Author's note: Trigger warning for the opening scene of this chapter

An hour had passed since Sophia had returned to the castle and with Rachel out of commission, she had decided to leave the second session until the next day and extend that session another hour, a prospect that Sophia was none too pleased with.

"I knew it was a risk basing an entire tournament in a virtual world, that's one of the reasons why I waited an extra couple of years before I was satisfied that the pods worked perfectly." Sophia thought as she walked down the hallways of the dungeons with several of her men by her side, the dungeons had fallen into disuse in recent years and Sophia had only really planned to use them if a duelist was disqualified and they couldn't get them onto the ship for whatever reason and even then it was only to be used for a severe offense, however Sophia's hand had been forced. "I'm not a tech nerd like Jade is but I know that anything that can go wrong with technology will go wrong, I can only hope that this will be an isolated incident."

"We're here Sophia." One of her men broke Sophia's train of thought before they stopped in front of one of the cells were Max, still wearing the red suit from his Pegasus disguise, stood with his arms crossed, to the left of the cell stood Kaiba who looked as unhappy as she did. "We've been interrogating him since you got back but he hasn't spoken a word."

"I gathered as much." Sophia nodded before she walked up the cell bars. "So Max, or do you prefer Pegasus? Doesn't matter, what was your end goal exactly?"

"I've got nothing to say to you." Max scoffed as he folded his arms. "But I will say this, I was planning to attack you and leave you for dead once we got far enough into the cave." Max added before licking his lips perversely. "Raping you, cutting you up, the whole nine yards, by the time anyone found you it would've been too late."

"And they say Chelsea Cunningham sets a bad example as the Illinois Regional Champion." Sophia scoffed and Max clenched a fist. "Did you forget who you planned to attack? I'm the I2 CEO and the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, someone would've come looking for me sooner or later, whether or not they prevented you from using your tiny weapon on me is another matter."

"You say that like it hasn't happened to you before." Max scoffed and Sophia's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah, my master told me everything, about that night after a party when another pro-duelist broke into your home because he heard that you were a little slut…"

"Enough!" Sophia snapped before reaching through the bars and grabbing Max by his suit and pulling him closer. ""Who is this master your working for? And why is he targeting my tournament?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Besides, I'm pretty sure this counts as assault, I'm going to sue your breast implants off your chest lady!" Max scoffed and Sophia growled.

"Sophia." Kaiba said calmly and Sophia took a deep breath before letting go, she stood to the side and let Kaiba step into Max's view. "Max, you're a joke and even if your claim had any merit, there are a handful of witnesses who'll say that you provoked her."

"So, what are you going to do to me?" Max asked and Kaiba smirked.

"We're going to leave you to sweat in this cell overnight, maybe then you'll talk." Kaiba responded before motioning to Sophia to follow him, as the two CEOs walked away Kaiba turned to the young woman. "You realize how bad that could've gotten yes?"

"You mean me following that bastard into the cave or me assaulting him without you to calm me down? Either way, the answer's yes." Sophia nodded as she glanced back towards the cell. "I don't think we'll get much out of him, Max may have been the Illinois Regional Champion, but his reign is infamous in Illinois for being one of the most boring on record."

"There was one other thing I wanted to address, and I think you know what." Kaiba commented and Sophia took a deep breath.

"Just so we're clear, this conversation does not leave the dungeons." Sophia commented and Kaiba nodded respectfully. "It happened a year before my stepfather retired as I2 CEO and I took over, by that point I was still a pro-league duelist and as we discussed before, I slept around a lot back then, however I wasn't being entirely truthful about why I stopped sleeping around." Sophia added before taking a deep breath. "Do you remember Blake Addams?"

"That duelist from California who was convicted of rape and blacklisted for life?" Kaiba asked and Sophia nodded. "His victim's identity was withheld, the only clue to her identity was that she was another Pro-League duelist from California…..." Kaiba trailed off before it hit him like a ton of bricks. "You were his victim?!"

"It feels like a lifetime ago now, like Max said, it was after a tournament after party, I didn't sleep with anyone, but I was being flirty, never really meant anything by it because by that point I had a decent amount of alcohol in me." Sophia sighed before taking a deep breath. "My bedroom antics were well known among the other pro-duelists, it was right after I did that sex tape I told you about and whilst me and the other participants in that three-way agreed to never release it to the public unless our careers went down the toilet at the exact same time and only if we all agreed to it, as I said, it was filmed on my phone and it is in my possession, as for how that ties into the incident well, you know how fast gossip travels in this sport."

"I know that all too well." Seto nodded in response and Sophia took a deep breath.

"Well, Blake took that to mean that I wouldn't say no to anything and tried to get me to have sex with him, I wasn't the only woman he tried it on that night but after an hour I became his most persistent target." Sophia explained as she closed her eyes briefly. "I still don't know why the pro-league duelist hosting the party didn't throw him out, when I spoke to her after the incident she was apologetic as all hell and admitted that she should've stepped in long before he approached me but the point is, I refused to sleep with him because I had a headache from the tournament, but he followed me home and paid off the head of security to let him in."

"That son of a bitch." Kaiba said angrily once he realized where Sophia was going with this. "I'm not going to ask what happened next, just what happened afterwards."

"To be honest, the attack is just a blur as far as my memory is concerned." Sophia admitted as she leaned against a wall. "I remember getting out of the shower and seeing Blake standing there, I told him to leave and reached for my phone to call security when he refused before he pounced, the rest? Just repressed memories." Sophia added as she took a deep breath. "That attack lasted a few hours at least, by the time the pain stopped it was at least 4:00am in the morning and I got home around midnight but it was why I started taking self-defense classes and insisted that Raven and Jade started taking the same classes, I refused to be a victim again and I didn't want either of the women in my employ to go through what I went through." Sophia added before taking a deep breath.

"Take your time Sophia." Kaiba assured her and Sophia nodded. "I know this is a painful memory for you, even if the memory of the attack is mostly suppressed."

"I was found the two hours later by one of my maids when they showed up to start their shift, he had left me on the floor with nothing covering me up and as soon as I told her that I was raped, she covered me up with a bathroom towel and called the police." Sophia explained as she ran a hand through her hair. "Blake had a reputation in the California scene s a womanizer, god's gift to women and all that crap, didn't exactly help that he was a big, muscular and admittedly good looking guy but from what I gathered from talking to the women he slept with, I was the first one to say no to him, they were shocked that he went that far as he was apparently a gentle lover with those who did agree to have sex with him but then the truth started to come out."

"What do you mean "truth"?" Kaiba asked and Sophia took a deep breath.

"I wanted to make sure the prosecution had all the evidence they needed to throw him away for a long time so I had Jade hack into his computer, most of the info she dug up wound up being tossed out of court but the info that wasn't thrown out of court was damning to say the least." Sophia added before thinking back a bit. "He belonged to several misogynistic Facebook groups, different names butt the same trash being posted in them including one group who thought rape should be legalized, I wish I was kidding." Sophia added when she saw the look on Kaiba's face.

"I can only imagine how pissed off Jade was." Kaiba nodded once the surprise wore off. "With her hacking skills, she could've easily delated those groups."

"And she did, after the trial." Sophia nodded as she folded her arms. "In fact, the only thing stopping Jade from outright deleting the groups by hacking into the admin's accounts was the fact that we needed that evidence for the trial but as soon as Blake was convicted, well, let's just say that Jade saw too it that every one of those groups were deleted in quick succession, the admins had their accounts deleted and computers fried remotely to boot, there are still groups like that but Jade has made it her personal mission to delete any that she comes across." Sophia added before taking a deep breath. "About a week after the attack my father came home from a business conference in Paris, needless to say, he wasn't happy to come home to the news that not only had his stepdaughter been raped but security basically held the door open for her rapist."

"That explains why Pegasus was so invested in that case." Kaiba nodded as he thought back to the case. "I remember him going ballistic."

"Take it from me, that's an understatement." Sophia nodded with a grim look on her face. "After he saw to it that the head of security was fired, father did everything he could to make sure that Blake got the book thrown at him, fortunately Blake was considerate enough to use a condom but dumb enough to throw it in the trash can just outside my apartment on top of the evidence that Jade had gathered, for the record, I don't know if the attack left me unable to have children or not, that wasn't exactly a priority at the time, my father saw too it that he would never compete in a tournament again, pretty much every duelist he knew, intimately or otherwise, washed their hands off him, and I disappeared from the spotlight after that, both to recover and prepare for my current role."

"You have my assurance that no one else in the castle will learn of this." Kaiba assured her and Sophia nodded gratefully before she took a deep breath. "Dare I ask, what did the other women think?"

"It scared the hell out of the other women in the California regional scene, many of whom I had slept with before the attack but that's beside the point, the main thought process was that if Blake was willing to rape someone who had said no to his advances then who knows what he was capable off?" Sophia explained before letting out a sigh. "Fortunately, I was his first and only rape victim, normally when something like this happens, we get other victims coming forward but, in this case, I was the only one." Sophia added before letting out a deep breath. "I never thought I'd be discussing this with anyone but my psychologist, much less my business partner in this tournament, but last night's duel made me realize that I had better tell you before you looked it up yourself."

"I respect your privacy too much to look it up without asking you." Kaiba assured her and Sophia let out a sigh of relief. "As for the childbearing issue, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, there are other options of course."

"Been looking at them since father went over the contract with me." Sophia responded with a nod as the two CEOS started to leave the dungeon. "And before you ask, I wasn't involved in the writing process and I'm very unhappy that the writers decided to include several rape storylines in the questlines, they will be taken out before the MMO goes public."

"Even before you revealed that, I suspected that would be the case." Kaiba nodded in understanding before they left the dungeon.

*elsewhere in the castle*

Whilst that was going on in the dungeons the situation in the virtual pod room was being handled as best they could after the delay.

"The good news is the equipment's easy enough to use if you have the right skillset, which I do." Jade commented as the Australian woman scratched her head whilst looking at the pod equipment and the other duelists who watched Raven's duel watched on. "Bad news is, I'm a competitor in the tournament and to operate the system, I'd need to drop out, I've got too much pride to even consider doing that."

"If needed, I can make the trip to Duelist Kingdom." Robert said over the Skype call and Jade turned to the laptop. "I wasn't able to attend due to a family emergency, but I was one of the technicians who developed the Virtual World Technology."

"Just one problem Rob, you live in LA and I know that it's a six hour flight from LA to Domino City." Jade responded as she folded her arms. "And that's not counting the overnight trip from Domino Pier to Duelist Kingdom, and from the look of things remote access is out of the question as well."

"Sophia was worried about hackers getting into the system." Robert nodded as he understood what Jade meant. "Even if I made the trip, Rachel was given a day to recover after her attack by that thing, what are her injuries?"

"Fortunately, Rachel's injuries seem to be minor, doctor thinks that the only reason that she was out cold by the time Raven showed up was because she fainted." Jade responded before turning to Raven. "So, Raven, Nadia, whatever your name is, care to tell us what that was about?"

"We've known each other for how long Jade?" Raven asked as she folded her arms. "And you still don't trust my word?"

"If I didn't trust you, you would've known by now." Jade responded before she stepped out from behind the console. "But that thing put us all in danger and seemed to know you, Emil wasn't it? He even called you his sister."

"Your right, I do owe you an explanation, all of you." Raven nodded reluctantly as she glanced at the other duelists. "Follow me." Raven added before leading the other duelists out of the room and to a different room, Chloe and Chelsea quickly recognized it from the night before as they were on the balcony overlooking the hallway where the Duelist Kingdom Finals took place many years ago. "Many of you know me as Raven." Raven stated before removing her hood. "My real name is Nadia Kowalczyk, I am originally from Poland and I have a history with the demon that's been troubling us."

"What do you mean by history?" Andreas asked as he stepped forward. "When we stepped in to give you our support, you called us fucking idiots, I believe we deserve an explanation for that as well."

"I apologize deeply for that I didn't want to put anyone else in danger in case Emil defeated me." Raven apologized with a nod towards Andreas. "As for what I mean, it's simple, well, maybe its simple to me but even so, as many of you know, the dueling scene in Poland has been in it's infancy for several years now, when I arrived at Las Vegas for Battle City, I was the first Polish Duelist to compete at a major tournament, my brother Emil hated that fact."

"The fact that you got to Battle City first or the slow start for the Polish Dueling Scene?" Chloe asked and Raven nodded. "Or is it both?"

"It is both." Raven nodded before sighing. "I don't know how he did to this day, but Emil got in contact with a demon, he was willing to sell his soul to become a world class duelist." Raven added before placing her hand over her eyes. "But I intervened, my intervention cost us both dearly, it left him in the form you saw and as for me?" Raven added before removing her hand, in her hand where two contact lenses and the duelists looked back at her eyes before realizing what she meant. "And left me blinded."

"Your blind?!" Andreas asked with a stunned look on his face, Raven's eyes were almost completely clouded over and Raven nodded. "If you don't mind me saying, you don't seem to have any issue getting around."

"These contact lenses are specially designed ones that Sophia brought for me, they allow me to see and get around easily," Raven explained before popping both contact lenses back in. "It's not perfect, my duel monster cards are all in braille as is my laptop keyboard and legally, I cannot drive, I often have to rely on public transport if I wish to travel around a large city such as Chicago, New York or Domino City and if my contacts fall out, well, I'm hopeless without them."

"There's one thing I don't get." Chelsea commented as she stepped forward. "Why the Raven persona?"

"It's simple really, the demon my brother contacted was a raven demon." Raven explained as she turned to Chelsea. "Call it irony, a sick joke, whatever you want, I don't care, the moment I lost my ability to see was the moment I abandoned my real name."

"When we first met, you displayed some impressive fighting skills." Andreas commented and Raven turned to him. "How does your blindness affect that?"

"Not a lot, ever since an incident several years ago that I won't go into detail about, Sophia has been taking self defense classes from one of the best martial artists in the world, because she didn't want me or Jade to suffer the same fate she insisted that we take the classes as well." Raven explained as she nodded towards Jade. "Jade doesn't get many chances to use it as she isn't a field operative but as far as fighting skills go, we're on the same level, my contacts help off course but even if I didn't have my contacts in, I am still a formidable fighter."

"You just have to rely more on sound and smell than your eyesight in that scenario, right?" Chloe asked and Raven nodded. "So, what now? Because Rachel's knocked out, the session's been delayed until tomorrow."

"You'd think they'd have brought more than one technician to operate the pods." Chelsea commented and Jade turned to her.

"Do you really think the virtual world system is just maintained by Rachel alone?" Jade asked and Chelsea paused. "Sophia had to fly in a small army of technicians to get everything set up in the castle to begin with, and maintaining the world is an arduous task that requires round the clock maintenance." Jade added before taking a deep breath. "Rachel is the chief technician on the project but I's not as simple as moving one technician from somewhere else to take over from her because if something goes wrong at that technicians station and they can't tend to it, then the whole system will go down, not to mention the fact that each technician has a different sociality." Jade added before frowning. "Don't you have a master's degree in computers as well?" Jade asked and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah but I've never operated something on this scale, the most my skills get put to use is when something goes wrong with either my laptop or gaming pc." Chelsea responded as her eyes narrowed. "So, you'll forgive me for not being a know-it-all like you."

"Chelsea, Jade, this isn't the time for arguing." Raven interrupted them and the two women stopped in their tracks. "As for the rest of the day, I honestly don't care, Sophia is dealing with that prisoner in the dungeon but I think the best we can do is wait out the rest of the day and get a good night's sleep, it's not like arguing is going to speed up Rachel's recovery."

"Just one question, not to sound insensitive or anything." Nicola chimed in and Raven turned to her. "How is your eyesight in the virtual world? I know Andreas is required to remove his glasses before entering the pod."

"I too am required to remove my contacts, fortunately they allow me to wait until I'm already in the pod." Raven responded as she turned to the autistic women. "Fortunately, Sophia was kind enough to give me perfect eyesight in the virtual world, and before you ask, I have considered laser eye surgery, but I've been told that my eyesight is too far gone for it to work." Raven added before putting her hood up. "I think we've discussed this topic enough and I don't know what your going to do but I intend to return to my room."

"Agreed." Andreas nodded before they walked off.

*later that night*

By now most of the duelists were in bed ready to pick up where they had left off the previous session, including Ariana.

"Dark card somehow gets into the Virtual World I almost get possessed and Sophia and Raven got attacked." Ariana thought as she sat down on her bed in her pajamas after putting away her day clothes. "I'm almost tempted to ask how things can get worse, but I'd rather not think about that! Better get some sleep." Ariana thought before swinging her legs over and getting ready for bed.

*inside Ariana's dream*

It didn't take Ariana long to get some sleep and, in her dream,, she found herself in a dark void wearing the same outfit that she had worn to the first day of the tournament, the nineteen year old adjusted a bra strap instinctively as she glanced around the void.

"Hello?" Ariana called out after a few moments but got no answers, at least not at first before the whispering that she had been periodically hearing outside of tournament sessions started again, Ariana covered her ears to try to block out the sound but it eventually got too loud and for once, she could hear what the voices were saying.

She quickly wished she hadn't. "She's mentally ill." One voice said.

"She will never be normal." Another voice said and Ariana grit her teeth.

"She should be institutionalized." Another voice said and Ariana could feel the tears coming out of her eyes as the abuse ring out, the next few moments were hell for Ariana as she tried to block it out until eventually, she had enough.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Ariana cried out and all at once, the voices stopped, Ariana took several deep breaths before straightening up her body. "I just want to be normal, why can't I be normal?!"

"Normal?" A mocking female voice rang out rand out and Ariana looked up, it was the doppelganger again and she was dressed in the same outfit as she walked towards Ariana. "We both know that you'll never be normal!"

"That's a lie." Ariana insisted as she grit her teeth. "My medication allows me…."

"To put up a facade of normalcy when in reality, you're a scared little girl who's way out of her depths." The doppelganger interrupted Ariana as she got closer. "My previous offer still stands, join me and we'll be unstoppable."

"Go to hell!" Ariana snapped at her before throwing a punch, however her doppelganger disappeared before the punch could connect and she stumbled to the ground, before Ariana could help herself back to her feet however she heard laughter from all around her and looked up.

The last thing she saw in the dream was several laughing faces looking down at her, it was all people she knew, Sophia, Andreas, Amanda, Adrienne, Kaiba, even some of her friends from North Academy.

*back in the real world*

Ariana awoke with a start and glanced around her room, a quick glance at her alarm clock confirmed one thing, she hadn't been asleep for that long, twenty minutes at most, but it felt for much longer.

"First my dream the previous night, then the vision this morning and now this?" Ariana muttered under her breath after she sat up in bed, without a second thought she got out of bed and put her shoes on. "I need to clear my head, there's a balcony with a view of the whole island not far from my room, that should be perfect." Ariana muttered to herself before she left her room and made her away out to the balcony.

She had no idea how long she was out there until she had company as she was lost in thought until a male voice cleared his throat. "Hey, your Ariana, right?" Ariana looked up and saw Gavin Freeman standing next to her apparently having just gathered up the courage to speak to her. "I've seen you around, I believe we're neighbors."

"Oh yeah, Gavin, right?" Ariana greeted him with a nod before turning back towards the view. "I had a nightmare, I figured getting some fresh air would help clear my head."

"Same, you know, the old "show up to a tournament final in nothing but your underwear" dream." Gavin commented with a shrug and Ariana laughed a bit. "You?"

"I'd rather not discuss it, it gets into personal details, you know?" Ariana sighed and Gavin nodded in understanding. "I've been having these weird nightmares a lot recently to be honest but I'm managing them."

"Maybe it's just first tournament jitters, this is my first tournament outside of England even if I did get eliminated early." Gavin admitted and Ariana nodded in agreement. "You?"

"It's my first tournament outside of my region, Pennsylvania to be precise." Ariana responded with a nod as she leaned on tee railing. "And if things continue the way they are, it won't be my last."

"Here's hoping." Gavin nodded in agreement before they shared a fist bump. "I'm heading back to bed."

"I'll join you." Ariana responded with a yawn before quickly regretting her choice of words when she saw the look on Gavin's face. "Join you in going back to bed, not join you in your bedroom, trying to save myself for marriage anyway."

"Fair play." Gavin responded with a laugh. "Good night Ariana."

"Good night." Ariana responded before the two duelists went back to their rooms. "That dream can't be because of my bi-polar disorder, i took my meds hours ago." Ariana thought before heading to her room. "Hopefully I won't have another nightmare like it." Ariana thought before closing the door.