Hey everyone, welcome all to my next story!

Just to clarify, this story is AU and will take place in the Satellite. It will involve a YuseixAkizaxKalin love triangle, and I won't reveal who Akiza ends up with until the end (of course, one look at my other stories will give you a big clue).

Big thanks to AnimeKiwi369 and BebePanda401 for helping me out, you guys rule!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh 5ds, but I do own my own characters and plot.

Prologue: The Countdown

People are always asking me how I knew Kalin Kessler.

"Twenty minutes," he said, gazing intently at his watch. My hands were bound behind me, strapped tightly to the metal chair in which I sat. The rope cut into my skin, and the more I struggled, the more painful it became. We were in an abandoned office building, 37 stories above the Satellite. The view of the nighttime lights would have been miraculous, majestic even, if circumstances had been different.

Kalin smirked. "This is it, Yusei. Ground zero. What we've been working for. Think of everything we've accomplished in the past few months."

For some reason, I listened to him, and I found myself flashing back to recent events, and how they changed my life. From Kalin's arrival, to forming the Enforcers, to everything with Akiza...a lot happened in just half a year. And I knew my life would never be the same. It had started as an effort spawned from the best intentions of making the Satellite a better place, and now it had turned into this monstrosity.

Nineteen minutes.

Which brought the two of us to our present situation. Right then, I knew that there were about to be many lives lost. Right then, I knew that there were hundreds of pounds of explosives under every single security building in the Satellite. I knew that in less than nineteen minutes, on the strike of midnight, Kalin would activate the detonator in his hand, blowing up said buildings that rested on said explosives. And I knew that there would be chaos, pandemonium beyond recognition, fear and hate and darkness that surpassed anything the city had ever seen. It Kalin's eyes, it was beautiful. In mine, it was the fall of the place I called home.

Eighteen minutes.

I had tried everything I could. I had tried to reason with him, tried to stop this insanity, but nothing would work. After things got out of control, they spiraled downhill faster than anyone could have ever imagined. Akiza, Jack, Crow, we all fought as hard as we could, were fighting still, but the disaster stayed its course, regardless of our help or opposition.

I thought of Akiza, the only woman I ever loved, the only one I still do love. She had tried to warn me, tell me that something bad was going to happen, that something was terribly out of place with me and Kalin. But I, in my ignorance, hadn't listened to her. If only I would have been braver, paid more attention, confessed to her earlier, then things could have turned out differently.

I thought Akiza and I were going to be happy together, but if Kalin succeeded in carrying out his plan, none of the Enforcers would ever see the light of day again. Akiza was the only thing still moving me to act, compelling me to resist Kalin's madness, making me want to end this. Because I love her...that was the reason for everything I had ever done, both good and bad.

Seventeen minutes.

"Any words to mark the occasion?" Kalin cackled.

"Mhm...cngh...nythg..." I muttered.

"What was that?" Kalin asked, ripping out my gag.

I coughed up the saliva that had built up on the dirty rag previously occupying my mouth. When you're halfway suffocating, it's hard to speak at all. "I...can't think of anything," I said.

Kalin shook his head in disappointment. I hacked up more bile, the clear liquid burning my lungs and corroding my throat. I never imagined I could ever have pushed my body this hard until it was required of me. But in the end, it had all been in vain. Kalin was about to win, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

Sixteen minutes.

"Look at you," he spat, casting me a disgusted scowl while checking his watch again. "Fifteen more minutes until the greatest moment of your life, and all you can think about is that stupid girl! You were weak before I came here, you and all the others were nothing! And now, we're about to go down in the history books as the greatest duelists in the Satellite."

I shook my head in disbelief. It still felt like a dream to me. "How can you justify this?" I pleaded. "How can this be happening?"

And there, in my desperate question, in the midst of the dreaded countdown, our story begins.