My life is ruined; you're to blame.
The sting of the sun pulled Ren into consciousness after what felt like an eternity. She laid flat on her back, her eyes fluttering open to the sight of the yellow sun high in the sky, the heat threatening to blister her skin. She sat upright, yanking off her coat and tossing it to the ground, a cloud of sand puffing angrily around it. Well. She definitely wasn't anywhere near Japan.
She took a moment to pat herself down. She still had her wallet, her phone was in her back pocket, and her crossbody bag containing her camera and lenses was still slung over her chest. She ran her hands down her legs, pressing gingerly on the ankle that had been shackled to the man in grey. Nothing. No pain, no blood, no rip in her boot or pant leg… She was exactly as she had been when she had left the hotel that morning. Save for the duel disc strapped to her arm.
Shit. Kaiba would probably want that at some point. She unclipped the deck, idly sifting through the cards as she attempted to gather her thoughts. "I'm in a fuckin' nightmare," she mumbled to herself, shuffling through monster after monster. "I'm in a desert. I got stabbed in the leg, and now I'm in a desert. Looking for answers in Kaiba's deck of cards."
She sighed angrily, stuffing the deck into her bag and closing it up with a snap. Ren hadn't a clue what to do. Though after a few moments of staring into the distance, something became clear to her.
She wasn't alone.
Ren whipped her head around to find Kaiba and Yugi locked in a heated argument not fifteen feet from where she sat. Joey looked like he was just about ready to throw himself at Kaiba, and Mokuba stood close to his brother, ready to hold him back (or at least attempt to) if need be.
"If you think that I believe for one minute that you just 'don't know' what's happening here, you must think that I'm as deluded as the rest of you." Kaiba snapped, his fists clenched and shoulders back, "Whenever this kind of garbage happens, you geeks are always the first to know what's going on, and I'm interested in knowing how I get the Hell out of here."
"Kaiba, we don't even know where 'here' is." Yugi shot back, his eyes cold and steely. Ren blinked hard, squinting at the two of them. Yugi looked taller. It could have been a trick of the desert light, but he was most certainly not the Yugi she had talked to the other day. "We don't know if this is Egypt, or the Shadow Realm… We could be in Death Valley for all I know."
"Hey." Ren finally spoke, catching the attention of the group. Kaiba's retort caught in his throat, his eyebrows knit and mouth agape as he glared at her. "How long have you been arguing for?"
Kaiba leveled her with a dark stare. "How long have you been awake?"
Ren scoffed, her jaw dropping. "You knew I was passed out over there!?"
"Give me my deck back."
"Tell me what's going on!"
"We don't know," Yugi spoke, his voice low. "After you were defeated, both Mokuba and Kaiba collapsed. Everyone with a deck to duel with was forced into a duel with the man in grey. We all lost."
Ren frowned, her eyebrows furrowing. "Aren't you, like… the champion?"
Yugi sealed his lips in a hard line, turning to Kaiba. "It looks like anyone who was attached to a deck that was defeated was transported here. Wherever this might be. Kaiba. You know as well as I do that I'm not the only one with enemies. What if someone has got a bone to pick with you?"
Kaiba scoffed, striding over to Ren and snatching the duel disc out of her hands, sliding it back onto his own arm. "Between the two of us, the list is as long as my arm." He outstretched his hand, level with Ren's face while she sat in the sand. She scowled, slapping his deck of cards into his hand and pushing herself to her feet.
"Okay, well if neither of you have any idea who put us here, we're not any better off." She said, glancing around at the group. It looked like everyone present had been transported to the desert: even Tea and Tristan, who didn't carry decks.
"So, we need to figure out how to get out of here," said Tea.
"No, Tea," Yugi spoke, outstretching his arm. The duel disc chirped to life, unfolding and clicking itself into place. "We need to figure out if this place is magical."
Kaiba rolled his eyes, and Ren squinted her own. She mouthed the word 'magical?' to herself, turning first to Kaiba, who looked as annoyed as she had ever seen him, and then to Mokuba, who seemed surprisingly calm. "Mokuba?"
He grinned sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders. "We did kinda warn you that weird things happen at tournaments."
Ren groaned, her shoulders slumping back as she lolled her head up to look at the sky. The sun stung harshly at her eyes, slowly raising a warm flush to her cheeks. And now she was going to get a sunburn, on top of everything else. She had peeled for weeks the last time she had been to a beach, and this was bound to be a thousand times worse, with the desert sun beating down onto her skin.
There was a sudden rush of air, fluffing Ren's hair into her face, and a chill ran up her spine.
Somebody was behind her.
A high-pitched screech burst from her lips as she was suddenly seized around the waist, her arms and legs flailing madly as she was swept from her feet. She couldn't see her assailant, but she could tell he was small, not much bigger than she was.
She could take him.
She slammed her elbow into his body once, twice, three times, but to no avail. He was small, but tough, and her pointy limbs were getting her nowhere fast. She wondered briefly why nobody was coming to her aid, when all at once she found herself on the ground again, her assailant flopping lifelessly in the sand next to her. Her heart pounded in her chest as she scrambled backwards away from the man, dressed in a deep grey. Just like the twitchy man had been.
Mokuba was at her side immediately, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Ren nodded furiously, still speechless. She had expected a certain level of craziness when she had agreed to come on this trip, Hell, just growing up a girl had prepared her for this kind of assault, but never in a million years did she expect it to actually happen. She glanced back up at her assailant, Kaiba looming over him, rubbing his thumb across his knuckles. Her jaw fell slack again, her mind racing, searching for an explanation, something, anything, to bring clarity to the situation.
"Did you just knock that guy out?"
He remained silent, kneeling down and ripping the duel disc from the man's wrist and tossing it at Ren, cards scattering around her in the sand.
"Kaiba, what the hell!" She snapped, snatching up the disc and the cards and scrambling to her feet, "Can you fucking say something!? You can't just beat the shit out of this fucker, rob him, and then throw his cards at me like everything is normal. This isn't normal! And just in case you forgot my little performance earlier, I don't know how to use these!" She brandished the deck of cards, shaking them in his direction. "I don't know what good you think I'm going to do with these, but—"
Kaiba shot her a stunning glare, and he extended his left arm, his duel disc chirping to life. He slapped a card onto the field, and out of nothing, a burnt red gargoyle materialized between them. It stretched its wings, flexed its arms, and Kaiba scoffed, shaking his head. Jesus Christ, it was real. She was close enough to the monster to feel the heat from its breath, smell the smoke and fire on its skin. This wasn't a hologram like the other monsters had been. It was alive. Before Ren had the chance to comment, the monster was gone, like vapor into the air, and Kaiba had his duel disc deactivated. He met her gaze, and she almost flinched. That look was probably enough to stun a small animal.
"It's magic." He said through clenched teeth. "And if you're going to be any kind of useful, you are going to learn how to use that," he pointed at the duel disc in her hands, "to keep Mokuba from getting snatched like you almost just did."
Ren continued to stare, trying to wrap her brain around what had just happened. There was a monster there, and then there wasn't. Some freak cultist had tried to abduct her, and Kaiba literally beat him unconscious to get him off of her. Yugi had experienced puberty right that second, and everyone else found all of this… normal.
"We should start moving," said Yugi, glancing up at the sun. "We need to find some kind of shelter before the sun goes down. It's going to get very cold, very quickly."
"Good deal, Yug." Joey nodded, and the rest of the group began to move, following the arc of the sun. Ren exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding, and Mokuba gave her a pat on the back, nudging her along.
"It isn't all bad, Ren." He gave a reassuring smile, and she fell into step with him, taking up the rear. "We… we really should have warned you about the magic, I guess. But I didn't want to scare you. I'll explain everything on the way, the card stuff too. Trust me, you'll be a pro by the time we're done here."
Ren sighed, shaking her head. There was nothing she could do about the situation now. She was here. It was happening. And all she could do was work with the group to get herself out. She glanced down at Mokuba and a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. She had to admit, the kid had a way of calming her nerves. "Okay, Mokuba." She lifted her head, staring up at Kaiba's back as he walked wordlessly in step with Yugi. "Teach me about Duel Monsters."
