Chapter 21

'I am man,' Jay smirked as he pounded his fist against his chest, 'hunter and fire maker. I fetch food and warmth for women folk, who boss man around, whilst they study chicken scratch on stone,' his tongue skated across his lips. 'So man will gather them food and fire, then get none because man is dead,' he laughed. 'Being man sucks.'

'You know, I'm not sure language was invented to be used like that,' a firm, yet amused voice sounded from behind him.

'Oh I'm sorry,' he turned round, 'I was just…' the second he spotted who it was all words froze in his throat.

The guy was about five foot seven, with long, spiky brown hair occasionally woven through with blue and white feathers. He was dressed in little more than a simple, blue Egyptian styled kilt, but he still somehow managed a more commanding presence than his appearance would first lead you to suspect. His arms were folded lazily across his bare, well defined chest and his almost white blue eyes were focused solely on Jay.

'Fray,' Jay gave a nervous laugh, 'how...? I guess this must be an Immortal Plain,' he glanced around, 'it would explain a lot. But... I don't understand, I thought the Fay were all in favour of Crovell and Jo, so why...?'

'It takes a village to raise a child,' Fray's words were careful and precise, 'my uncle wants to prove the strength of your village.'

'Our village?' Jay frowned.

'All those taken to participate in this game of my uncle's are a part of the village in question. They are the ones who will be responsible for the wellbeing and development of the newest additions to our family. All of you need to prove you have what it takes to cope with these children.'

'And if we don't?'

'We gods are a family and, by the same logic we're using with you, we could also be considered a village. If your village fails to prove its worth, then our village will have no choice but to take over.'

'You mean you would wilfully take children away from their parents?' Jay shook his head.

'Children like them must be raised by those best suited to deal with them,' Fray met and held his gaze. 'They are the future of everything, so you must prove your village is strong enough to deal with them.'

'And how the hell are we supposed to do that?' Jay's tongue skated across his lips.

'By playing the game and your first challenge starts right now.'

Fray swept his left arm in front of himself, causing a glass case to rise up from the ground. Inside the glass case was a single duel monsters card depicting The Cousin's Ghost.

'That's… that's SK's soul card,' Jay's jaw dropped open. 'How... how did you get it?'

'I haven't, not yet,' Fray refolded his arms. 'See in order for this or any other card to officially become mine, a player must lose their first challenge. However, if a player successfully completes their challenge then the card becomes theirs and they will be allowed to move onto the next part of the game. Only players in possession of a soul card will be able to move on to the next stage. So, for the sake of your village, will you accept my challenge or not?'

Yugi knew it was wrong to stare, but he couldn't help it. Since the moment Tristan had left, Kaiba had been huddled up in his own little corner of the stone formation they were in looking more than a little sorry for himself. There was something about the image which not only defied belief, but was also uncomfortably unsettling and unnatural. But then again it wasn't as though his other companion really lessoned the weirdness of the situation. After all, there was no one in the whole multiverse who could argue a pregnant Joey was anything but freakish.

'You okay Yuug?' Joey's voice made him jump.

'Err... yeah,' he gave a nervous laugh as he realised how zoned out he must have looked, 'I was just thinking.'

'About what?'

'All this,' he indicated around them.

'So you're not moping over Téa then,' Joey gave a sigh of relief, 'you know you're really too hard on yourself about what happened.'

'I have to be because no one else is,' Yugi shook his head. 'But... well it's hard to be so... self-indulgent when everything around you is Technicolor crazy.'

'By that I assume you're referring to me being pregnant and rich boy being a blank slate over there.'

'Mm, but... this whole place is weird,' Yugi turned his attention towards the stones around them, 'that's if calling glowing pink rocks isn't an understatement.'

'Glowing?' Joey frowned at him. 'The rocks aren't glowing Yuug.'

'Well okay, maybe they're not literally glowing, but they are doing that weird pulsating thing.'

'Huh?'

'Don't tell me you don't see it,' Yugi turned his gaze back towards him. 'I mean, maybe shimmering is a better words than pulsating, but you have to see it too, right?'

'No,' Joey cocked an eyebrow at him, 'I don't see anything like that. Are you sure you're alright Yugi?'

'I don't know, maybe I hit my head or something as I was losing consciousness,' he shook his head, 'everything's been... weird since I woke up.'

'I take it you mean more than the situation there Yuug,' Joey studied him for a moment.

'I'm not quite sure how to explain it without sounding crazy,' Yugi lowered his gaze, 'it's why I haven't said anything so far but... well... since I woke up everything's looked, sounded and felt... weird.'

'Weird how?'

'It's hard to explain, but it doesn't seem to be going away and its definitely giving me a headache. Or at least continuing the one I already had,' he massaged his temples.

'Maybe you have a concussion or something,' Joey frowned, 'it's probably best we keep an eye on you over night.'

'You say that like I deserve people taking care of me,' Yugi half turned away from him, 'but we both know I don't.'

'Both know you don't what?' Tristan's voice sounded from behind them.

Before anyone could respond to his question, Kaiba had thrown himself into his arms, knocking the firewood he was holding to the ground. Tristan's face instantly filled with an embarrassed look as he shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of the others.

'Okay this could be a problem.'

'What's the matter Tristan,' Joey teased, 'you're boyfriend's just trying to show you a little love.'

'Shut up Joey.'

'And here was me thinking you actually wanted proof he cared about you,' he smirked, 'or were all those unrequited puppy-dog looks you send his way just for show?'

Tristan gave a weird little grunt, gritted his teeth and turned his head away. There was something about the expression on his face which suggested some sort of conflict was going on inside of him, which just made Yugi feel confused. The last time he'd been around Tristan his empathic abilities had told him there was no internal conflict for him anymore. Okay, maybe he didn't have the guts to act on his feelings, but he wasn't in conflict over them. People don't emotionally backtrack for no reason, so what had happened to change his resolve?

'So now we've got the firewood, how are we going to light it?' Duke broke the tense silence which had started to form.

'If we had access to our powers it would be easy,' Joey rolled his eyes, 'but a match or a lighter's probably the next best thing.'

'None of us smoke,' Tristan cocked an eyebrow at him, 'so why would any of us have a lighter on us?'

'Because someone took the time to make me pregnant,' he folded his arms, 'so why wouldn't they give us a few more useful things to work with?'

'Good point.'

Instantly everyone began checking their pockets.

'Sorry,' Yugi shook his head, 'mine are empty.'

'Same here,' Tristan pulled a face.

'Well I didn't find anything to light a fire with but…' Duke hesitated.

'But what?' Yugi threw him a curious look.

'Are you okay Duke?' Joey took half a step towards him.

'Yeah...' the word rolled slowly out of him as he began scanning through the deck of cards he was now holding, 'it's just…'

'Just what?'

'This looks like Piper's deck.'

'Who's Piper?'

'She's the... err… the girl Cat kidnapped today,' Duke's voice toned with confusion. 'She's this really good duellist who first appeared about three months ago and Cat kind of convinced herself she was really Téa, or at least her onchasen.'

'What?' Yugi spluttered in surprise. 'Why?'

'Well for a start she's a brunette with blue eyes, she's also a similar build to Téa, although I think she's noticeably taller,' Duke met his gaze. 'It's also to do with the timing, I think; the fact Piper made her first appearance only a few days after Téa ended up in hospital.'

'I see,' Joey pressed his lips together, 'exactly how good a duellist is Piper?'

'One of the best I've ever seen,' he gave an edgy laugh. 'In fact, if it were up to me, I would have been setting up a duel between her and the King of Games, she's more than a match.'

'There's only one duellist who's more than a match for Yugi, what about him?' Tristan glared.

'Actually, the first time I saw Piper duel, I asked her if she wanted a match against Kaiba, but she refused point blank,' Duke pulled a face. 'Now that I think about it, there was something a little odd about the way she refused.'

'What do you mean?'

'What does it matter, it's all irrelevant really,' Yugi interjected. 'I mean, Téa's no duellist and if this Piper girl's really as good as you say, then…'

'That's what I thought,' Duke nodded, 'but Cat said something about onchasen being able to do things their real life counterparts couldn't.'

'As always she's got really a point there,' Joey sighed. 'Onchasen are a kind of astral projection and astral projections are beings created from our dreams, so it would make sense for Piper to be good at duelling.' A smile of realisation suddenly flickered across his face. 'So that's what you two were talking about earlier.'

'Yeah and I guess she felt as though she was proven right.'

'Wait,' Yugi stared at them, 'does that mean Catilin's found a way to wake Téa up?'

'Yeah, I think she has.'