Chapter 51, everybody! Happy Easter Monday! :D

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! We shall see….

Yuko13, thanks for the review! True…which is bad, really, as I never pictured Valon's Chaos Form as having wings…but wait until he can open up running. True—it doesn't help that I habitually update late in the evening. I recommend buying Don't Starve when you get the chance—it's quite fun, even if you do spend 90% of the time dying. Cool. And I didn't think so—I figured it was like calling an American a Yankee (which is only an insult if you call someone from below the Mason-Dixon Line that). Thanks for confirming that. :) (And mwahaha for getting songs stuck in your head :D).

Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, I do not own Avatar, I do not own Don't Starve, I do own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).

Anzu woke up, wondering why—it was still dark out, for Sheut's sake!

The answer was clear when she spotted Joey, Tristan, and Kelsey sneaking out.

"You saw nothing," Joey hissed, puffing up a bit.

"Okay," Anzu said quietly. "Why am I seeing nothing?"

"We're sneaking off to free the Chaos—don't tell Yami."

"You're insane," she murmured, resting her head back on her forearms. She didn't try to argue, though—Mayhems, which Joey and Tristan could be termed now, technically—had a reputation for being bullheaded.

"Wait, why are you going?" Anzu asked Kelsey.

"Someone's got to make sure they don't fall headfirst into a hole," Kelsey responded.

"Yami will kill you."

"No, he'll kill them," she said, pointing after Joey and Tristan.

"And you don't want to miss the show."

"I don't want to miss the show."

Anzu went back to sleep, silently grateful that Yami's Mach typing meant he'd be able to catch up with them shortly after waking up.

If only he didn't sleep like a log—she'd wake him up and send him after them.

Stupid Avatar program.


"Are they still sleeping?"

"Yugi, just get on with it," Valon muttered. "I'll let you know if they're coming."

"I'm not sold on you standing guard," Yugi said quietly, booting up the computer. "After all, a toaster did get the best of you."

"It's an evil device," Valon agreed.

Yugi just rolled his eyes and returned to the computer. He had seen the girls work with it, and it looked complicated—hopefully he'd be able to figure it out within this century.

He made a surprised noise when it finished and showed itself to be remarkably simple. Huh.

"Okay," Yugi hissed, flexing his fingers over the keyboard when the search function came up. "How do you spell 'Higgsbury'? Is it one 'g' or two?"

"No clue."

Yugi tried several variations before accepting the fact that he wasn't about to spell Wilson's last name correctly. He tried a different tack, bringing up 706 Avatar Program participants and then searching the name Wilson.

"Two 'g's," Yugi announced.

Wilson's photo didn't look much different than he had in stasis—albeit his eyes were open in the photo. He had the same sort of expression on his face that he normally wore; if Yugi had to explain it, it would be along the lines of I want to scowl at you but I don't want to waste the energy it would require because you're not worth it. He wondered if there was a way to condense that.

He noticed that there was an image of Wilson's Avatar and clicked on it.

"So that's what he looks like now," Valon muttered.

"Door, remember?" Yugi chided, before returning to the computer. Side by side, ignoring the horns that grew from his temples and swept back, Wilson's Avatar bore that same I'm looking down on you look—wait….The Avatar was looking down on him—or at least, whoever had taken the picture. Yeesh, the thing was tall.

Back and forth—the Avatar had sharper bone structure, and of course the black eyes with yellow irises. Creepy….

He closed the window, ready to close the rest of it—

Wait….

He pulled up the Avatar list.

There were a lot of names.

With a lot of "[Redacted]" annotations.

Yugi began scrolling down. Higgsbury (of course)…Princeton…Gardener… Greene…Grayson…Drakonis….

"Woah," Yugi muttered.

"What?" Valon asked. "Woah, that's a lot of names."

"I know this one," Yugi said, pointing. "Howard…Keith Howard…Bandit Keith! He was on my brother's ship!"

He pulled it up briefly—Keith's Avatar picture was a security pic of some giant metal monster with long barrels in its head, shoulders, and hands.

Yugi kept scanning, knowing what he was looking for now. Kujaku…Wong….

"Hey, that's me!" Valon said, pointing at a name.

"What happened to sentry duty?" Yugi asked.

"They're asleep," Valon countered quietly, heading back to the door.

If this was organized in the way Yugi thought it was, he'd be coming across what he was looking for soon. He wasn't sure if he wanted Valon seeing it.

There.

Yami Moutou [Redacted]

Replaced with: Yugi Moutou [Brother to the Deceased]

Yugi felt winded. To see it in black and white like that…it was a little depressing. Especially when it showed Yami's pic, with that I'm about to pull a fast one on you smirk of his.

The errant thoughts suddenly made a comeback.

To these people, you're only second rate—an afterthought to save them time and money. Do you really want to be with these people?

Yes, Yugi thought weakly. I do….I'm human….

And as weak as they come. But I see your point—who wouldn't rather trade acceptance and respect for pitying looks, which you only see when they take notice of you? Mr. Seathon aside, has anyone spared you any time? Miss Kujaku and Miss Wong have seen this enough that they're not even trying anymore—they don't feel you're worth the effort.

Yugi felt his face crumple. That wasn't true….

Wait….He never thought like that—he never used honorifics with people he knew personally. Valon and Mai and Vivian—he had hardly known their last names….

The computer went to screensaver due to his inactivity, and in that split second, Yugi saw his reflection—

And behind him, someone in a slouch hat and cloak, nothing flesh visible except for sharp red eyes, claws dug into the back of Yugi's seat—

"What? What?"

Yugi spun around, hand hitting the mouse—

To see Valon looking at him from the door with concern.

"You just cried out," Valon said. "What is it?"

Good question. "I…I think I just dozed off," Yugi muttered, rubbing his face. He shut off the program and the computer quickly—if he had just cried out, then he might have woken the girls.

When he turned back to Valon, it was to see that he had a concerned look on his face.

"Maybe you ought to have a mug of tea before we go to bed," Valon said. "It'd make you feel better."

"Yeah," Yugi said weakly, getting up and following him. "Yeah…."

The thing in the screen…he had seen it before….

Who are you? Yugi thought. I know you can hear me—who are you?

Nothing. As Yugi accepted the steaming mug and sipped it, he was inclined to believe it was a hallucination brought on by not enough sleep.

And then a low murmur of mirth, as though someone had found Yugi's question remarkably funny.

Don't you know, Mr. Moutou? That internal voice asked, fading away—it didn't quite sound like Yami anymore. I'm nothing but a shadow….


She removed her influence from the electronics of the trailer, her assistance in Yugi Moutou's search no longer needed. He had said that Yugi Moutou needed one final push—the next moment of Chaos they had calculated would seal it.

She found herself wishing that the electronics in this dimension were more advanced—she was sorely in need of a challenge.

She glanced at him as he appeared next to her, a swirl of navy-blue. "I'm bored, Sir."

He chuckled. "Patience, Miss Simon," he chided. "This will be over soon enough."

She sighed, a sort of mechanical whirr. "I want to pick the next dimension, Sir."

"We'll see about that—are things ready at the compound?"

"Yes Sir."

"And those three are on their way here—things are coming together nicely."

"Yes, Sir."

"Then we should be done here soon. I must say, though: I've enjoyed this."

"Yes, Sir," she sighed.

Exactly thirty-seven second of silence. He was considering something. "Next time, Miss Simon, you get to pick the locale."

She shifted slightly, gears whirring. "Thank you, Sir," she said silkily.