Summary of Chapter 1: This is a four-shot of Mai's duel with Marik, her experience in the Shadow Realm, and the aftermath. Contains AU (that doesn't affect YGO in the long term) and slight swearing, Joey x Mai.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, and I never will. ;_;

~(-)~

"No, Joey! Please don't go!" I pleaded helplessly.

"So, how does it feel to have your mind wiped clean of two dear friends?" Marik said maliciously, his smile more wicked than you could ever imagine on a human.

"He's slipping away, I can barely see him… I feel so alone." I hated it. My voice sounded so pitiful, but I couldn't help it. Without Joey, what was I? I couldn't forget him! He was even more important than Yugi! Without him, I'm nothing! Back to being alone…

*flashback of her past*

(Mai's standing in a room, staring at the window with a storm raging outside.)

It's nothing new. It feels just like the loneliness I felt when I was a kid. My family, always moving, never having any friends, my parents always too busy to spend time with me. I had nobody…

(Now she's standing in a ship's inside, dueling a man. She holds up a harpy lady card, and smiles.)

Even after I got my first job and discovered Duel Monsters, I was still just a lonely kid. The powerful Harpy cards I kept in my deck were the closest things I had to friends.

But as cool and powerful as my Harpies were, deep down inside I knew they weren't real. So I just pretty much decided that I was meant to be alone! To play by my own rules, until that day on the boat to Duelist Kingdom, when everything changed…

(We enter a scene where she is on a boat, with a pack slung over her shoulder and people everywhere. Mai walks over to Yugi and Joey, who are leaning over the ship's hull.)

As soon as I saw those guys, I felt something I never felt before…

Friendship.

(We are now in the woods, where a fire is blazing, and Mai, Yugi and everyone are around it.)

The more I hung around them, the more they began to grow on me.

(In the memory, Joey is moving his arms like a chicken and bakking.)

"So, what do you think?"

He grins ruefully.

"Pretty good imitation of Kaiba, right?"

Sure they were a little weird at times, but they were nice weirdos. And soon my loneliness was gone. But now I'm losing the only real friends I've ever had!

*flashback ends*

"No, I'm just a lonely kid again," I said this, feeling the same anguish plague me like a sickness.

Marik cackled like the psychopath he was.

"Yes, feel the pain. The heartbreak… the torment of losing your mind!"

He mumbled something about shadow games, then started speaking loudly again.

"NOW SAY GOODBYE!"

Joey's image appeared before me, then shatterd.

"JOEY'S GONE FOREVER!"

I stared at the glass-like shards falling before me.

"Your memory of Joey has been erased!"

I fell to the ground, my head hurting like hell. What had happened? What happened to my mind? If felt like something was missing inside me, like a memory, of someone important!

I turned to the side, where a voice was talking.

"Hey! Mai! Look at me! How can you forget a mutt like this? Mai, over here! It's me, Joey Wheeler! Duelist extraordinaire!"

What was this voice? It came from something at the side, some sort of blank thing there, that I couldn't see!

But I wasn't on top of the blimp anymore. The world around me was fading, and I was in some sort of realm, where the clouds were eerie dark green-black, and wisps of clouds were around me. Where was I? What had happened to me? Was I in an alternate universe?

I heard voices from…outside. The same male voice that had been calling me from nowhere was talking again. The one that said he was Joey Wheel or something. It felt like I had amnesia or something. I couldn't even remember what he said five seconds ago!

"Yugi! Do something, anything! We gotta get Mai outta that place! Use your Millennium Puzzle, or something like dat!"

A man's voice, a lot deeper than the former's, spoke.

"I'm trying, Joey. But it seems that Marik's hold on Mai's mind is stronger than I thought. It feels like nothing can enter it, even with the power of my Millennium Puzzle. I can sense I path where I can get it, but it feels like I'm not strong enough…"

My mind? I was inside my mind? Where those voices coming from outside, in reality?

"You gotta get through, man! This is Mai we're talking about! You gotta help her… you just gotta!"

Then a female's voice came from out there. It was the same voice that tried to speak to me earlier.

"Joey, Yugi's trying his best, but he can't get through. Maybe this is something Mai needs to do herself, Joey…"

"No, it ain't! Mai has friends like us for a reason! I will never, ever let her down!"

Another male voice spoke. He sounded fairly annoyed, like he was used to this.

"Dude, Yugi's trying his best, there's nothing better than his best! Stop bugging him! If you want to save Mai so bad, you try!"

Another guy spoke, with a slightly agitated tone.

"Tristan, stop! He's just fighting for someone he cares for!"

Joey spoke again, and he spoke them with grim determination.

"I don't need ya to defend me, Duke. Tristan, I think I will!"

Another female out there gasped.

What did he mean? Was he going to try and reach my mind with something? I wasn't a container!

The Joey guy spoke again.

"Ok, Yugi, try to reach Mai like you did earlier. Then I'll grip the Millennium Puzzle, and I'll try to enter her mind!"

I heard the deep-voiced man, Yugi, grunting, and he did something. What was he doing? Summoning his powers?

He spoke.

"Ok, Joey, now grip the Millennium Puzzle, and try to reach her!"

There was a flash in the dark place I was in. I turned around, and I saw two things. First I saw a crazy-haired man behind me. His gray hair swirled everywhere, and his eyes glinted with madness. I felt something trigger within me. The memories were coming back. And as I was doing so, the land I was in started changing and swirling. I really was in my mind!

The light continued shining behind… Marik. That was his name! I just remember that… and that he was trying to hurt me earlier!

Someone stepped through the light. It was a guy with slightly golden blond hair, and his eyes were a dark hazel. He had on a white and black shirt, and his lip was bitten in determination.

"You!" Marik screamed. "What are you doing here, brat?"

He spoke again, with a familiar voice. It was the Joey guy!

"Come on, Mai! You can remember me! It's me, Joey! Your best bud!"

"Joey…?" I whispered, my mind straining to remember. Something was coming, hidden beneath the darkness, there were memories…

The darkness around me- my mind..? Well, it was changing. It wasn't so dark anymore, it became brighter and brighter, and suddenly everything came back.

"Joey!" I screamed. I stared at him, wondering how he ever got in here. Then I remembered. When I didn't remember who everyone was, he and Yugi worked together to get into my mind. But how do I get back? I was trapped in my mind, in this dark, desolate place.

"You can get outta here!" he said, with his Brooklyn accent coming out more, because of his emotion. "Just… try and rememba about us, my an' Yugi and all of ya other friends, and how we support you, and how ya were dueling Marik, and how he trapped you in your mind, and that you needa get out! Do you get it now? You just needa think hard about all of us, and how we'll always support ya…"

"BE QUIET!" Marik's voice boomed through my mind, almost giving me a headache. I needed to get out of here.

I tried, I really did, but something was preventing me from doing so. Something in my mind was blocking the path to the real world, a worry, a dark thing….

"Joey," I said softly," was I really not in your dream?"

That was the thing that was bothering me. Why would Joey even try and help me if he didn't even consider me a friend? Maybe he was just trying to play hero, and save the damsel in distress. Was I really, really destined to be forever alone?

Joey's cheeks inflamed with my words.

"Of course you were in my dream, Mai!"

"You're lying," I accused. He sounded really nervous.

"It…it…I just didn't want you to know that you in my dream, Mai! W-wouldn't it be so awkward if you knew I was dreamin' bout ya? I mean, it's OK for Tea to be in my dream, cause we all know that we don't like each other that way, but for you to be in my dream, er, well… dat's an entirely new story! I mean, like, you're real pretty an' all, and, well, everybody knows we're friends, so, um, yeah, well…" he continued rambling like an idiot, but I sensed the truth in his words. And a double meaning.

"I believe you, Joey," I said, then winked. He flushed.

Marik looked between us two, his expression angry, because he didn't know what we were walking about and thus couldn't use it against us.

Then I closed my eyes and I tried to go back, and I remembered, and the whole time Joey's blushing face was burning in my brain, and then I was back in the world of reality.

Everything was clear now. I had been dueling Marik, and he had been trying to erase the memories of all my friends. Joey, Tea, who would it have been next? But the important thing was that Joey had saved me.

With the help of my friends, I could conquer anything.

But then I looked at Joey in the sidelines. Something stirred within me.

Maybe a person more important than a friend.

I turned back to Marik. He grinned evilly, once again.

"Is the danger perhaps a little too real for you?"

"Not even close," I retorted. "Your head games don't scare me, sweetheart."

"Suit yourself. But realized when I'm through with you, your brain will be nothing but an empty shell!"

"Well bring it on, Marik," I replied, with my hand thrust into a fist. I lifted it up into the air. "I've never backed down from a duel, and I won't start now!"

"Hm," he exclaimed, with attitude. "Then prepare to lose your mind!"

"Guess we'll see," I said. "So give the scare tactics a rest and get ready buddy, cause now it's my turn!"

~(-)~

Who was Who when Mai didn't have her Memories?
Joey was pretty obvious. Yami Yugi was the guy with the deep voice, and the two that were about to argue were Tristan and Duke, in that order. Tea was the female who spoke, and Serenity was the girl who gasped. Marik was the guy with the grey hair (who else? :P)

Okay, I know I changed a lot of things.

First, I changed the fact that it was Joey who helped Mai. I know how heroic Yami Yugi is, blah blah blah, but really, I don't think he has a strong enough bond with Mai to convince her to come out of her mind.

Second, I made it do that Mai could hear the voices of everybody cheering for her. That was the only way I could describe the plot.

Third, I made it so that Mai got her memories of Joey and Tea back. Mai fell into the pit of her mind because she lost Joey. She would not get all magical and be able to get out of her mind just because of Yami Yugi's inspirational words. Joey had to come back.

Next chapter I'll be describing the end of Mai's duel, which has a very different ending than the actual.

Was it good? Bad? Well tell me, by pressing the little review button down there! ^3^