A/N: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF DREAMFALL CHAPTERS OR YU GI OH 5DS! ALL RIGHTS GO TO THEIR CREATORS! ALL I OWN ARE MY OCS!

Chapter 21: Locked

Yusei's eyes opened and he sat up. He was in a hospital room in what seemed to be New Domino that he recognized. He looked beside him in a separate bed and noticed Ayumu slowly waking up. He noticed she was in a white hospital attire for girls - though, he knew she wouldn't like the dress because she hated them with all she had. Meanwhile, he was in a male hospital attire.

An old robotic toy of Ayumu's called Tomoko climbed onto his bed, being closest side to Ayumu. The toy was a robot cat that could talk and practically had a mind of its own. He made it for Ayumu when she was younger, before she went into the coma. It was one of his harder programming projects. But Ayumu loved it and it was like her best friend aside from him.

Ayumu sat up and looked at Yusei in shock. They both turned to Tomoko as it exclaimed, "Ayumu! Yusei! You're awake!"

"What?" Yusei questioned. He had to admit, Tomoko didn't sound the same. He could tell Ayumu noticed it too. Tomoko climbed onto Ayumu.

"Tomoko, get off of me," Ayumu told him. She groaned as her robot friend climbed to the foot of the bed. "What time is it? Wait, where… Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital, Ayumu, Yusei. In New Domino. Don't you remember?" Tomoko answered.

"I… no," Yusei answered.

"You got really sick. They brought you here to make you better," Tomoko responded. "I've been watching over you. You've been in a coma for a long, long time."

"What? I'm… I'm not sure," Yusei responded.

"I'm confused," Ayumu commented, bluntly.

"You just woke up, guys. It must be strange to be awake again," Tomoko told them. "Don't worry. It'll pass. You just need rest. Go back to sleep now. I'll watch over you."

"Tomoko? You don't sound like yourself," Ayumu told them, clearly getting a bit nervous. Yusei was tense… Something was not right.

"You guys have been very sick. You can't trust yourselves right now," the machine responded. "Just close your eyes and go back to sleep. You'll feel much better afterwards."

"No, we… we can't sleep anymore," Yusei denied. Ayumu nodded.

"I wouldn't recommend that, Yusei, Ayumu. You're not well. You need to go back to sleep," Tomoko responded.

"We need to get up," Ayumu retorted and they both stood up.

"I wouldn't recommend that, guys. You're not well. You need to-" Ayumu cut the robot off.

"Stop it, Tomoko!" she ordered. Ayumu whispered to Yusei, "He's been there for me all the way until I fell into that coma. He was like a second sibling and guardian, just behind you. Best gift from anyone. But… something's not right. He's… not the Tomoko I remember."

"I know," Yusei agreed. "There's something off about this whole thing."

"Are you tired, guys? You must be tired. Let's go back to sleep," Tomoko suggested again. "I'll stay right here. I promise I won't ever leave you."

"No, we don't want to sleep anymore," Ayumu refused.

"You're not feeling well, I can tell. You're exhausted, and you're seeing things that aren't real," Tomoko responded.

'Seeing things that aren't real?' Yusei thought. "I don't know what's wrong, but it's not us. It's this place," he told the robot. "It's you, Tomoko. You're all wrong."

"That hurts my feelings, Yusei," Jay responded.

The two Dreamers sighed and walked around the room. They both tried opening the door to the balcony and the door into the rest of the hospital, but they were locked. "Why would they lock us in a hospital room?" Ayumu wondered looking at Yusei. Yusei shook his head saying he didn't know.

They looked a several pictures in the room, remembering the events each time. Including one with their mom and Yusei's dad. They went to Tomoko again.

"You don't sound right," Yusei told the robot.

"You're imagining things, guys," Tomoko told him. "You're very, very tired. Sleeping will help you feel better. You should go back to sleep, just for a little-"

"No, Tomoko," Ayumu denied. The two of them walked to the door to the rest of the hospital again. Ayumu whispered to Yusei, "What do you think is going on?"

"I'm honestly not sure. This all seems off. There's even something about those events that seem off to me," Yusei replied. "What about you?"

"Yeah," she answered. "Should we try talking to Tomoko again?"

"Though I'm guessing it'll be pointless, might as well give it one last shot," Yusei answered. They walked over to the robot and looked at him.

"Tomoko, what is going on? Really?" Yusei asked.

"I don't know what you mean. Maybe going back to sleep will help you. Why don't you go back to sleep, you guys? You'll feel much better if you do," Tomoko suggested.

The half siblings looked at each other and sighed. "Alright," Ayumu agreed and lied down. Yusei wasn't sure if it was really a good idea, but he did so as well.

. . . .

"Wake up, Yusei, Ayumu! You must wake up!" called a voice. "Come on, guys. Wake up! This place isn't real. You need to get out."

. . . .

Yusei and Ayumu sat up. "Was that… April?" Yusei wondered looking at Ayumu. She shook her head, saying she didn't know. "We need to figure this out. Now." She nodded with a confident face.

They got up and began to look at a picture of him, Ayumu, and another old friend collecting things at a nearly flat junkyard. Yusei and Ayumu began to think hard, though, as they studied it. "I… I don't actually remember this place or this happening."

"Neither do I. What happened that day?" Ayumu wondered. Suddenly, the entire area seemed to glitch and fizz out for a moment like on a computer. "What…?"

They looked at the photo again. "That never happened. I remember us talking to our friend about heading to the junkyard, try to find some cards. But we didn't do it. Instead, our other friends decided to have us play a game with them."

Ayumu nodded. "You're right." The glitch thing happened again. "Okay, that wasn't in my head."

"No, it wasn't in mine either," Yusei agreed. "Something's going on." They looked at the picture again. Another glitch around the picture before it changed to their friends and them running around the area by Martha's house.

They went to a picture on the wall that held Yusei, Ayumu, Yusei's father, and their mother out on a small vacation out of town. Yusei began to recall the correct memories. "Mom disappeared a few months after we were born. Dad raised us for a year and then I heard he died in the explosion. But… he didn't."

"We're not just half siblings, Yusei," Ayumu realized. "We're full blooded siblings. Faith was a half sibling because she was born after Dad died. But Dad died from an illness after I was born and Mom put me in Satellite like you. That's how I met you, remember? I remember learning that in Storytime once thanks to the Vagabond."

Yusei nodded. "Me too. But Mom was really never a part of our life. Dad was only for a bit on both our ends." They looked around them as the glitch effect happened around them again.

"Okay, is reality glitching or something?" Ayumu questioned. They looked at the picture closer and it glitched like the other before it turned to the background of Yusei finding Ayumu's baby form on the ground with Martha. "All these memories… They're not real."

"What're you doing, guys?" Tomoko called. "You shouldn't be on your feet. You're probably seeing things. Please lie down, just for a moment. I'll watch over you. I'll sing for you." They looked at each picture again, thinking about the wrong things with them. "This isn't going to help anyone, Yusei, Ayumu. You're just going to ruin everything. Please stop, please go back to bed. Go back to sleep, guys." Suddenly everything began to bug out and glitch.

"Everything here is a hallucination or projection. None of this is real," Yusei realized. He looked at Ayumu. "We need to get out of here."

"Look at what you've done," Tomoko stated. "Why couldn't you just leave things be? We could be happy here, together. The three of us, forever. I need you to go back to sleep, guys. Now, before it's too late. Before…" He stopped and then replayed the same sentences again like a broken record.

Yusei and Ayumu sat next to their old, robotic friend. "Something's wrong. This place, and… you. You're all wrong," Ayumu told the robot. "You're not you."

"That doesn't make sense, Ayumu. Of course, I'm me. I've always been me. Tomoko. Your old friend. Your best friend in the whole world," Jay responded.

"You look the same, but you don't act the same or sound the same," Yusei told him. "It's like… Like someone put you together from memory, but didn't get the details right. They didn't know you like we know you. And they probably figured it wouldn't matter." They both then realized it. "That's what's wrong with this whole place. It's made of memories, but some of them aren't right. The Crimson Dragon, our friends, Storytime, Arcadia… We weren't dreaming. They were real. This is the dream, or… A dream made physical." He looked at Ayumu. "By us. We made this! And we can see through it."

"But… I'm real, Ayumu, Yusei," Tomoko stated. "Aren't I?"

"Of course, you are, Tomoko. Of course, you're real," the female human replied.

"Are you sure you don't want to play a game? We haven't played a game in so long," the robot asked.

"Sorry, Tomoko," Ayumu denied.

"Sorry," Yusei followed.

"Okay, then. Promise to wake me up later?" Tomoko requested.

"We promise," Yusei vowed and Ayumu nodded before they touched the robot.

Tomoko began to fade, saying, "Night."

"I'll miss you, too," Ayumu muttered as her old friend disappeared completely.

The two stood up and began to walk along the walls of the room, trying to find an exit. They walked towards a wall when they noticed they could see a white tiled wall behind the fake scenery. When they got near a television, they noticed it wasn't a television, but a one-way window.

"They've been observing us," Yusei realized.

They quickly found themselves walking through the beds and came to the center of them and noticed a door behind the fake beds and wall. Yusei pressed a button and the door opened.