11. A Shadow Realm Thing
Joey tried to block out the crowd as they pressed in on him and Yugi. People were muttering about the "King of Games," speculating on what had happened, whether or not he would be competing tomorrow. Annoyed, Joey looked up. "BACK OFF AND GIVE HIM SOME AIR, WOULDJA?"
The crowd shifted back slightly, and Joey turned his attention back to Yugi, who was still hunched over, moaning in pain, but was starting to breathe a little better. Joey's jeans were soaked through with beer as he knelt beside Yugi, one arm around his shoulder and the other holding his arm. Duke was there, too, kneeling across from them with Cady and Paige standing behind him. Tristan and Serenity, however, were nowhere to be seen.
"Hang on, Yuge, she'll be here any second."
Yugi took another gulp of air, gritting his teeth as if he were breathing ground glass.
Dammit, where are they? Joey started grinding his own teeth.
"I… it's getting… better." Yugi was trying to reassure him, but every word still looked like it took a huge amount of effort.
"Shh, don't try and talk, buddy, just relax." He looked up at Duke. "Where the hell is Serenity?"
Duke only shrugged.
"I'm ringing emergency," a server said, a cell phone in her hand, but Yugi shook his head violently.
"No… I'm… fine…"
Joey grimaced. "Like hell you are!"
"No, really… it's getting… better…"
"Move aside, let the lady through, she's a medic!" That was Tristan, and Joey breathed a huge sigh as he saw him appear with Serenity in tow.
Duke slid over to give Serenity room and she stooped down in front of Yugi. "What happened?"
Joey shook his head. "I don't know. We were talking, and the next thing I knew, he was on the ground like this. He couldn't breathe and was in pain."
"I can… breathe now."
Serenity reached over and took his wrist in her hands to take his pulse. "Where does it hurt?"
Yugi clenched his teeth. "Chest."
"What's it feel like?"
"Like… being stabbed."
"Is there any tingling in your chest or left arm?"
He shook his head.
"Okay, your pulse is a little fast, but it's regular. Can you take a deep breath?"
Yugi took in another deep breath and winced, but it sounded more normal.
"Does it hurt more or change when you take a deep breath?"
Yugi shook his head.
"And you've never had anything like this happen before, or any lung problems like pleurisy, right?"
"No."
"Okay, I'm gonna press on your chest in a few places. Tell me if it hurts more or changes, okay?"
He nodded and she pressed in several places on his chest. Each time, he shook his head.
The server leaned down over them. "Is he okay? Do you still need me to ring nine-nine-nine?"
"I'm fine." Yugi straightened and tried to stand up, but Serenity and Joey both put hands out to stop him. He tried to force his face into a smile. "It's much better now, really."
"I'll be the judge of that." Serenity held up a finger to the server and looked at Yugi. "What does it feel like now?"
"Better. Like… I don't know, like I ate something too spicy."
Serenity frowned. "Like indigestion?"
Yugi nodded. This seemed to disturb Serenity somewhat, but she turned back to the server and said, "He's gonna be okay. You don't need to call emergency."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Someone is bringing me my medic kit, and I'll check a few more things, but he's okay." She sounded calm and authoritative, but Joey couldn't mistake the worry in her voice.
"Okay, move along, nothing to see here." Tristan shifted into MP mode, trying to disperse the crowd. Duke got up to help, and Joey heard the two of them send Cady and Paige back to the hotel with arrangements to meet in the morning.
"You sure he's okay?" Paige asked as she and Cady started to walk away, but then Joey tuned them out and looked at his sister, whose eyes were still wide with worry, although she gave the server one last assurance that everything would be fine.
"Serenity, what's wrong? You don't look like everything's fine."
"Whatever it was, it wasn't medical. It—"
She was interrupted by another commotion as Téa arrived, frantic. She pushed her way upstream through the people as they started to leave, then sucked in her breath when she caught sight of Yugi on the floor. In an instant, she was on her knees beside him opposite Joey, taking Yugi's hand in hers. "What happened? I saw Mai in the hotel lobby and she said she was getting Serenity's bag because something happened to you!"
"Téa, I'm fine now." Yugi tried to placate her, but he clearly wasn't doing well. He could talk almost normally now, but his face was still pale and he was grimacing.
"You are not fine." Téa had that Mother Hen voice she could get, and Joey cringed as she continued. "I knew something was wrong. I could feel it. It was just like in Duelist Kingdom when you were dueling Pegasus."
Joey's eyes widened. "Holy crap, Téa, you're right! That's exactly what it felt like!"
"What what felt like?" Serenity asked, her voice low.
"Right when this happened, like a second before Yugi dropped his glass, I felt this pain in my chest, like indigestion. Only it wasn't like that at all. It was just like Duelist Kingdom."
Téa nodded. "I felt it too. So did Rebecca."
"I did, too." Tristan hunkered down beside them. "And so did Duke. It was like Duelist Kingdom. I knew something was wrong."
Serenity looked thoughtful. "Mai and I felt it too. Right when we heard the glass breaking."
Téa bit her lip. "Just like Duelist Kingdom. Then it was just the four of us with the mark on our hands. Now we're eight. And we all felt it."
Serenity put her hands on her hips and looked at Téa. "Okay, you keep saying 'just like Duelist Kingdom.' Wanna clue the rest of us in on what that means?"
"When Yugi dueled Pegasus in that Shadow Game, Tristan, Joey, and I could feel it when he was hurt. Because of that mark I drew across our hands, our bond to each other."
Duke shook his head. "Okay, that's a little freaky. I thought when you did that, it was just a symbol."
Joey snorted. "Yeah, like Duel Monsters is just a card game."
Serenity closed her eyes and reached for Yugi again, putting her hand over his heart. She held it there a moment, frowning, then she opened her eyes and met Yugi's eyes.
"This is a Shadow Realm thing," Yugi said calmly, a statement more than a question. He wasn't grimacing as much anymore, for which Joey was relieved, but anything Shadow Realm related couldn't be good.
Serenity, however, looked unsure. "Not… I don't know. It's not like when Pegasus or Rex and Weevil were being controlled. And it isn't like when Téa was hurt, either. It's like… I don't know. Like the Shadow Realm, but far, far away. Like you're holding one of those tin can 'telephones' on the end of a string, and the other end is in the Shadow Realm."
"That can't be good." Téa shot an accusing look at Tristan. "This is your fault."
"Me? What did I do?"
"You just had to say it's been really quiet. I told you—"
"Okay, can we get up off the floor now?" Yugi was starting to sound a little more like himself.
Serenity turned her attention back to her patient. "You're not in pain any more?"
"A little, but I'd like to not be sitting in broken glass and beer."
"Let's go back to the table." Joey stood up, Téa right behind him, then the two of them helped Yugi up. It worried Joey a little how heavily his friend was leaning on them.
As they made their way back to the tables, Mai arrived with Serenity's medic kit. "Looks like I'm a little late. You okay, Yugi?"
Yugi nodded again, but Joey gasped as he saw her. "Jesus, Mai, you're soaked!" He let Yugi shift his weight to Téa, and then grabbed Mai's coat from her stool and threw it over her shoulders.
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine, your teeth are chattering!" He put his arms around her and rubbed her arms to try and warm her up a little as the seven of them sat down around the two tables.
While Joey pulled her closer to warm her with his own body heat, Mai looked around the table. "So who's gonna fill me in?"
"You know that burning we both felt? We all felt it," Serenity said. "At the exact same time that Yugi got really bad chest pains, like someone was stabbing him in the heart."
Mai narrowed her eyes. "What does this mean? Ramesses?"
Yugi, who was still resting against Téa even while seated, shook his head slowly, looking very disturbed. "I don't know, but whatever just happened, it's bad. Really bad."
Joey frowned and looked at his friend over Mai's shoulder. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know. I just know… something really awful happened."
Téa stroked his cheek. "Okay, we need to not worry about that now. I just want to get you back to the hotel so you can lie down. You look exhausted."
"Yeah, I… I'm really tired. Let's sit here a couple minutes first, and then we can go back."
"I wanna check your pulse again." Serenity slid her stool closer to Yugi and began rummaging through her kit. "I should take your blood pressure, too, now that I have my bag. And we should probably have a doctor look at you in the morning."
"No, I need to duel in the morning."
Téa gave him a maternal glare. "Not if you're not well, you're not."
"I'm fine, really. Just tired and… worried." But he let Serenity put a blood pressure cuff around his arm.
Mai leaned in closer to Joey. "We need to talk a sec. Alone."
"Why? What's up?"
"Just come over here." She pulled away from him and got up from the table, dragging him after her.
"What?" he asked when they were a little ways away from the others.
"I… I don't know if it's related or not, but anyway, I wanted you to hear it from me before someone else told you. Valon's here."
Joey's eyes widened. "Valon?"
She nodded. "Serenity and I ran into him at the bar just before Tristan came looking for us. I saw him again outside when I went to get the medic kit."
"I…" Joey stopped, not sure what to feel. He didn't hold any animosity toward Valon and had even begun to respect him during their duel in California, but that didn't mean he was thrilled to have him around. "How are you with that?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really wanna think about those times, but we've all moved past that, right?"
"Yeah, we have." He gave her a half hug. "What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing, it'll be fine. But…." She hesitated.
"But what?"
"I don't know. I think it's a little weird that right when he turns up, all the sudden something freaky attacks Yugi and all of the rest of us feel it."
Joey felt his jaw tighten. "Do you think…?"
"I don't know," Mai said quickly. "I confronted him outside, and he denied knowing anything about what happened to Yugi or having anything to do with the Orichalcos anymore."
"Do you believe him?"
She shrugged again. "I don't know, Joey. I… I don't think I'm the best judge of character when it comes to Dartz's old flunkies, you know?"
He reached over and brushed wet hair away from her face. "He can't touch you, Mai. You know that right? You've already fought this battle and you won. Nothing can take that away from you."
She sighed and leaned her forehead against his. "I know. I just… God, I don't wanna think about it anymore. I threw away everything that meant something to me for empty promises. For worse than that."
Joey took her face in his hands and kissed her. "But you got it all back. And you won't lose it again. I promise. I'll talk to him, tell him to stay the hell away from you."
She pulled back from him. "No, Joey, don't. We need to keep an eye on him in case he's somehow involved with Ramesses or whatever happened to Yugi back there. I'll be fine. Really. Let's worry about Yugi, okay?"
"Okay." He pulled her back into another kiss. "I love you."
She smiled at him. "I know."
For two and a half years, she did not dream she was a dragon. She'd begun to believe the dragon dreams were gone for good, until one night last May, she dreamt she was a dragon one more time.
This dream was similar to the shadow dreams, where the boy—the man—called her to fight for him. She was fighting against a strange creature in dark armor with glowing spheres of light in his midsection, and she fought alongside many other creatures, including her friend, the purple-robed wizard. The monster they were fighting was powerful and could take control of her or her allies, forcing them to fight each other. There were other dragons fighting with her, too. A red dragon with a chain around its neck. A stunning black dragon with glowing red eyes. A sleek blue dragon with gold under its wings. It was this last dragon that the man fought so hard to protect, and it was then that she understood.
The Egg had hatched.
The dream ended when she sacrificed herself, giving up her power to the blue dragon because it was precious to the man and the man was precious to her. When she woke up, she was restless. Her sacrifice had not been in vain; she knew the strange monster with the glowing spheres of light had lost and the shadows were gone.
But…
They weren't gone. Not really. And she knew it was only a matter of time before the monster and the shadows would come back, and she would dream she was a dragon once more.
