Tiny droplets of light kept hovering near them, the warmth cascading from them easily. Processions of shadows carefully circled those droplets, as they shimmered along the edges of the now gentle darkness. Sometimes they danced around him, the small flames helplessly flickering to and from him in perfect harmony, while other times, they simply stood there, gazing ahead without any care in the world. He couldn't help but reach out to them, his finger coming toward the specks. And yet the moment he did, the fragile things disappeared from his grasp, only to reappear against just a few feet behind him. He couldn't help but turn back, a small smile on his face.

"Almost there," he heard then.

His eyes slid to the young woman in front of him. She hadn't talked in quite some time, ever since their playful little waltz ended. "You've been saying that for forever now."

"I mean it this time."

Yusei scoffed. "I doubt it."

"Seriously."

"Right…"

He heard a light, empty giggle escape from her lips. "Just don't let go, whatever happens."

He stared at the woman for a while. "Fine," he answered.

They lapsed into a heavy silence, something that took him completely by surprise. But despite that, she still managed to say a simple, "Huh."

He blinked. "What?" he asked.

It seemed like she was about to say something, but she shook her head, the aimless tension still in her voice. "Nothing."

He paused for a brief moment, before coming back to the lights, all of which now reflected brightly upon their faces. It's funny, how the woman could just keep going like that. She never stopped to rest, never complained, never even bothered looking around, if only to check where they both were. The weariness never showed on her face, and whenever she turned back, a carefree smile would always graze her lips. She's held his hand for so long, the warmth entwined between their fingers, he'd no idea what would happen should she let go.

Their footsteps softly passed through the black, the quiet descending to them from whichever way they went. A gentle breeze caressed the two, and without thinking, Yusei looked ahead, his eyes widening with surprise. After all this time, it really did look like they were almost there. She really wasn't kidding, was she?

And then she stopped.

Yusei regarded her with confusion. "What is it?"

"I need to ask you something," she said carefully.

He narrowed his eyes, before shrugging his shoulders. "Go ahead."

"Do you like where you are now?"

He blinked. He turned back to the flickering lights nearby, then nodded. "I do."

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, his eyes dropping to the floors pleasantly. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd smiled like this. Constant thoughts kept pouring into his mind, some sad, others happy, some from memories he never knew he had, others from a certain peace he hadn't felt in a while. He found himself chuckling occasionally, either by some joke he remembered the woman telling him long before, or even a phrase he supposedly tried keeping to himself. No limbs, no blood, no children looking up at him, with those wide, black holes; it was as if everything he'd seen before was just a terrible nightmare. He loved everything about those moments, though he'd never admit it. He loved them. And the woman in front of him.

He raised his hand, reaching out toward the droplets, only to have them fly away again.

"What's obvious?" he heard her ask.

"Even a dreamer knows when it's time to wake up."

She only nodded. "I see."

He leaned over, a simplistic grin on his face. "What? What's wrong?"

Once again, that awkward quiet came between the two. His eyes bored her back, his reflective blue orbs scrutinizing her strangeness. He waited for her for who knows how long, though to him, an eternity had passed. He was about to press again, when she turned back, a single frown plastered on her face. "You really don't remember?"

"What're you-?"

She untwined her fingers from his, the now bitter wind attacking his palm. With one, fluid motion, she placed his hand above her left eye, and gazed up at him, her golden, piercing orbs relaying a single, solemn expression. "Right here," she whispered.

"What're you talking about?"

At that moment, he was staring at a gaping, bloody hole, right where her eye used to be.

She closed both eyes, and smiled. "You shot me, right in the eye."

And then he woke up.

Darkness slowly ebbed away from him, as the blurriness cleared. Cold sweat dropped from his forehead, as he struggled to focus. He was sitting on something hard. Hard, and cold; an anchor was weighing him down. He felt like he was drowning.

Yusei opened his eyes.

He was in a grey room, with gray bricks plastered all over, and a gray floor, which reflected back up to him his emotionlessness. He was in the same black jeans, with the same, dark undershirt covering his torso. His blue jacket was lying just a few feet away from him, with a majority of the fabric cut up into bits and pieces. His feet bound by heavy chains, all of which were wrapped onto a large metal pipe sticking out from the ground behind him. Blinding light glared down at him, so much so he never bothered looking up. His dark, raven bangs fell to his icy blue eyes, as he stared up at two boys standing there, in front of him.

They were young, those boys. Both had light blond hair, with dark, steel-like pupils for eyes. They were both fair-skinned, and had the same smiles engraved onto their lips, something he didn't take comfort in. They had white, buttoned down shirts, with the cuff of their sleeves marked by a single, light blue ribbon. When he looked down, he caught sight the unmistakable sight of two, bloody roses strapped to their throats, the same ones he saw during the mall hijacking. The collars were chained together by a long, thick vine, one with twisted, sharp thorns coated around the edge.

Just behind those boys were needles. If he squinted, he could see the bottles too, hidden within the darkness. Big and small, thin and fat, though in the end, he managed to decipher the labels.

Drugs.

No anesthesia, of course.

Yusei warily turned back to the boys. It was hard to feel…anything; from the way they held themselves, to the fact that they so blatantly demonstrated how dependent they were on each other, he might as well have laughed at the entire ordeal. Still, he forced it down, as he regarded them evenly. In a sick, demented way, they reminded him of Jaden and Alexis, for some odd reason.

"Good evening!" they both chimed.

He blinked. He tried saying something, but the words remained in his throat. A few seconds later, the duo laughed. One of the boys stepped forward, and clapped his hands once. A bright, disturbing light settled within his eye, and just like that, Yusei's humor had instantly vanished. "Violet!" he stated.

"Violet," the other boy repeated.

Yusei gazed at the two. "W-what…?" he began in a coarse voice.

"So you do remember us!" Violet said gleefully. "We're so happy about that."

The haziness returned to him for a brief moment. He remembered them from somewhere. Was it from a dream he had from before? Were they one of those pathetic children lying on the ground?

The Violet on the left nudged his companion. "Still tired," he muttered.

"Still tired," the other repeated.

"Can't have that now."

"No we cannot."

"Not at all."

Yusei blinked. He couldn't feel his arms or legs; he could only just sit there, with a blank, idiotic stare on his face, as he watched the two turn back and crouch down. Carefully, one of the boys plucked a needle from the ground, and grabbed one of the clear, plastic bottles sitting nearby. He unscrewed the cap, and then poured the contents all over the needle, causing a tiny puddle to form onto the ground. "I like this part," they both said. They then turned back around, and gave Yusei an encouraging smile, one the duelist never bothered returning.

His eyes fell to the ground, as they refocused themselves, adjusting to the bright, fluorescent lights barring down on him. He could hear their footsteps coming towards him slowly, along with abundant snickering for whatever it was they were about to do. He felt the needle being jammed into his arm, the drug immediately escaping from the tip and worming its way through his system. Yusei could feel himself squirming a bit out of their grip, though he never lost his stoic disposition.

What was in that?

A few moments later, the two Violets stood up with disappointed frowns on their faces. "Nothing," they said, as one of the boys threw out the needle. He then looked toward his counterpart. "How much did you get?"

"A lot." he answered.

Yusei breathed in a deep breath. Again, he tried speaking. "W-what's-?"

"Huh?" they both shouted suddenly, as they instantly sat in front of him. "What?"

It wasn't long before he found his voice again. "What's happening?" he croaked. "Where…where am I?"

"The hospital," one of them explained.

"You collapsed."

"Really badly."

"Madam Amrbosine decided to take you in."

"Took a while to find you though."

Amrbosine…

They cocked their heads. "You don't remember?" they chimed. They turned to each other, and giggled. "Here he is, our witch."

"Our precious ugly rose."

"Nary but rags on his body."

"And only a penny to his name!" And they laughed sharply, causing Yusei to cringe. Their voices rebounded throughout the room, and when they stopped, he could only sit up, the numbness in his limbs already fading away. He clenched his fists, as he stared out at the drugs again, as well as the rusted, bloody needles lying nearby. A sharp glare claimed his face.

When they were finished, they simply looked at him. "Oh, don't look at us like that!" the Violet on the right said.

The Violet on the left nodded. "You brought this upon yourself."

"We really love you."

"But of course, not that much."

"A shallow emotion, that is."

"Forever a hollow word-"

"-in the midst of time," they finished.

A shallow emotion. Forever a hollow word, in the midst of time. The emotion called love.

He remembered them now.

A pair of siblings, one not much older than the other, always together, saying their limericks in the oddest of fashions. They were young, and though they had more sense than anyone he'd ever known, in the end it was their addiction to adrenaline that eventually led to their downfalls. Failing more times than he could count, all because of their sophisticated immaturity; clinging to the broken days of their youth, all just for yet another chance of destroying anything that wasn't even worth their time. What a strange contradiction, that was; he made it a point to never to listen to them, since all they kept spouting was just complete nonsense. And yet, despite that, he did agree with them on their statement, the one about love.

He looked around the room once again. The hospital; that's what they said.

The General Hospital.

Yusei slid a wary gaze towards them. The name they said before, Amrbosine; he's heard that too, though he didn't know where. "You both have roses," he murmured.

"Ah, he's gone insane."

"Indeed he has."

"Why I wonder?"

"Why indeed. Hey sir! Have you gone mad?"

"Sir?" was all he could say.

Both Violets nodded at each other. "He's gone mad."

"Madder than Ophelia."

"Or the Hatter."

"Ophelia's definitely madder."

Yusei narrowed his eyes, his patience growing thin with the two boys. "What're you talking about?"

They swirled around to him. "Wait your turn!"

"You're about to die anyways. Why ask why?"

"Exactly."

Die?

Yusei looked back at the chains wrapped around his ankles, the cruel metal staring him down.

He was going to die.

He turned back around, the utter confusion enveloped around his solemn frown. He couldn't say anything at all, at the very least, not without hesitating. When the Violets stared at him for a little while longer, they both sighed. "Honestly, it is your fault though."

…What?

"You made the game."

"And the rules."

"Who knows why you did it."

"Yeah, who knows?"

Yusei tensed. "Rules?"

Both Violets stood up. One of the boys went back and readied yet another needle, while the other stayed behind, staring at Yusei with an amused smile. "Don't you remember anything? Hey, Violet, I think he really has gone mad."

"Is it our faults he's insane?" the child called.

"I don't know; is it?"

Yusei clenched his teeth. "What rules?" he demanded.

Both boys jolted, frozen for a brief second. "He forgot." The boy in the back said.

"I know he forgot."

"Should we tell him?"

"I think we should."

Yusei narrowed his eyes. Without another moment wasted, they drew close to him again, the same, annoying amusement tugging at their seemingly heartless pupils. "You said you'd let the nobles try to kill you," they said simultaneously. "And if they couldn't, you'd end them."

Yusei fought to keep the shock down. "I…I said what?"

"We don't know."

"Obviously you don't either."

"Speaking of which, weren't we gonna use the chainsaws?"

"Tear him apart piece by itsy bitsy piece?"

"Poisoning is a bit boring, isn't it?"

It's not true.

"You said we wouldn't do it."

"I did not."

It can't be true.

"Then why're we even standing here?"

"We were going to strap him down to a table, weren't we?"

"Then what's all that even for?"

"Don't know…"

And yet, here he was, replaying a single nightmare within his mind, over and over again.

"Stay here; I'll get the saw."

"No, I'll do it!"

The bullet hole, in her left eye.

"You have to watch him!"

"I'm older than you!"

Her strange behavior.

"Slightly older!"

"Means a lot!"

"Means nothing!"

He remembered a young woman in front of him, lying on the ground, soaked in her own blood. He remembered how grotesquely distorted her bones were, the crimson brimming within her eyes. He remembered her once lovely body soiled with dirt and gore, a remnant to every person she managed to slaughter. He remembered how she shook, her black nails clawing against the earth, her own tears racing down her cheeks. He remembered her cold, icy skin, the bullet hole in her head steadily calming her down. He remembered her broken smile, as she reached out for him, whispering a secret only he could hear, words he could only begin to understand through the depths of his own lunacy.

She lay there dying, calling out to him, through those dark skies.

Quiet reminisces slowly came back to him, as he began tuning out the Violets.

The wild dance she drew him into, the same dance that kept him from leaving her side, with an air of freedom carefully mingling within his reach. She held his hand, and led him there.

And then she died, just like that.

She died.

Akiza died.

She was there, right in front of him.

The two Violets kept bickering over why they were still here. Their voices were so annoying; they pounded against his skull, trying to do whatever they could to crack it open. Their ear-splitting argument offered no relief, as the room began growing hazy once more. He shut his eyes, the pain crushing his heart so desperately. He could feel his fingertips touching the icy floors, could feel every possible emotion when he saw her corpse.

Yusei was a name that felt so very familiar to him, a name that always stuck, wherever he went. He'd no idea what else to do, should no one else call him by that name.

"Shut up," he finally whispered.

They kept going.

"I said shut up."

They only ignored him.

"Shut up."

A loud, sickening crack resounded from the room.

When he looked up, he saw the two Violets standing there, their heads completely twisted back, with those same, angered expressions on their faces.

He tore his eyes elsewhere. Slowly, he reached down and undid the chains. Yusei then stood up, and walked out of the room.