Chapter 29

SK's tongue skated across his lips several times as he tried to absorb everything he'd been told. What he'd thought would be some kind of straight forward explanation as to why Joey had been bewitched by the mysterious blonde, instead became this verbal onslaught from both Joey and the Mind controlled Duke which had almost nothing to do with why Joey had wilfully abandoned his soul mate. To make matters worse, instead of helping him wade through the onslaught, Jay had abandoned him to... he wasn't exactly sure what... to study Yugi maybe.

It wasn't that SK couldn't deal with this information on his own, not exactly, but Jay's perception of these kinds of things was a lot better than his. He was only just really starting to get to grips with how things worked and the right way to adjust his intellectual mindset for dealing with the constant insanity which went hand in hand with his new life. His tongue made its way across his lips several more times as he tried to figure out how he went from being one of the greatest up and coming scientific minds of his generation to the errand boy of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. Hell before his death he hadn't even considered the possibility other realities and real magic, never mind anything else.

'So let me get this right,' SK gave a heavy sigh as he rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, 'Mind, Body and Heart are really the Ids of Tristan, Mai and Catilin. They are also the Voices of Win and because they are Voices they can't talk,' his tongue skated across his lips for a third time as he lowered his hand and glanced towards the other. 'They were brought out by Soul, who's Mokuba's Id, three months ago to do something important but as yet undisclosed, but they're getting worried because they can't complete the task without him and they also can't go back into their... dormant state, I guess would be the word for it, without Soul. This has obviously now reached the point where it's harmful to Mai, Tristan and Catilin, who I'm guessing aren't going to wake up any time soon because of it.'

'Right,' Joey nodded.

'On top of all that something's going on with Yugi too, but you've not had the chance to fully establish what yet. Not to mention my cousin is... tired,' SK flicked his hands slightly as he shrugged, 'and Mokuba is nowhere in sight.'

'That about covers it.'

'Great, talk about major headache,' SK's tongue moved back and forth across his lips a few times. 'So what exactly do we do now?'

'We summon Soul,' Duke's voice was firm. 'We need him.'

'Okay,' Joey shot Mind a tight smile, 'but everyone's going to need to get out of the Huntay for this to work.'

Mind and Heart nodded, before doing as they were told. Duke followed Mind out of the circle like a dog following its master and SK went with them just so he wouldn't be the only one stood on his own. Joey drew a deep breath in before making his way towards the stone pedestal. For a few long moments he studied the Huntay in front of him and it was pretty clear he was contemplating exactly how he was going to go about this Id summoning spell.

As SK found himself trying to figure out exactly what an Id summoning spell might consist of, he noticed Jay move from his crouched position beside Yugi. At first it really didn't concern him all that much; after all, why shouldn't Jay move if he wanted to. But as he watched Jay move from Yugi's side to the Axe carefully resting on the pedestal his heart began to lurch.

'Jay,' Joey frowned at him as he watched him picked the weapon up, 'what are you doing?'

Jay gave an inane sounding giggle, but made no attempt at a reply.

'Jay,' SK half took a step towards him, then hesitated, 'this is no time for you to be acting... weird.'

'You think I'm acting weird,' Jay tilted his head to one side as a bemused look crossed his face, 'because I think you're acting weird.'

'Jay...?'

'It's time to play a little game,' Jay pointed the weapon at Joey, 'first one to answer correctly gets to live.'

'Uh...' Joey took a step back, 'have you lost your mind?'

'No, no, no, no, I've found it, I've found it,' Jay gave another inane laugh. 'So are you ready then? Are you ready for my question? I want to know. I want to know. I want to know what they did to him,' he indicated towards Yugi.

'Why... why do you want to know,' Joey narrowed his gaze.

'Because I want them to reverse it,' Jay half sung the words. 'You can reverse it, right?'

'No,' as Duke said the word, Mind shook her head, 'only Body can reverse it.'

'How come?' Jay's eyes glinted with curiosity. 'Why does it work like that?'

'Only Body has power over the physical.'

'The physical?'

'Yes.'

'What about you and Heart, what do you have?'

'I control the mental and Heart controls the emotional.'

'Emotional, physical, mental,' Jay rolled the words around his mouth as though he were trying to derive meaning from them. 'Oh, well that's a clever game,' he laughed. 'I didn't think it would be so clever, but it is, isn't it?'

'Jay...'

Before Joey could finish his sentence the Axe in Jay's hands emitted a pulse of light. The pulse shot out, knocking Joey back into the rest of them and binding all five of them to large tree behind.

'I'm not done playing yet,' Jay grinned at them, 'so for now you can all live. But just for now, okay? I don't think its fun for people to die at the end, but I'm not the only one who'll wants to play. Soon, soon, soon there's gonna be big trouble and it's gonna be so much fun.'


What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she stop feeling so angry? Why did she have to abandon her child to Covo like that? Why couldn't she stand to be around either one of them right now? It was like something hot and painful was crawling through her skin; bubbling under the surface just waiting to burst out.

A pounding beat began pulsating in her stomach. The more it throbbed and moved the angrier she felt. It was as if one simply fed into the other, but at the same time it was so much more than that. The pounding sensation slowly began to shift, becoming strange and almost unnatural; like cold butterflies fluttering inside a hot furnace. And as the wings fluttered inside of her a stirring feeling like a distant echo began to form.

The coldness of her stomach only intensified the raging heat of the rest of her body. Heat which made her feel uncontrollable, unwanted and unalterable angry. She felt like she was burning up. She couldn't breathe. She needed air. She needed to get outside. Stumbling forward she headed, almost sightlessly, towards the garden. Her panic only served to fuel her rage. With every stumbled step and passing moment it built. She knew it was trying to consume her, but she didn't know why. She had to get outside. She had to get out into the cooling air of the uncaged world.

With everything but the pit of her stomach raged with heat, her vision became clouded with her own anger. Everything around her appeared distorted and ugly. Everything felt cruel and tainted somehow. She couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand any of it. She had to get away. Hatred formed like a sickness within her. It was cold. It was centred. It was real. Breaking out into the garden did nothing to dissuade the heat. It clung to her cruelly, like a second layer of skin pasted on with glue.

It was foul. Everything was foul. The heat continued to oppress her. It weighed her down, like a stone in water and she was drowning within it. Her head swarmed with thoughts. Angry thoughts. Cruel thoughts. Hateful thoughts. Dark thoughts. Thoughts she'd only ever had once before. And in that moment of realisation she understood everything. She knew what was happening. She knew what had clung inside of her, hidden so deeply within its own womb, growing like a child. A child to which she was now giving birth.

A hysterical laugh escaped her lips and the darkness was once again reborn.