//------------------------------//
// Duel 6: Upgrade Part 1 
// Story: Yu-Gi-Oh! Friendship is Dueling Finale: Endgame 
// by Bahamut0 
//------------------------------//

	Former Principal Cinch was sitting in her home looking over old family photos of her and Nightfall. She'd made many mistakes over many years, but a least now things were at least starting to mend. Cinch sighed fondly, but snapped her head up when she saw a dark portal materialize in her home. Cinch glared at the figure that stepped out of the dark portal. "I had hoped to never see you again."

Dark Gear smirked. "Hey honey. I'm home. Could you be a dear and tell me where our boy is?"

"I will tell you NOTHING. As far as I'm concerned, Nightfall is better off knowing only what I told him about you!"

"You told him I died. Didn't you?", Dark Gear asked with a wicked smile. "But as you can see, I'm very much functioning."

"As far as I'm concerned, you ARE dead." Cinch then sighed. "At least, the man I loved is dead."

Dark Gear scoffed at the remark. "Why be a flawed man when I can be a perfect machine? That's a truth I realized when I began to advance my research. A truth I shall gladly teach to Nightfall with the cards I crafted for him."

Cinch's eyes went wide with horror! "You won't lay a finger on him!"

Dark Gear simply frowned as Cinch attempted to charge at him, and snapped his fingers. From out of nowhere, a swarm of gears weighed her down and bound her to a wall! "I have no intention of harming you. But I've got to give our son some form of incentive to seek me out." Dark Gear left through the same portal he had arrived in, and waited in what served as hsi lair. "Now all I have to do is wait." Back at CHS, school was just about out and Nightfall and Twilight were walking home.

"Looks like Tyrannus had a pretty crazy day.", Nightfall said with a sigh. "To think. Blitz sent Ty's own brother after him. That creep's got no limit to how low he'll sink. It's like he's trying to crush Burst by getting at us."

"I think that's his plan.", Twilight said sadly. "Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be going in his favor if Ty's victory is any indication. How about we try taking Cyber Dragon to your place Night?"

Nightfall smiled. "Sure!" Nightfall summoned his partner and he and Twilight climbed on board. However, something felt off to Night as he and Twilight dismounted. "It's too quiet..." Nightfall unlocked the door, and was shocked to see his mom bound to the wall by what looked like giant gears! "Mom!"

Cinch's ears perked up at hearing her son's voice. "Night. Only you can remove these restraints. Try focusing on them." Night blinked before doing as Cinch said. Suddenly, Night's hands were glowing with blue light that looked like curcuity! The gears then faded away into nothing but data! 

"How...how did I do that?", Night said in awe.

Cinch dusted herself off before addressing her son. "You are a technomancer Nightfall. Like your father before you. Who has now returned to our lives. Though I wish he hadn't." Cinch hung her head in sadness.

"Mom...what do you mean? You told me Dad died in an accident with one of the devices he was working on!"

Cinch shook her head. "No. Something FAR worse occurred the night of that 'accident.' Gear was always trying to find a way to perfect his machines. And one day, he came upon a solution. Complete integration. He injected himself with experimental nanites in order to turn himself into a cyborg so he could be at one with his machines. However, it backfired horribly and damaged his mind. His previous ideology that man sought perfection with machines. He then believed that perfection was distancing himself from humanity. A virulent idea that he wished to force upon you." Cinch sighed. "Fortunately for you and I, he didn't come immediately. He was waiting for when you were older. Now he's returned. And he plans on making you join him."

Nightfall's eyes were blazing with fury as he grabbed his duel disk and deck! "Where. Is. He?"

"Night, you're not serious!", Twilight pleaded! "You can't face him like this!"

"I have to Twilight! This is my family's problem. And I'll be the one to fix it. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe a reunion is in order with my father." 

Cinch sighed. "He'll be at his old workshop. Night, please. Be careful." Night nodded, and re-mounted Cyber Dragon. As he flew off, Twilight and Cinch watched him leave with worry in their hearts.

"Do you think Night's going to be able to beat his dad?", Twilight asked nervously.

Cinch sighed. "Dark Gear has made some upgrades to himself in the years he's been absent. At this point, all I can do is hope Night will emerge victorious." Meanwhile, Nightfall had just arrived at Dark Gear's lair. Night took a deep breath as the doors slowly creaked open, and went in.

"Time to send my dad's deck to the scrap heap...."