A/N: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF YU GI OH 5DS OR THE VANISHING OF ETHAN CARTER! ALL RIGHTS GO TO KONAMI AND THE ASTRONAUTS!
Chapter 9: Death in the Mines
As they walked, Leo asked, "So, what do you think about what we've been seeing with his adoptive family?"
Paul looked down in thought. "'The sleeper must not sleep'... Yusei disturbed something. Whatever it was, it got out, into the air, and into the minds of his family."
"Or maybe his family was just disturbed from the start," Jack suggested.
"Maybe," Paul agreed. "But if they were that disturbed from the start and afraid of this sleeper like this, they would've refused Professor Fudo's wishes to take Yusei in. Maybe it's just exactly as Dale, Ed, and Yusei say: they were just gravely sick and going mad. We'll see in the end what exactly happened to Yusei."
They walked for a while before Paul commented, "People always asked me: What do the dead have to say?"
"And what's your answer?" Crow asked. "I mean, by what we've seen they've given a lot of questions and little answers."
"Exactly, Crow. You'd be surprised how little the dead know," Paul responded. "The dead can't explain what it means to be dead. They walk down stairs that disappear beneath their feet, headed for some bright glade of memory they'll never reach."
"How do you know that?" Luna asked.
"Experience, kid. Experience with what I've dealt with and the things I've seen and done can tell you a lot about a lot of things," Paul replied. "And you may get that experience, too, one day. But I hope not in the same way I have."
"I guess I can see that," Leo agreed.
They walked for a bit longer in silence before Paul suddenly stopped, looking in a certain direction. The others followed his line of sight and noticed a small tunnel entrance. They walked up to it and felt a draft from inside.
"That scene from before said Yusei went through a tunnel into the mine, right?" Akiza questioned.
"Yep," Paul answered. "And this is it. Let's go and be careful."
They slowly entered, one by one. The younger ones being helped a bit. They walked through the one-way, dark tunnel for a couple minutes before they noticed a light up ahead. When they reached the light, they found they were in the main tunnel and turned to see a gate leading outside.
"That must be the gate Yusei needed before that Dale didn't have a key for," Crow realized.
"I agree," Paul responded.
They turned to the other side and went down that tunnel. It was eerily quiet, almost uncomfortable. They came to another T-section with two ways to go. They turned to the left to try that way first and found a stone staircase. They slowly and carefully walked down it.
Eventually, they came up on a elevator. "Think that can hold all of us?" Akiza asked.
"It should," Paul agreed touching it. "Come on." They stepped on and it didn't even creak at the weight. The detective pressed the down arrow button. The gate in front of them closed for safety and then smoothly went down.
It didn't take long for it to come to a stop. They got out of the elevator and back onto solid ground. There were three ways to go this time: Straight forward, right, or left. However, left was completely dark and the right was somewhat lit up, but showed a dead end. Only option then: Forward.
They walked in that direction, slow and cautious. They then came to another fork-in-the-road. One going forward still, the other going right. As they looked down the right side, it appeared to lead to another room. They check to be sure the other option was a dead end and it was, so they went right.
They came out the other end and found themselves in a large cavern. It had a stone pillar in the center to hold the ceiling up with a stand next to it. A track wrapped around the pillar before going deeper into the mine. Over to the side was a rack of picks and to the left of that was an elevator with no elevator in place, it appeared to be in the water below.
They walked around a bit before Paul found the button to bring the elevator up and down. He pressed the up button and the elevator came out. Along with the Missy's corpse.
The others ran over. "Isn't that Missy?" Luna asked.
"Yes," Paul responded beginning to inspect it. "The lock from broken, appearing from the outside. The victim drowned… but was it postmortem or antemortem?"
"Another murder to figure out," Crow commented.
"It would seem so," Akiza agreed.
Luna then noticed something and walked over to the pick rack. "Hey, one of the pickaxes is missing." They walked over.
"Nice find," Paul praised. He began to focus and turned towards the dark tunnel continuing on. They walked there and as they barely got too far into the tunnel when they noticed a mining trolley sitting there, but a pile of rocks were sitting in front of it. Paul looked it over before getting an idea. He looked at his acquaintances. "I would stand back if I were you."
They hurried got out of the way while got into the driver's spot on the machine. He turned it on and the headlight shined bright. Paul slowly brought the trolley back. But as soon as it hit the back wall, he put full throttle into going forward. It smashed through the rocks, letting it be free.
He moved the trolley around the pillar in the main cavern before heading into the rest of the tunnel. He travelled for a bit before noticing something now illuminated in the darkness. He pulled the trolley to a stop while the others came behind him.
"Now that was cool," Leo commented.
"Thanks, kid," Paul responded with a grin. They walked over to find a pickaxe in an electrical box. "I believe we found our missing pickaxe."
"So we put it back then," Akiza stated. "Hopefully that'll be enough."
Paul nodded and they walked back, leaving the trolley on and in place. They went to the pickaxe rack and placed the mining utensil back in its proper place before going over to the dead woman.
The detective sensed out and the strange world surrounded them again. The lights came out of her body before separating out to areas.
They walked to the one to the tunnel entrance they came from to enter this area. It showed Missy and Dale appearing to have just entered, looking for something. There was no doubt they were looking for Yusei.
They then went to the light that landed at the pickaxe rack. That one showed Dale looking down at a pickaxe he was holding.
The next one was right in front of the elevator. That one showed Missy standing in the elevator with the door open and Dale seeming to be talking at her and being depressed. Each one of the onlookers were a bit nervous as to what was happening here.
They then went to the one by the button to make the elevator go up or down. This one showed Dale pressing the button for it to go down.
And then they went to final one, not too far from the one previous. Dale was looking over in that direction, holding the pickaxe and seeming sad. The question marks then appeared over each event meaning it was time to put them in order.
"I would say the one where they're entering is the first," Jack suggested. Paul nodded and he marked it as one.
They looked around and Crow stated, "And considering he still doesn't have the pickaxe, the one at the elevator is two, right?" Paul nodded and they went over while he made it a two.
"And the only other one he doesn't have a pickaxe is the one at the button," Leo added.
"Yes, so that must be three," Paul agreed.
"But Missy hasn't been locked in the elevator yet," Luna commented.
"We'll just try it out. If we mess up like even I've done before, it'll start over with the ones we know as right locked in place," Paul assured and made the one at the button a three.
"And then I'm guessing the one where he grabs the pickaxe is four," Akiza reasoned.
"And the one where he's walking away with it is five," Paul finished while placing the final numbers to the assigned events. They got in a good spot and the detective began the events.
Dale told Missy, "Honey, he probably ran! Why wouldn't he? Why would he be here?" There was a sound of something being knocked over. "Shit. That was probably a raccoon!"
"No. No, I don't think it was," Missy responded. She went to walk over to where they heard it before the event changed to the elevator.
Dale tried to reason with Missy as she stood in the elevator, "He's just a kid! He didn't 'disturb' anything! He just found a room in an old house! That's it!"
"Our boy is the price. I'm going up there. The sleeper must not sleep," Missy retorted. Dale shut the gates to the elevator and locked it. The events then shifted over to Dale at the button, Missy saying, "He can't get away. It's the sleeper's time to wake!"
Dale pressed the button and it started to go up. "Missy, listen to yourself!"
"No, I see clearly," she argued. "The sleeper breathes inside me."
"You're sick. We all are," the husband retorted. He stopped the elevator.
"Dale, what are you doing?" she asked angrily. It then went over to the pickaxe rack. Dale was walking over to the elevator with the pickaxe in hand. When he reached the elevator door, he went to smash the lock with Missy asking grabbing the bars, "Dale! Dale, what is this?"
He slammed the pickaxe on the lock while hitting Missy's finger, making her cry out in pain and go to one knee. Dale slowly said, "I'm… fixing something." He slammed the axe down again and the lock broke.
It then went over to the final event with the pickaxe. He walked over to the button with Missy yelling, "Dale! You miserable coward! Let me out!" Her husband pressed the down button and the elevator began to go beneath the water. "The sleeper demands to rise! The sleeper must wake up! The sleeper must wake up! The sleeper must-" Then she disappeared beneath the water's surface.
The events went back to the body with the area as it originally was set up. The final light then came out of Missy's corpse and went over to the section of the tunnels where the trolley was.
They hurried to it. When they reached it, they saw events with the young version of Yusei talking to Dale again. This time, with Yusei holding two gasoline canisters.
"Where's Missy?" Yusei asked. "I thought I heard her voice."
"She's… still looking for you. You need to leave. Go, through there," Dale told the boy.
"Through that water? It kind of looks like it's boiling," Yusei questioned.
"No, no, it's just a chemical reaction. It's not actually boiling," Dale reassured.
Travis's voice then called, "Mom! Mom, where are you?!" They both seemed to go on alert.
Dale turned to Yusei seeming concerned. "I'll deal with your brother. Just go. Now!" The events then ended and the vision world disappeared.
"Well that was something," Crow commented. "I mean, he killed his wife."
"He didn't kill his wife. She was no longer who she once was. Neither was he," Paul corrected. "Something was using all this pain and death. Something was becoming stronger."
"The sleeper…" Luna realized.
"Whatever this sleeper is," Paul responded.
"Let's go to this boiling room," Jack suggested. They nodded and began their walk through the tunnel.