Chapter Fifty-Four

We caught up to the others pretty quickly. Yami was walking behind everyone. Kaiba and I fell in step beside him.

"I was beginning to wonder when the two of you would catch up," Yami commented.

"You noticed we were gone?" I asked.

"Of course," he said. "I just figured you two needed to talk." He glanced over at us. "Kaiba, something's not right," he said. "I think Noah's lying to us. He's not to be trusted."

"Olive already ran that thought by me. She beat you to it," said Kaiba. "Anyway, tell me something I don't already know."

"If you're so sure this is a trick, then why are you following him?" asked Yami.

"Well I considered not following him, but I was always taught to keep my enemies close by," said Kaiba.

We exited the tunnel.

I looked at Yami and I could tell he was thinking.

"Stop," I said.

Yami looked at me. "Stop what, Olive?" he asked.

"Stop over thinking this," I said. "And whatever Yugi is saying to you inside your head about how Noah might be a decent person, stop listening to him."

Yami stared at me, a little stunned. "How do you…" he began.

"Let's just say I've grown accustomed to have a voice in my head that's somewhat hard to ignore," I said. "Plus, I know how Yugi is. He always wants to see the good in everyone. Sometimes, Yugi, you need to remember that there are no redeemable qualities in a person."

"Yugi says his dad betrayed him again so he probably wants to stop Gozaboro as much as we do," said Yami.

"Probably, but that doesn't mean he wants to help us," I said.

Yami fell silent, probably listening to Yugi, and then I saw a light from his millennium puzzle - a light that only I ever saw - and Yugi was standing in front of me. I folded my arms and raised and eyebrow.

"No, Yugi," I said.

"What?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No. We cannot trust Noah," I said.

"We're all on the same team now, Olive," said Yugi.

"No. No we are not," I responded.

"Be positive," Yugi said.

"No thank you," I said.

Kaiba chuckled. "Come on," he said.

We were walking for a while through what looked like a canyon when Noah said, "There it is." He stopped walking.

We all stopped behind him.

In front of us was a brick wall with a large wooden door. It almost looked like a castle wall.

"Your freedom lies beyond that door," said Noah. "Once you walk through, you'll wake up in the real world."

"I don't know about this, guys," said Tea.

I frowned uneasily. The doors opened and a blinding light filled everyone's eyes.

"The real world is just beyond these doors," said Noah.

Suddenly, I was standing next to Yami. I was dressed suddenly in black jeans and a purple top. In front of us was the mime and Slifer the Sky Dragon.

"You're finished, Marik!" Yami shouted.

"Not as long as I have Slifer the Sky Dragon in my deck! Now, Slifer, attack!" said the mime in Marik's voice. Marik's voice echoed in my head as well.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked.

"Your attacks are useless. It's over for you," said Marik, in my head and through the mime.

Yami sunk to his knees. "I can't let Marik win my puzzle," he said.

"Didn't this happen already?" Marik asked in my head.

"I repeat, what the hell is going on?" I asked.

We were dueling on a river walkway. Next to us were the stairs leading up to the road. I looked up and saw Kaiba standing there.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Thank the gods I'm not the only one who knows this is weird," I said.

There was a buzzing sound and everything, once again, looked like pixels.

Suddenly, we were all standing together again in the center of what looked like an abandoned town.

"Can anyone else tell me what's going on?" asked Tristan.

Joey was holding his head like he had a headache.

"I don't know," said Duke.

"I think I do," said Yugi. "Noah must have tricked us."

"Let's find that punk right now," said Joey. "Where is he anyway?"

We all looked around.

"Hey, Kaiba's gone too," said Tea.

I frowned.

"So is Mokuba," I said. "Fuck."

"Well, if you're offering," said Duke.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, my gosh," I said.

"Of course you'd make a joke like that at a time like this," said Joey.

"Let's focus, you guys," said Tea. "You can flirt later."

"That little shit double-crossed us again! I knew we shouldn't trust him," said Joey, angrily. "I'm gonna beat his ass."

"Wait, Joey," said Yugi. "We need to come up with a plan that makes sense."

"Yea, well I already came up with a plan. We beat Noah until he tells us the way out," said Joey.

"I think I agree with Joey on this one," said Duke. "Only Joey knows where the exit is."

"And we're running out of time. Pretty soon, the whole world will be trapped," said Tea.

Yugi frowned and I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"This isn't your fault, Yugi," I thought at him.

"Of course it is," thought Yugi. "This is completely my fault."

"Not true," I heard Yami tell him. "You believe there's still good inside of Noah and there's nothing wrong with that."

"Well, no one else does," Yugi thought.

"Give them time," Yami thought.

"After everything he's done, it's hard to believe he can change," I thought. "Don't beat yourself up about this, Yugi. Noah's rage is fueled by an anger deep inside."

"Olive is right," Yami agreed. "But we can help him see the light."

"I hope so. And soon," thought Yugi.

"Alright," Yugi said aloud, at the same time that I opened my eyes again. "Let's go find Noah and figure out how to get out of here so we can stop Gozaboro's plan." He caught my eye and smiled appreciatively.

I smiled back.

"But how?" asked Tea.

"Once we're free from cyber space, we can warn people in the real world that Gozaboro is planning to digitize the planet," I said.

Tristan started to say something, but it all came out as monkey noises.

Duke gave him a weird look. "Tristan, I didn't understand a word you just said," he told him. "You're almost all chimp now."

We heard a weird laugh echo through the air. We turned and there were a whole bunch of monsters behind us. We watched and monsters began to appear all around us.

"Where are all these monsters coming from?" asked Tea.

"We've got to do something!" Joey exclaimed.

"Last I checked, running away is something," Duke suggested.

"Oh wow, what a big, strong man you are," I said, sarcastically.

"Oh, honey, I'll show you what a big strong man I am," he said.

"Hey, Mister Devlin? I have my memories back," I said.

"Is that so?" he asked. He smirked. "And do you feel the same way about me now that you have all your memories back as you have while we've been stuck here?"

I smiled. "I told you already. That's a secret," I said.

"Serenity!" Joey cried, jumping in front of her to protect her from one of the monsters that was attacking.

"Joey, no!" Yugi cried. He drew a card from his deck and said, "Come forth, curse of dragon!" His dragon was summoned and he used it to attack.

I barely got out of the way, stumbled, and knocked Duke over.

"Alright, Yugi!" said Joey. "My turn now. I choose my axe raider!"

Joey's monster was summoned to fight as well.

Awkwardly, I pushed myself up off the ground. Duke was laying underneath me, just grinning.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"It's fine, Olive. I love having you on top," he said.

I felt my face grow hot. "You are such a skeeze," I said.

"Maybe a little bit, but you like it," he teased.

I got to my feet and brushed myself off. Why did Duke make me blush? I wondered. He was so different from any of the other guys I had feelings for. And speaking of that, why did I have to have feelings for more than one guy? And such different guys? It was so confusing. Furthermore, why was I worrying about any of this when I needed to focus on getting out of this place and back to the real world?

Marik chuckled inside of my mind. "Your thoughts are just so interesting,," he said.

I blushed even more. "Stop reading my mind," I ordered him.

"First of all, I can't. I'm a part of your mind," he thought. "Second of all, I don't respond to orders well. You forget, I'm still a pretty powerful enemy, love. Do you really want to be giving me orders?"

"I'm a pretty powerful enemy as well, Marik," I responded.

One of the monsters attacked and destroyed Yugi's dragon.

"You guys, I'm with Duke. I think we should run. We can't keep this up for much longer," said Tea.

"I agree," said Yugi. "We'll fight as much as we can, but there's only so much we can do."

"Let's go!" said Joey.

He and Serenity took off. Serenity clutched Tristan-monkey to her chest. It would have been an understatement to say Tristan-monkey was quite content where he was. Tea and Yugi followed. Duke grabbed my hand and we took off after them.

We crouched down beside a car for a minute, breathless. After a minute, Joey and Yugi stood up to go check for any monsters.

"What if we don't make it out of here?" I whispered.

"Don't say that," said Tea.

"Everyone's thinking it," I replied.

"Guys, the coast is clear," said Joey.

We ran down the street and ducked into an alleyway.

"Are those monsters coming back?" asked Serenity, the fear very evident on her face.

"Don't worry, Serenity. I think we're safe here," said Duke, reassuringly. There were heavy footsteps and we looked up to see one of the monsters. "Or…maybe not."

"Run!" yelled Joey.

Duke tried to pull me along, but I pulled my hand away.

"Get down, you two," I told Joey and Yugi. They ducked and I drew some symbols in the air with my hands and then made a movement like I was pushing them. Out of midair, a pale purple light crackling with electricity shot out of my palms and slammed into the monsters. It knocked them backwards and unconscious, leaving bleeding cuts and bruises all over their bodies.

"How did you do that?" asked Joey.

"I have no idea," I said, looking at my palms, which were hot. "But now I don't have to play duel monsters. Apparently I can attack all on my own. But they're knocked out, so I suggest we follow the others."

We rounded another corner and ran into some more monsters. Yugi had a card out before I could do anything and attacked. Joey added his monster to the attack and I grinned. This was exhilarating. A part of me wished I had my own set of cards or knew more magic tricks. The energy that was running through my body had my adrenaline pumping.

"Let's fry this creep, Yugi," said Joey.

But before any of us could attack, a voice sounded through the virtual world.

"Attention! Can all of you hear me? This is extremely important!"

"I know that voice," said Duke.

"Noah," said Yugi.

"Alright, get down here and show your face," said Joey.

"This is a warning to all of you. Look, the virtual world that you're all in is about to be destroyed," Noah said.

"What? I knew we couldn't trust him, but I never thought he'd destroy this place," said Duke.

"That piece of shit," Joey growled. "I still owe him an ass-kicking."

"You'd better let us out of here, Noah!" Tea yelled.

"I'm so sorry for the way I treated you all," said Noah. "But now a satellite is set to destroy the main computer system. When that computer shuts down, the virtual world will collapse. You must escape or your minds will be lost forever! Listen to me! I can help. The only exit is in the Domino Arcade. You have to hurry up."

"Can we…trust him?" asked Tea.

"Well, Joey?" asked Serenity.

"Trust Noah? Forget about it," said Joey.

"Do we have a choice?" asked Tristan.

We all stood in silence for a second and then I said, "I'm going."

"You are?" asked Yugi.

I nodded. "You wanted me to believe Noah had a good side to him. Well this is me believing," I said.

"Olive's right," said Yugi. "We have nothing to lose."

"Let's go," said Tea.

"Yea," said Duke.

"Alright, but I'm warning you. You better not pull any of your dirty tricks, Noah," said Joey.

We took off running. It seemed like we were always running.

"The Domino Arcade is only two blocks away and the exit should be inside," said Joey.

"Oh no! Behind us!" Yugi exclaimed. I looked back to see monsters. "There's no way we'll outrun Gozaboro's monsters."

Joey stopped. "Alright, then you guys go and we'll stay and fight," he said.

"No way. I'm not going to go without you," said Serenity.

"Just go, sis! Tea, go with my sister and help her find that exit," said Joey.

"Let's get going," said Tea. "We'll meet them there."

"Please be careful," said Serenity.

"Don't worry. This won't take too long," said Joey.

"Yea, we'll smash them!" said Tristan-monkey, but Serenity picked up Tristan.

"You're better off with us, Tristan," said Tea.

The boys looked at me. "You staying with us or going with them?" asked Yugi.

"I'm staying," I said.

Yugi nodded and smiled. "Do your thing, Olive," he said.

I nodded and smiled as well. My hands moved so quickly, signing and drawing symbols in the air. I had no idea how I knew these movements. They didn't spell any words to me, they didn't make any sense to me. It was like they were just something I knew. A memory. They lit up in the air and I spun and hit them with the heel of my hand. Power erupted from my arm, starting at the shoulder and shooting forward to mix with the symbols. The force shot at the monsters and they were all left either stunned or dead.

"Let's go," I said.

"What the hell was that?" asked Duke.

I shrugged. "I've got a few secrets," I said.

Marik laughed.

We were inside the arcade within a couple of minutes, but the monsters that had lived had regained their composure and were catching up. Soon they had surrounded the arcade and a few were trying to force their way in.

"Go, Dark Magician!" Yugi yelled.

The Dark Magician attacked.

"Nice shot, Yugi! Now let's get out of this place," said Joey.

"Proceed to the stage immediately," said Noah.

"Joey, you and Duke and Olive go first. I'll be right there," said Yugi.

"Alright," said Joey, "but you'd better be right behind me."

Duke and Joey ran to the stage.

I stopped at the bottom of the steps and turned to look at Yugi.

He used his dark magician to attack again.

Joey ran up the steps of the stage with Duke. "Come on!" Joey yelled at both of us. "Let's go!"

"Olive, come on," said Duke.

I shook my head. "I'm not leaving til Yugi leaves," I said.

"Olive, stop! Just come on," Duke pleaded.

"No!" I said.

He ran back down a couple of steps and grabbed my wrist.

"You just saw me send and explosion at some monsters. Do you really want to force me up those steps?" I asked him.

He paused and then leaned forward and kissed me. It was a deep, passionate kiss, the kind that you felt like you were falling into. When he broke away and ran back up the stage steps, I was stunned.

"What..?" I asked. I couldn't seem to manage anymore words.

He grinned. "I'm going back to the real world," he said. "If something happens to you I would hate to never have kissed you."

I touched my lips.

"Besides, now you have more incentive to make sure you get your ass back home," said Duke.

"Yea, and what's the incentive?" I asked.

"You are obviously going to want more of this," said Duke, motioning to himself before he disappeared.

"Hurry!" Joey yelled before he disappeared as well.

"Yugi, wait. I have a favor to ask," said Noah.

"What is it?" asked Yugi, stopping at the bottom of the steps with me.

"Mokuba is still stuck there in the virtual world," said Noah. "And Seto is stuck in a duel with Gozaboro."

"Where?" I asked, panicked.

"I'll use the central computer to create a virtual shortcut so you can reach him," said Noah. "He's in Kaiba Corp headquarters.

"Of course," said Yugi. "Olive, you should go."

I shook my head. "I said I wasn't leaving you. I'm not leaving Kaiba either," I insisted.

A door appeared out of nowhere.

"Go through that door and you'll find Seto," said Noah.

"Okay," said Yugi. "I won't come back without him."

He took my hand and we opened the door.

When we stepped through the door, we were in front of Kaiba Corp headquarters. We ran up the stairs as fast as we could without hesitation. Once inside, we got into an elevator. It felt like it went excruciatingly slowly.

The elevator opened and we were standing at the foot of a dueling platform. Some giant red smoky looking monster was headed straight towards Kaiba.

"What about our agreement?" Kaiba asked.

"The deal's off!" said the monster, in Gozaboro's voice.

I shot some kind of energy out of my hand again and it struck the monster in the chest.

Kaiba turned to look at us.

"Jump, Kaiba!" Yugi yelled.

He jumped and we all took off running.

"We've got to hurry," Yugi told him. "This whole place is going to shut down any second."

We ran outside, the only way we could go to get away from the monster, but stopped at the edge of the roof.

"Shit! It's a dead end," said Yugi.

"I've never heard you cuss before," I commented.

Behind us, Gozaboro laughed.

"Jump now!" Noah yelled.

"Forget it!" said Kaiba.

"We have to trust him," said Yugi. "Come on."

He jumped and I shoved Kaiba. Kaiba grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. Kaiba wrapped his arms around me protectively, even though we had just jumped off of a skyscraper and the three of us fell towards the street.

In midair, in front of us, a circle of blue light appeared.

"Look! Noah opened another exit!" Yugi exclaimed.

We all fell straight into the center of it.