Chapter 11

'Where are Ahna and Covo?' Joey glanced curiously around the chamber the second he entered.

'What do you mean,' SK's tongue glanced over his lips, 'they're back at the Southern Palace, aren't they?'

'If that's where they were, do you really think I would have asked?'

'He's got a point there SK,' Jay smirked.

'We've not seen them,' Duke shook his head.

'Great,' Joey gave a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes, 'more names to add to our missing persons list.'

'Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit?'

'Duke, Crovell is missing and his mother is nowhere to be found; what am I supposed to think?'

'Well maybe they're off looking for Crovell somewhere else.'

'But... this is where their note said they would be,' Joey's voice was low and tinged with worry.

'What?' Duke frowned.

'I said they would have left a note,' he shifted his gaze away.

'I...' Duke went to say something, hesitated, then sighed heavily. 'Not necessarily; not if they didn't think anyone would be looking for them.'

'Look, I'm the one in charge here and until someone can prove otherwise, I'm going to count them as missing. Got it?'

'Sure, whatever.'

'Well we've checked this chamber from top to bottom,' Jay folded his arms, 'and I've come up with nothing. Can we please bring those paintings out now?'

'No,' Joey's voice was as firm as it was tight.

'Why not?'

'Because I haven't examined this chamber for myself yet.'

'What, you think you're gonna be able to come up with something I didn't?'

'I am the First's host, aren't I?'

'And that makes a difference because?'

'Don't question me Jay.'

Jay rolled his eyes and muttered something unintelligible under his breath.

'Are you looking to completely lose your powers or something?' Joey glared at him. 'Because that's exactly the way you're heading right now.'

'Sorry,' Jay shifted his gaze away, 'I guess I'm just feeling a little impatient. If you feel you need to examine the chamber for yourself, then I guess I've no choice but to wait until you've done so, right?'

'Exactly.'

Téa looked so quiet and peaceful; it was hard to imagine this wasn't just some ordinary sleep she'd wake up from sooner rather than later. Yugi leant in towards her, studying every single one of her features for some sign she was about to wake up. Everything in him prayed today would be the day she'd open her eyes and smile and laugh and wonder why everyone had been so concerned about her. Then she'd remember what he'd done to her and she would hate him, but that would be okay. Yugi deserved her hatred; he wanted it... needed it. Her hatred would mean she was awake and all he wanted was for her to be awake.

'It'll be okay Yugi,' the image of the Pharaoh appeared beside him.

'You always say that,' he sighed and shook his head. 'Next you're going to tell me to stop being so hard on myself. Well don't bother. We both know it's what I deserve.'

'That's not true.'

'Yes it is. I'm a horrible person.'

'No you're not.'

'How can you say that after what I did?'

'Must we go through this again?' The Pharaoh gave a heavy sigh. 'Day after day it's the same argument. I feel like we're stuck on a loop. You've got to get over this Yugi; you've got to see you're not the evil person you think you are.'

'Aren't I?'

'No.'

'Then why isn't Téa awake? Why is she still suffering? If I were really good, then she would be awake.'

'That's not true.'

'Yes it is.'

'I'm not doing this with you again.'

'Then don't,' Yugi carefully removed the Millennium Puzzle from his round neck.

'What are you doing?'

'I'm an evil person. I not worthy of all the things this puzzle has granted to me, so I'm giving it up,' he gently placed the chain around Téa's neck. 'And who knows, it might help.'

'But Yugi…'

'No buts Yoam, this is goodbye.'

'Don't you guys do anything, other than laze about watching movies?' Mai laughed as Mokuba began rooting through his DVD collection for yet another film for them to watch.

'I like watching films, they take my mind off things without making me concentrate too hard,' Mokuba shrugged. 'Besides, it's one of the few things we can do without Tristan forgetting how to do it halfway through.'

'Thanks lus braysta,' Tristan rolled his eyes, 'that doesn't make me sound even remotely pathetic.'

'You know I've been meaning to ask you about that?' Mai pressed her lips together.

'You've been meaning to ask about my memory problems?' Tristan frowned.

'No, about you calling Mokuba your little brother.'

'I believe I called him lus braysta, not little brother.'

'Yeah, but I know a little bit of Etean and lus braysta means little brother,' Mai tilted her head to one side, 'and I was wondering if you call him that because of our Win connection.'

For a few moments there was complete and utter silence as Mokuba and Tristan exchanged odd looks with each other. Mai felt herself squirm more than a little; she hadn't talked much with the others about what it was like to be a Win Part, because most of the time she didn't like to think too much about it. After all, most of her Win powers were passive and sensory in nature, which probably meant she felt her connection to the others more actively than they did, but...

'I know... I know it's an odd thing to ask out of nowhere,' Mai shifted her gaze to one side, 'but... Well, we are all connected as Win Parts. I mean, we're four separate people containing different parts of the same person so... I just wondered...'

'Yeah, I do,' Tristan cut her off and rested his head on the couch behind him. 'I know I think of you and Catilin like being my sisters too,' he turned his gaze towards her, 'but only because there's no other way of tangibly expressing this connection we have.'

'So I'm not the only one then,' Mai let out a heavy sigh.

'No, you're not,' Mokuba shot her a weak smile, 'but I guess I haven't really spent as much time thinking about it as you guys have.'

'You know I bet if the three of us closed our eyes and concentrated we would know exactly where Catilin was and what she was doing right now,' Tristan smirked. 'Not that I would want to personally; I might think of her as a sister, but I still can't stand that girl.'

'You know she's really not so bad when you get used to her,' an affectionate smile pulled at Mai's lips. 'She's just in a world of her own most of the time.'

'She's a highly intelligent murderer who acts like an insane four year old,' Tristan shook his head, 'I just don't get everybody's fascination with her. Or their ability to forget what she's actually capable of.'

'It's not that we forget, it's just...' Mai cut herself off and shook her head, 'it's hard to explain,' she sighed, 'so... what film's up next?'

'I didn't think you wanted to watch another film?' Mokuba cocked an eyebrow at her.

'I never said I didn't want to watch another film,' she laughed, 'I just wanted to know whether or not you did anything else.'

'Okay, any preferences?'

'Nothing too gory.'

'Oh believe me you don't have to worry about that,' Mokuba's whole body tensed, 'I think I'm off gore for life.'

'Uh... sorry,' Mai winced, instantly feeling as though she should have known better, 'I guess I'm so used to Joey's taste in films.'

'Joey doesn't have a taste in films,' Tristan rolled his eyes, 'and do me a favour lus braysta, nothing with subtitles either.'

'Still off those?' Mokuba expression relaxed into one of concern.

'Unfortunately,' he rolled his eyes.

'Temporarily off subtitled films?' Mai rolled the words around for a moment. 'Does that mean you don't know how to read right now?'

'That's far too simply a way of looking at it,' he tugged hard at the base of his sleeves and balled them into his fists. 'I know how to read, I just can't access those memories right now.'

'Is that actually how it works or is that how you look at it?' Mai found herself studying him.

'It's what the doctors tell me is actually going on,' Tristan gave a heavy sigh. 'Their tests definitely detected damage of some sort, but they don't know what caused it or quite where it is or why it works the way it does. The best they can tell me is that it's like I have several lose connections between the different parts of my brain stopping them from communicating properly.'

'I see,' Mai lowered her gaze, 'is there anything they can do about it?'

'Honestly, they don't know. It might improve with time, it might get worse, it might just stay exactly as it is. Whatever the case I have to learn to live with it, so it's pretty fortunate my counsellor has some experience working with people with head trauma, not a lot because it's not her specialty, but Dr Charm knows me anyway, so...' he averted his gaze.

'It sounds like you're pretty accepting of the situation.'

'I am now, but it's taken me a while to get here,' he gave a weird half laugh, 'the problem now is Seto. He's obsessed with the idea of me getting better and that really doesn't help. Of course I'm not saying if someone waved a magic wand in front of me to make it all go away I wouldn't jump at the chance; the gods only know there are times when it really, seriously pisses me off, but... I really don't see that happening, so what can I do?'