Jessi squeezed Zac's hand as he stared at the static television screen before him. The news was going crazy with the news that the people who had collapsed all seemed to be well now, but he didn't care to stay and watch that. All he cared about was knowing what was happening with Kaylie, but when she severed the connection, she did it completely.

"She'll be okay Zac," Jessi dropped his hand. "They'll take care of her there."

"I know..." He was near in tears. "I just wish that I'd been able to say a final goodbye."

Kaylie slowly opened her eyes, a slight aching still present in her forehead. She couldn't make out the whispers that were going off all around her, but she could sense there was a group of people nearby. For a moment, she thought she had gone blind. Her vision had only gone from black to white. However, a turn of her head brought the one and only a Yugi Motto into view, and she let out a choked laugh, "Please tell me that worked, and everyone from my world was set free..."

Yugi smiled, "You're awake!"

"I can't believe you did dat!" Another person feel into her field of vision. Joey's face was full of disbelief. "You sacrificed yourself so dat our world wouldn't be destroyed!"

She gave a small smile, pushing herself into a sitting position, "Well... it's not my world, but it still matters enough to fight for."

Joey nodded, seeming to understand her apology for their earlier argument, "Well, you saved more den our world. Your friends all got sent home too."

"Thank heavens," Kaylie sighed.

"All but dat one," Joey pointed to small building, seemingly the only one in the entire white wasteland.

"Huh?" Kaylie tilted her head, standing up slowly. "What are you talking about?"

"When you appeared, another person appeared with you," Yugi explained. "Based on the deck of cards he had on him, he can't be from here."

"That's impossible," she shook her head. "Everyone should have been sent home. Everyone but me."

"We don't know how it happened, we only know it's true," Joey shrugged. "We built him a hospital room so he wouldn't freak out when he wakes up..."

Kaylie took a deep breath, and bit her lip, "I have to figure out what happened. What if no one else made it back either?"

"I'm sure they did," Yugi tried to sound encouraging.

"Nevertheless," Kaylie looked at the white door, hands balled into fists. "There's only one way to know for sure..." She put her hand and the doorknob, and took a deep breath before opening the door and slipping inside.

Before her lay a pale, black haired individual, and from what she could gather, he didn't seem too terribly thrilled. There was anger in his eyes. She stared at him intently, questions filling her mind. Was he really from her world? How did he end up here when everyone else had been released?

"See something you like?"

The question caught her off guard, and she felt a blush rising to her cheeks. She quickly forced herself to regain her composure, "Not really." She used her disinterested voice, one she had used on boys many, many times before. "But we need to talk. My name is Kaylie. What's yours?"

"The name is Jay. And I'm really not having a fun day so far...", Jay said tiredly before face-palming. "Doubt you'd believe all of the utter sh-"

"You might be surprised," she muttered, mostly to herself, cutting him off. "Do you have any idea where you are right now?"

"Heaven maybe?" he said cracking a smile at his little joke before dropping it a moment later. "No idea really... actually no, I have one idea."

"If you're going to grace me with another snarky answer..." she gave a little grin. "Just know that the whole world is kind of at stake right now... And I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to save it."

"... Wut?" was the intelligent reply. Jay's eyes were anime dots as he absorbed this new information. "But I just wrecked Dartz with Armityle and now you're telling me there is some more bad sh-" Kaylie winced at the cuss word. "To deal with...?"

It was Kaylie's turn to be surprised. She quickly grabbed a chair and sat, scooting closer to the bed, "What? No, that doesn't make sense... It doesn't make any more sense than your presence here. What I did... it closed the bridge between our world and this world. It sent everyone home. It should have sent you back too..." She paused and tilted her head. "Except you weren't here until-" she gasped. "Until I was. You crossed over right as the bridge collapsed, so you couldn't get back either..." she frantically ran through the many thoughts she was having, not giving him a chance to speak. "You said you defeated Dartz. That's not possible, Dartz is dueling with Kaiba and the Pharaoh right now... Maybe..." she snapped her attention back to him suddenly. "Tell me exactly what happened."

"Okay. Based on the fact you mentioned Dartz, Kaiba, and the Pharoah... That tells me you know we are in the anime called Yu-Gi-Oh. So I can make this much simpler since you most likely know your stuff," Jay said before collecting himself to begin his tale.

"I was hanging out with my pal when all all of a sudden this creature barged into his house. It was an Orichaclos Gigas, and I think it snatched his soul just by touching him. I was lucky enough to evade it for an hour. The monster was relentless however. I ended up collapsing from exhaustion and getting caught. I thought my soul was taken, but somehow I appeared in Atlantis or whatever it's called? I think that's the ancient city. Anyway, I arrived just as the God cards were going to battle the Leviathan. They went into the clouds to battle as I stood there in awe. "

Jay paused to collect his breath before resuming, "Then a monster from a card of mine appeared. From there I basically didn't care about anything but taking out the Leviathan and Dartz for vengeance, so I hopped onto the monster called Armityle The Choas Phantom and he took us up to the battle. I noticed Dartz was winning, so we stepped in and helped turn the tide of battle. We won, but I kinda fell off Armityle and fell unconscious. That's basically...hold on. Did you say I CAN'T GO BACK?!"

"Dartz was winning... Dartz was winning..." Kaylie got very animated all of a sudden. "Maybe this is because I watch too much Doctor Who, but when the bridge collapsed, I was in the middle of a choice. A choice that would change the battle. On this timeline, I chose to give up my soul so everyone who was from our world would be set free... but if you were traversing worlds in the midst of that, you must have crossed the timeline if I had chosen to save myself... The God cards wouldn't have been enough to defeat Dartz with the added souls from our world..." she dropped her head into her hands and ran her fingers through her hair, exasperated. "I'm glad that no matter the choice I made, everyone would be okay... But I chose to trap myself here, and now..."

She turned to face Jay, having mostly been talking to herself. It was only then that she noticed his distress at the situation. Kaylie chewed her lip, "I'm so sorry... I-I had to seal the rift between our worlds so that no more people would be captured. We're both stuck here... indefinitely. I..." She took a deep breath. "It's a long story. I've been trapped here for days now... Maybe even a week. Dartz found out and-" she shook her head. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this. I don't even know you, and I've ruined your life. Dartz used me to steal souls from our world. That's... that's all."

Jay knew he should've been mad, but the look in her eyes basically said she was already beating herself up to the point of depression. Jay sighed. Nothing he could say would be as hurtful as what she already felt. He couldn't really blame anyone or anything but his own bad luck, "Well, don't beat yourself up so much. Fate is a funny thing ya know? You couldn't have known I would pop up out of the blue. You couldn't have known you would pop up here either. So I see nothing that needs forgiving here. I'm here now anyway, and I might as well make the best of it."

Kaylie smiled through her tears, and took a deep breath, "It's so funny how this whole fiasco, complete strangers have taken care of me, and helped me discover so many things about myself that I didn't know. Thanks." She looked around, and frowned, "I suppose I ought to tell you that this isn't really a hospital. It's all a fake image that someone conjured up. Don't know if you've noticed, but we're still just souls awaiting the Leviathan to come and swallow us..."

"Wait-wha?! This isn't a hospital? And I am just a soul right now?! Way to go for ruining the happy moment. Now I'm gonna end up evil lizard food and used for energy...wait. Could I-?" Jay looked around frantically and seemed deep in thought, "Where are my cards?"

"I think Yugi and Joey were looking through them earlier, but they aren't really your cards. It's just an image. An impression on your soul, or something like that..." She frowned, and slowly, an horrified expression dawned on her face. "Your real cards would be with your body... Which is back home... which means, when we all go free... Oh gosh..."

"What? What is it?"

"You don't have a body... You don't have a mother sparkling body..." she stood up, her hand over her face. "This is the worst day of my life. I can't believe this. I can't handle this right now..." she turned to the door and shook her head. "You're more than welcome to join us when you're ready. I'm going to fix this. I promise."

"Okay then. I kinda need time to digest this all. My mind is kinda still sleepy right now. Don't get worried if you hear yelling and cursing in a bit. That will be the panic finally settling in," Jay muttered before putting his right hand to his forehead.

Kaylie nodded, "Take as much time as you need..." and slipped out the door.

Okay. He needed to start from the beginning. So two versions of Dartz, or possibly more, in alternate universes started sucking up souls from the multiverse. When my soul got-hold on! He had an actual body when he battled that one Dartz! He could feel and taste and everything. So his actual body got sent there too along with his cards for some reason. Wait. Souls don't really have taste do they?

Immediately a weight dropped on his lap. Jay opened his eyes and lifted his head. There was a cheeseburger on his lap now. "What the-nope. Not gonna question it."

Jay quickly snatched the burger up,and took a bite. As he hoped, no taste.

So I had a body and fought Dartz. So how could I have gotten here? There's no reason... There has to be a connection! Wait! That's it! Gigas came from the other Dartz! The pull from the two or more Dartz could've completely sucked me into that world, body and all. But could that have been the reason I appeared in this one? Something did bring him here. And he wanted to know what or who for sure. And Kaylie couldn't have caused it. She had been a bridge, but Dartz was the one grabbing people. And he doubted a Gigas could've grabbed him before he went splat from falling so high up.

"This sucks." A heat in Jay's chest rose up after he said that. "Oh right. Panic time. Here goes," Jay said before taking a deep breath. "OH MY- MY FAMILY! EVERYONE I KNOW AND LOVE THINKS I'M DEAD! AHHH! I'M GONNA BE STUCK HERE FOREVER! WAHHHH!... Okay. I think I am good now. I think I got it all out now-AHHHHHH! EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLE! I'M GONNA- Okay, I think I can surely say I'm done now... WAH- Nope. I'm finished."

Kaylie let out a sigh as she closed the door behind her. Yugi and Joey gave her a sympathetic look as she plopped down on the ground, "And now I have more questions than answers..." A stream of screaming sounded from the room behind her, and she just looked up with an exhausted smile.

She explained her theory about Jay, and how he ended up there. Yugi and Joey nodded, obviously feeling just as lost as she was. There were so many holes left to be filled, but the strain of losing her body and the revelation that she no longer had a way home was proving too much.

It was the revelation that Jay's friend, Michael, had been looking for him that pushed her over the edge. When Joey mentioned Michael, and Zac, she just broke down in tears. Joey and Yugi tried to comfort her, but she pushed it away. She just wanted the opportunity to be upset about what happened, and they seemed to understand that.

Her tears were slowing when she felt the tugging on her stomach. It felt like she was on a roller coaster, going down that very first hill. She looked up at Yugi and Joey, who must have been experiencing the same thing. Yugi was holding his stomach, and Joey looked sick.

"Tell me that wasn't just my stomach," Joey groaned.

"No," Kaylie shook her head. "I felt it too..."

Again, only this time, it was much more intense, and she almost lost her balance. She was giving her friends a confused look when she felt as if someone snatched her from the ground, and slammed her into something. Her vision started to black out, but it didn't quite go away. She was disoriented, and the voices around her made it sound like she was underwater. She frantically clawed to get to the surface of consciousness. She could feel herself moving, against her will, but couldn't see anything. She couldn't feel anything.

"Now when your knights are destroyed, they can't come back!"

Kaiba!? Kaylie's hear lurched as it slowly dawned on her. Oh my-

Light flooded her vision as a loud cracking noise resounded in her ears. Kaiba's voice cut through it all, "Hey wait! What's going on!?"

One final crack, and the sound of metal against stone rang out. Before her stood Kaiba and the Pharaoh, both staring with wide eyes. In her peripheral vision, she could make out Pegasus and Joey, and assumed Yugi was on Joey's other side. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move. Not even her eyes were in her control, and she just stared blankly ahead, into the horrified faces of her comrades.

"Recognize anyone?" Dartz's chuckle set her nerves on end.

"Yugi!" The Pharaoh gasped, his eyes racing over the four figures before him. "But how!?"

"I control the souls of your companions, remember?" Dartz gloated.

"Let them go!" Tristan hollered.

"Attack my knights and you'll be attacking your friends..." the Atlantian smirked.

The Pharaoh's eyes moved to the wall behind Dartz, and he gasped, "If I had played my Mirror Force, that would mean my friends would be gone forever... By my own hand."

"No matter what you do, you lose. It's impossible to defeat me without destroying these monsters," Dartz's voice dropped in volume, adding an intense feeling to the whole atmosphere of the room. "And you can't destroy these knights without destroying the souls of your friends."

What a podunk liar... Kaylie thought as his laughter echoed through the room, drawing her attention to the others not involved in the duel. Tea, Tristan, and Mokuba were clustered together, and right next to them was a grim sight. Her soulless body, having been removed from the battlefield, made her heart lurch. Next to it, another body.

Confusion filled her mind, and she tried to remember if Rafael had already arrived. But no, a closer look revealed that the figure was much smaller than the massive biker, and had black hair, glasses... If she'd been in control of her own soul, she would have gasped.

Jay!?