Greetings Readers!

Here is the next perspective - this time it's Duke. I hope you enjoy.


The car door slammed beside me as I got into the car and slumped forward. Some cute girls wandered past, giggling and waving at me, but I could barely muster enough energy to wink back at them. And even with a weak wink, some of them nearly fainted – the old charm never fails.

My fingers curled around the leather of the steering wheel and I rested my forehead on the top curve, sighing. I tried not to remember the last time I sat in the car like this, but the unwanted memories came flooding back: the stiffness of Joey and Tristan, the dead silence, the numbness of Yu-the Pharaoh's face…I mentally shook myself. I couldn't be like this, I had to be completely supportive of Rebecca and Professor Hawkins. But still, even though I'd volunteered to stay behind while the others went to confront Dartz and bring Yugi back – I wished I'd gone with them.

Going after Dartz was a good idea, if only we hadn't waited so long to do it.

"That's what I suggested from the beginning, but nobody listens to me."

Even as I said it, I knew that it was a stupid thing to day, even if it was true, and it didn't come as a surprise when Tristan responded by grabbing me in a headlock. "Stop being so selfish!"

I groaned. Maybe it was kind of selfish, but it was right, too. If only we'd taken the offensive and taken out Dartz before he came to take us out…we wouldn't have lost Yugi. Maybe the reminder that I'd been pushing for the right move helped prove to me that I wasn't guilty for Yugi's loss.

I probably wasn't even technically guilty, but when one of your friends gets his soul taken away and all you do, all you can do, is stand and watch, it doesn't make you feel any better about yourself. The weight of the surprisingly heavy body of the Pharoh had been nearly crushing, but it was nothing compared to the news that Yugi was gone…

I was right when I said we should have gone after Dartz from the start – but I wish I had been wrong.

Once again, I found myself wishing that I had gone along, but I ignored it. I was needed back here, to protect the professor and Rebecca from that biker gang. We'd already lost one of our own to those punks, we weren't about to lose another. Not if I had anything to say about it.

I pulled my forehead from the steering wheel and winced slightly as the skin peeled away from the warm leather. Biting back a curse from the pain, I rubbed the red skin and slipped into reminiscence. Really, I hadn't known Yugi for that long, and we didn't meet under the best circumstances, but it hurt a lot knowing he was gone. It hurt a lot more than I thought possible. This guy treated me with respect even when I insulted him and humiliated his friends. He stepped to take on a fight that wasn't his. He extended a hand of friendship to me when most people would have spit in my face. Yugi was friendly, smart, kept us all strong, and made us laugh…it killed me to realize that I was referring to him in past tense. They had to get him back, they just had to.

I couldn't imagine how much the others were hurting if this was how badly it was affecting me. The other guys held themselves like stone, with angry fire burning in their eyes, and Tea was trying to be positive, but her own grief seeped from every moment. And the Pharaoh…it was hard to tell if he could feel at all.

It was hard enough just to get a grip on the fact that there was some spirit living inside Yugi's body, let alone that we'd just lost the original soul of Yugi to Dartz and his Leviathan. I had even hoped that it wasn't as bad as it seemed: that Yugi was still here, and this babbling about losing him and being someone else was just some after effect of the concussion he could have received after landing on us. Or even a joke, some really really sick joke. But Yugi would never pull that kind of a joke in the situation we were in, and when you looked into the Pharaoh's eyes it was clear that he wasn't Yugi. There was an ancient slant to his eyes that was too old for Yugi's years, and the grief and guilt at the core of his eyes was too genuine to be imagined.

His own grief and guilt was why none of us could bear to accuse him of what happened – all except Rebecca. It was like we all knew that nothing we could accuse, no blows we could give him, could possibly be as intense as the loathing he had for himself. We couldn't bring anymore pain to that being if we'd wanted to, and nobody did. And it wouldn't bring Yugi back anyway.

Nothing would, now, except confronting Dartz.

I wanted to be there when they finally met the scumbag, so I could see the punishment he so richly deserved – but that wasn't what they needed. What they needed was for me to get back and keep the professor and Rebecca safe so that we could keep on fighting. I gunned the engine and pulled out of the train station parking lot, traveling toward the dusty road back to the motor home.

Waiting would be hard, but I could do it. And I would just have to trust that this strategy, even though we waited too long to use it, would bring our friend home. It had to.

There was no other alternative.


A/N: Once again, Duke is probably the hardest one for me to write for. Some of the others are hard just because there's a lot to cover, but with him it's hard for me to know WHAT to cover. But I hope you enjoyed regardless.

Anyway, thanks for reading and please review! Also, vote if you have a preference for what perspective you want to see next. Otherwise, I'll just continue with the set order I have.