his response. Alexis blinked, taken aback by his laid back tone.

"I see." She'd expected Jaden to be angry, or at the very least, severely annoyed, but if anything, it was the opposite. A hint of a smile played on her lips. Here she was talking with the King of Darkness about fishing.

The silence that stretched on between them didn't feel so awkward anymore, although it was far from comfortable. In her sleep, Yubel stirred but didn't wake, mumbling something about how disgusting fried shrimp was.

It was still strange to see Yubel in her human form. Her wings and third eye were notably absent, her skin less tan. Her hands ended in fingers, not claws, though her fingernails seemed suspiciously long and sharp. The disgusting makeup that she previously wore was gone, though some traces of black still remained around her eyes and her hair was still dyed halfway blue. She looked… pretty?

Jaden turned and saw Alexis staring. "Yubel tells me that you guys had a long talk, though she didn't elaborate on much."

Alexis nodded mutely. Apparently not willing to pry, Jaden shrugged and turned back to fishing.

"I didn't mean to interrupt you," Alexis said, casting her eyes downward. "You just disappeared, so we just thought that…"

Jaden finished for her. "That I ran away after promising I wouldn't."

Alexis flushed. "No! I mean, if you put it like that yeah, but-"

Both fell silent for a moment. Surprisingly, it was Jaden who picked up the conversation. "I don't blame you. Even I'm still not sure why I didn't run away. It's kind of strange." He paused. "I was going to go back you know. I just wanted to get some fresh air and get away from people for a while."

Alexis nodded and twisted her hands together, feeling incredibly embarrassed for not trusting her friend. Just like in that duel in the Dark World where she had said those cruel things she hadn't meant, where Jaden had turned to darkness.

"Um, Jaden, I'm sorry," Alexis said, fidgeting.

"Just don't go barging in like this again," he muttered.

"No, I don't mean about this whole thing. Well, I am sorry about this, but it isn't what I was talking about," she fumbled, unable to control the flood of words pouring out of her mouth. "I mean about in the dark world. For saying those things to you."

Jaden sat rigidly, not making a sound. His knuckles grew white from clutching the fishing rod so tightly.

Alexis continued speaking. "I know you probably won't forgive me for saying those things. I don't blame you. I probably would be angry at myself too. I am angry at myself for saying those things."

She took tentative steps towards the cliff edge, to where Jaden was sitting. "But I really am sorry, Jaden." Alexis stood cautiously, not quite sure what would happen next.

With his back turned, Jaden carefully set Yubel's sleeping head onto a patch of grass. He stood up slowly, but it was obvious that his movements were controlled, completely different from his posture just minutes ago.

Then he turned to face Alexis, who almost gasped. Jaden's mask had begun to crack. His normally expressionless visage showing signs of weariness and flashes of regret. His eyes, usually cold, retained a tiny bit of warmth that the old Jaden Yuki had once possessed.

They stood there in that position for a long time, gauging, calculating, mustering, as if in a game of chicken where the first person to speak would lose. Yet there was also a type of intimacy between them, an understanding that couldn't be expressed in words.

Alexis held her breath. Was this it? Could she bring back Jaden Yuki right here and now?

At that very moment, only a few meters from where the two were standing, came a shout, calling Alexis's name. The moment passed, and Jaden instantly snapped backward, wiping any emotion off his face. Yubel, seeming to sense something was wrong, woke immediately and shot up standing, glaring at Alexis.

An instant later, Chazz burst into the clearing.

"Oh good! I was looking all over for you Alexis. It was getting dark and-" he cut himself off when he caught sight of the person standing only a few feet ahead of her. "Ah. Um, hi Jaden."

"I'll be returning now," he stated briskly, his voice back to its cold demeanor. Although slightly less cold. Perhaps around five degrees less cold. Dirt crunched as Jaden stalked into the forest, not looking backwards. Yubel followed tightly, casting a suspicious glance at Chazz and Alexis before making her exit as well.

Right before Jaden vanished completely, Alexis felt a sudden urge coming from seemingly nowhere. "Hey Jaden!" she called after him. He froze. "You should go to the Duel Academy Dance!"

For a wild second, Alexis thought that Jaden would turn and say yes. But he only snorted and kept walking, disappearing into the shade of the trees.

Benten glared at Chazz. You are the dumbest, most idiotic human I have ever met, were you aware of that?

"Huh? What did I do?" asked Chazz frantically.

Never mind, sighed Benten. You really are denser than you look.

"Hey!" cried Chazz indignantly. Trying to change the subject, he turned to Alexis. "Did you just ask Jaden to the dance? Just what in the world were you guys talking about?" he teased.

Alexis glared at Chazz, although a little less menacingly and a little more teasingly than Benten. "You really are an idiot, did you know that?" And with that, she headed back to Duel Academy, her duel spirit trailing behind.

After they were safely out of earshot, a confused Chazz looked at his Ojamas. "Any idea what that was about?"

Not one, said Ojama Black. Women are all the same, I tell you. Never made sense to me.

Green and Yellow grunted in agreement.

God that fishing scene was hard to write. Let's hope I didn't screw it up too badly. Also, screw Chazz. Really? Just gotta mess up like that? WE WERE SO CLOSEEEEE

And yeah, I 3 yubel obviously, so I had to give her a human form that was less demon-like. I'm just gonna imagine that it has something to do with the fact that she bonded with Jaden and is growing human emotion, thus she gets to develop like this. Literally only because author's bias. Ahh being powerful is nice. I mean, it makes no sense to have Yubel have another look, but I can't have her look like a demon the whole time

Time to justify my "omg jaden played nice." ok this boy is confused as fuc okay? He's a battered teenager who's gone through hell and back, discovered that he's basically a monster personified, and that his friends betrayed him. No matter how corrupt he is, at heart, he is Fucking jaden yuki. Like, he's JADEN YUKI.

Firstly, Alexis caught him at a time where he wasn't wearing a mask. He was back to the chill, non-edgy person. And because he was in such a state of vulnerability, especially with the person that he once considered his best friend (maybe more, we might never know), the masks temporarily come off.

Second, okay this man is TIRED okay? He just fought a duel with some darkness and got shrekt by a shadow, is dealing with teenage emotions such as friendship and love and hurt, and to top it all off, he's cuddling with Yubel! (awwww)

This guy just went into a hurricane and back, so the fact that his masks aren't on yet isn't too much of a surprise (I hope).

Finally, remember when I said that all things are revealed this chapter? Yeah, when you write whatever comes to mind, this happens. Turns out not all things were revealed. Quite the opposite I think.

I really should stop making promises.

To end off this stupidly long thing, I will say that you should watch Darling in the Franxx if you have not yet done so. Just do it. All ya'll angsty lonely nerds will find it rather enjoyable. Trust me on that one