Endless Myth: Moon Shadow says hi. She is kind of bed ridden. You see, she
was skiing but there was a huge blizzard and she had to stay at the ski
resort and had to ski more than they had planned and then she played too
much foosball and as a result she can't move her arms. So I have to write
this. But I assure you I'm on the phone with her right now and she's
helping, so really it shouldn't be that different. Maybe by the end of this
chapter she'll be back.
*** Chapter Nine-Mai's Story ***
Lee, Matt, and Ben were sitting on the floor of Lee's room that night, the two boys watching as Lee stared into the card Shadow of Eyes.
"Show me the future," Lee whispered to her sphere and it glowed bright. "I know not the whereabouts of my friend; and would glance through the veil of time to see him. So let it be." Then she took a breath and had to throw all her mind into not falling into the swirling void of the card as it searched through time for Tim. When it stopped swirling, Lee could make out, through the mist that still covered the surface of the card, two figures. One was Tim, but the other-
"That's the new sophomore English teacher!" Ben said, peering over Lee's shoulder. "He was the one who-"
"Shut up." Lee said, watching the scene in the card. She wished once again that she could hear what the people in the card were saying, but she couldn't, and all she could do was watch in stunned silence as the teacher advanced on Tim, and he backed off, holding the sphere close-she could see he was frightened. Then Lee cried out in fear and mental pain as the card- Tim fell unconscious to the ground, and watched the teacher standing over him, laughing.
Her mind snapped out of the trance, and she was being pulled into the card- she had lost her concentration-she was losing control-
Matt, seeing Lee stumble, startled by what she had seen, leapt forward and knocked she card out of her hand. "Be careful." He whispered to her, pulling her to her feet. "You have to be careful, Lee, I don't care what you have to know-you can't put your mind at risk."
"Matt-I'm fine." She said, but she squeezed his hand as he let go of her arm. Behind them, Ben was standing.
"Where is he?" Ben asked in a quirt, dangerous voice. "If they've hurt him, I'll kill them, I will-"
"He's at the Duelist Kingdom." Lee said in a shaking voice. "That man-the teacher-he's a representative of Peter Pegasus. He comes to see my father a lot, with another man, Hoshi-they both work for Duelist Kingdom."
"What does Pegasus want with Tim?" Matt asked.
"The spheres." Ben answered for Lee. "They want the spheres, and they'll do anything to get them."
"But then-is Lee in danger?"
"I can take care of myself." Lee spoke up. "Let them try to get my sphere- they won't."
"But they're already trying." Ben said. "They've already hurt you-they took Tim, and he's one of your best friends. They'll try to weaken you but hurting your family or friends-can't you see it?"
"What do you mean?" Lee asked, staring. "Is my family in danger?"
Ben started to answer, but was cut off by a shrill scream from downstairs. They all stood still. There was another scream, and the sound of breaking glass. Then a deeper voice spoke, and was cut off-and then there was silence.
Matt, Lee, and Ben all stood stock still in a semi-circle in the middle of the room. Then, without saying anything, Lee ran downstairs, followed closely by her friends.
As Lee entered the kitchen, she gasped and pulled back. Ben, coming up behind her, put a hand on her shoulder, and Matt pushed in front of her.
"Oh god." He said, and stepped out of the way for Ben and Lee to see.
Broken glass covered the floor, and there was no sign of Seto or Serenity. The door was hanging open, and the screen that covered it was ripped. Lee leaned against the wall and shut her eyes. She could hear Matt and Ben talking, but couldn't understand what they were saying. She took a deep breath. Ben came over to her and took her arm.
"Lee-I'm taking you to your uncle's house." He said. Lee nodded wearily and started toward the door, picking up her purse on the way. But she was cut off by the sudden, shrill sound of the phone. She stood in the middle of the room and stared at the telephone.
"Answer it." Matt said sensibly, when she looked over at him. She nodded again and reached for the phone. Her voice cracked as she answered.
"H-hello?"
"Hello, Lebecca Kaiba." The voice on the other end of the line said.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked, snapping out of the trance she'd been in, all her regained defensiveness rushing back into her voice.
"Does it matter?"
"If you don't tell me it obviously matters to one of us."
"You're a smart girl, Lebecca. Just like Tim.your brother."
"Tim's not my brother." She snapped into the phone.
"As you will. But whoever he is, do you know where he is, Lebecca?"
"What did you do to him?" she whispered dangerously. "Where is he?"
"That would be telling. But-why don't you come to the tournament this summer and find out?"
"What-" she began to ask, but the line went dead, the silence soon replaced by the drone of the dial tone.
"Lee?" Matt said, coming closer to her. "Lee, are you okay?"
"Yes." She whispered. "I'm fine." She leaned back against him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her slim body against him as she shook with tears. He kissed her on the cheek. "It'll be fine, Lee. Don't worry. It'll be okay." He glanced over at Ben.
"Look, they obviously don't know much about you two if they think you're brother and sister." Ben said consolingly. "They're not nearly as smart as they think they are if that's what they think."
"Or maybe," Matt said, rocking Lee back and forth gently. "Maybe we don't know as much as we think."
"Mom," Tim said in to the darkness, "I'm ready for you to tell me what happened."
"What do you mean?" Mai asked her son. "What happened with what?" She saw that he was shivering.
"You know what I mean. I'm ready to hear the truth. The whole truth." He added as she opened her mouth.
"Tim-"
"If you're going to lie, I don't want to hear it. So don't bother."
"Tim-the truth, as you put it-it's very complicated. You're not old enough to understand it."
Tim sat and stared at her, his dark eyes meeting her light ones. Finally he looked away and nodded slowly. "Okay. No, really. I get it. Makes perfect sense."
"I'm sorry, it's just-"
"I completely understand. I mean, why should I know the truth about myself, right?"
"Tim, I wasn't lying to hurt you. I was lying to protect you."
"From what?"
Mai looked around the dark room bitterly. "From this. From having to use your power-" she broke off and smiled at him. "-Your extraordinary power, for evil."
"They can't make me."
"Yes they can." She whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Tell me the whole thing." He whispered back. "If I can't handle it you can stop-really-but I can."
Mai closed her eyes, then opened them, consenting. Tim sat back and folded his arms across his chest. Mai took a deep breath and began.
Joey opened the door of his house wearily. Then he gasped in surprise and held the door open for his niece, pulling her inside. "Lee? What the-" it looked like she had been crying, and he looked past her at Ben's car pulling away from the house. He looked back at Lee, and pulled her into a rough hug before shutting the door.
"What's wrong?" he whispered into her hair. "What happened?"
"My mother-father." She choked out. "Tim."
"We were sixteen." Mai began, speaking into the darkness, knowing that her son was there, listening, absorbing every word she spoke. "We were so young. You see, we were here on this island. It was the second time the tournament was hosted, and none of us could wait to get back. Are you sure you want to hear this?"
Tim nodded, then realized she couldn't see him in the dim light. "Yes," he said out loud.
Mai sighed. "Everyone was here-Yugi Motou, Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor, Espa Roba-so many people, so many duelists, we couldn't wait.
"I was there, of course. I loved the game, back then, but then something happened that changed the way I see it. Peter Pegasus-he was only twenty, then, but so cruel-they say he's the grandson of the first Pegasus, but really he's a distant cousin or something. Peter-he cursed the game. No-he cursed me."
"What?"
"You know about the Millenium Items?"
"Yeah."
"He wanted them. Yugi knew he did, he knew the tournament was rigged-that's why he dropped out early. He gave all his star chips-you know about the star chip system?"
"Uh huh."
"Alright. Yugi gave all his star chips to his best friend and left early, to protect the Millenium Puzzle-and himself. And Peter would stop at nothing-he decided that he first needed to control time before he stole the other items, so he-"
"So he's trying to take the spheres." Tim finished for her. "But how did he curse you?"
Mai looked down unhappily at the ground. "He knew that you would have the power to use the spheres. He knew that you could help him."
"But I wasn't born. What did you have to do with it?"
"I'm your mother, Tim! You being born depended on me. He cursed me-from that moment on, whenever I-whenever a girl-duels, the first monster card she plays is set free."
"You've lost me."
"When the game was real, when the magic was real, the monsters from the game would come to life when the game was played. But they were trapped in the cards. Sixteen years ago, before you were born, Peter Pegasus used magic to make the monsters come to life when a girl duels.
Well, the world discovered that whenever I dueled a monster was set free. With the help of archaeologists, they found out about the game and the past Shadow Games, and forbade girls to duel, to stop the monsters from coming to life."
Tim was thinking. "But one girl didn't follow the law, right? One girl-and she duels all the time-Every time my friend Lebecca-Lee-duels, she sets a monster free?"
"Yes. They never made the evidence public, so there's no way she could've known."
"But Lee-"
"Tell me about Lee."
"What's to tell?" Tim asked, wondering why his mother wanted to know that now.
"Lee.comes into the next part of the story. I'd just like to know more about her, is all."
"Well okay. Lee is.I don't know.she's just Lee. She's defensive, she's independent, and dependent at the same time. She loved to duel, but mostly just because she's not supposed to. She's beautiful. She acts twice her age, but she seems young, sometimes."
"She has the other sphere."
"Yes." Tim looked curiously at his mother. "Where'd she get it, anyway? You gave me mine, but Lee-"
"I gave it to Lee, too. You see, Tim," Mai said, reaching out to touch her son's face, "The curse rests inside the Millenium Items. To destroy the curse, the Millenium Items must be destroyed.
"That's your destiny, Tim. You and your twin sister have to use the power you have to get rid of the other items, before it's too late."
"Twin?"
"Lebecca."
Back in Domino, Joey sighed across the room at his niece. "You're not going, Lee!"
"Well, I'm sorry, uncle, but you can't stop me!"
"Oh yes I can!"
"You don't have any power over me!"
"I'm in charge of you if your parents aren't here! You have to listen to me! Until they get back, I'm your legal guardian!"
"Look, Joey, you went running around Duelist Kingdom when you were sixteen; why shouldn't I?"
"It's different!"
"How is it different?"
"You're a-"
"If you say that, I will kill you."
"What was he going to say?" Yugi asked from the couch, watching Lee and Joey argue.
"He was going to say it's different because I'm a girl."
"That was not what I was going to say."
"Yeah it was."
"No, I wasn't!"
"Don't lie!"
"I'm not lying! And you're not going anywhere, miss, so don't count on it!"
"Ben and Matt will go with me-it'll be perfectly safe!"
"Oh, sure! You'll bring your high-school friends with you! That'll make it so much safer!"
"Ben will have graduated in two weeks, when it's time to go."
"Ok-ay.your college friend and your high school friend." Joey sighed. "What college is Ben going to, by the way? Does he know?"
"Now you're changing the subject."
"Hon, you're not going anywhere. You might as well give up, sweetheart." Joey looked at his watch. "Look, go to bed. It's late, and you have school tomorrow."
"I'm not tired."
"I didn't say that. I said go to bed. Now go!"
Lee rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. Joey slumped down in a chair next to Yugi. Yugi looked up from the book he was reading.
"You were going to say because she's a girl, weren't you." It wasn't a question.
"Hey, I wasn't thinking!" Joey protested lamely. "You know what, shut up. I'm going to bed." He stalked out of the room, and Yugi went back to his book.
In the darkness of the castle, Tim glared at his mother in disbelief. "What?" He spat out in frustration. "What are you talking about? No-you're wrong."
"Tim-I knew you'd act like this-calm down."
"How can I calm down? My best friend is my twin! This is not a normal situation! I can freak out if I want to!"
"You knew, though."
Tim took a deep breath. "Yeah, I really did. I think-I think I didn't want to admit it, but we knew, all right. Both of us." He looked up at his mother's sweet face. "You've left out one part." He said.
"Have I?"
"Who is my-our father?"
"The best friend. The one who Yugi gave his star chips to. It was him."
"Tell me his name." Tim said softly. "Tell me."
Mai shuddered and said a name she had been avoiding for sixteen years. "Joey Wheeler. His name is Joey Wheeler."
Joey Wheeler woke to the sound of someone crying. It took him a minute to focus, but then he leapt up and ran to the living room where Lee was sleeping on the couch. He sat down next to her.
"C'mere, Lee." He held her close and let her cry into his neck. "Hey, calm down. It'll be okay." He stroked her tear stained face. "They'll all be all right, I promise."
"I'm so scared." She whispered.
"I know. So am I."
"I don't want to be scared. It's not helping them-It's-I have to help them."
"It's okay to be scared." He said, and she pressed against him. Hadn't Ben said that to her yesterday, when they were walking home? Maybe they were right. She closed her eyes and leaned against him. Joey held his niece tight, more like a friend would hold another friend.
More like a father would hold his daughter, than an uncle his niece.
"That's Lee's uncle." Tim told his mother.
"No. That's Lee's father."
"Does he know?"
"No. I never told him."
"Why?"
"To protect him. Until the curse was broken."
"When we-" He shook his head. "If we break the curse, will you tell him?"
"Yes."
He sighed. "How will we know how to destroy the items?"
"You'll know."
"How will we find them?"
There was a catch in Mai's voice as she answered, "Leave that to the Dream- catcher."
***
A fifteen-year-old Lee Kaiba slammed the door of her house and stomped into the living room. "C'mon, dad. Mom?"
"Lee, we've told you, we have to move. We've talked about it, we've decided to do it, and that's all there is to it."
"I don't want to leave Domino, though! And in the middle of the school year?"
"I'm with Lee on this." Her uncle Mokuba said from the other side of the room. "Seto, there's no reason for you to move now. At least wait until next year."
"Mokuba, I have to be closer to work. This commute is to much."
"But I'm there. I can handle Kaiba Corps until next year, and you can take full control then."
Seto sighed. "No. We've already made plans."
"Yes. And Lee," Serenity put in, "Lee, it's not like we didn't tell you about this."
"Yeah, but-Never mind." Lee sighed and stalked out of the room. Then she came back and stuck her head in the door. "What's the name of this town?"
"Nahway." Serenity said. "And there's a school near our house. Nahway High School? You'll love it."
"I am so sure."
"Really. They have a great drama program!" Serenity added brightly.
"I am overcome with joy." Lee said, flashing her parents a fake smile. She thumped up the stairs, and the whole house shook as she slammed the door of room.
In her room, Lee sat on her bed, shuffling through her deck.
NHS, she thought, you had better have some pretty hot duelists. And I hope they're ready for Lee Kaiba. Because if anyone gets in my way-they're gone.
Anyone. ***
Moon Shadow: Hey, y'all!
Endless Myth: She's back. I told you she would be. ^_^
Moon Shadow: Please review! O_o! Ow! Still can't type!
Endless Myth: You fool! Get away from the keyboard! *Sighs* review, please, people!
*** Chapter Nine-Mai's Story ***
Lee, Matt, and Ben were sitting on the floor of Lee's room that night, the two boys watching as Lee stared into the card Shadow of Eyes.
"Show me the future," Lee whispered to her sphere and it glowed bright. "I know not the whereabouts of my friend; and would glance through the veil of time to see him. So let it be." Then she took a breath and had to throw all her mind into not falling into the swirling void of the card as it searched through time for Tim. When it stopped swirling, Lee could make out, through the mist that still covered the surface of the card, two figures. One was Tim, but the other-
"That's the new sophomore English teacher!" Ben said, peering over Lee's shoulder. "He was the one who-"
"Shut up." Lee said, watching the scene in the card. She wished once again that she could hear what the people in the card were saying, but she couldn't, and all she could do was watch in stunned silence as the teacher advanced on Tim, and he backed off, holding the sphere close-she could see he was frightened. Then Lee cried out in fear and mental pain as the card- Tim fell unconscious to the ground, and watched the teacher standing over him, laughing.
Her mind snapped out of the trance, and she was being pulled into the card- she had lost her concentration-she was losing control-
Matt, seeing Lee stumble, startled by what she had seen, leapt forward and knocked she card out of her hand. "Be careful." He whispered to her, pulling her to her feet. "You have to be careful, Lee, I don't care what you have to know-you can't put your mind at risk."
"Matt-I'm fine." She said, but she squeezed his hand as he let go of her arm. Behind them, Ben was standing.
"Where is he?" Ben asked in a quirt, dangerous voice. "If they've hurt him, I'll kill them, I will-"
"He's at the Duelist Kingdom." Lee said in a shaking voice. "That man-the teacher-he's a representative of Peter Pegasus. He comes to see my father a lot, with another man, Hoshi-they both work for Duelist Kingdom."
"What does Pegasus want with Tim?" Matt asked.
"The spheres." Ben answered for Lee. "They want the spheres, and they'll do anything to get them."
"But then-is Lee in danger?"
"I can take care of myself." Lee spoke up. "Let them try to get my sphere- they won't."
"But they're already trying." Ben said. "They've already hurt you-they took Tim, and he's one of your best friends. They'll try to weaken you but hurting your family or friends-can't you see it?"
"What do you mean?" Lee asked, staring. "Is my family in danger?"
Ben started to answer, but was cut off by a shrill scream from downstairs. They all stood still. There was another scream, and the sound of breaking glass. Then a deeper voice spoke, and was cut off-and then there was silence.
Matt, Lee, and Ben all stood stock still in a semi-circle in the middle of the room. Then, without saying anything, Lee ran downstairs, followed closely by her friends.
As Lee entered the kitchen, she gasped and pulled back. Ben, coming up behind her, put a hand on her shoulder, and Matt pushed in front of her.
"Oh god." He said, and stepped out of the way for Ben and Lee to see.
Broken glass covered the floor, and there was no sign of Seto or Serenity. The door was hanging open, and the screen that covered it was ripped. Lee leaned against the wall and shut her eyes. She could hear Matt and Ben talking, but couldn't understand what they were saying. She took a deep breath. Ben came over to her and took her arm.
"Lee-I'm taking you to your uncle's house." He said. Lee nodded wearily and started toward the door, picking up her purse on the way. But she was cut off by the sudden, shrill sound of the phone. She stood in the middle of the room and stared at the telephone.
"Answer it." Matt said sensibly, when she looked over at him. She nodded again and reached for the phone. Her voice cracked as she answered.
"H-hello?"
"Hello, Lebecca Kaiba." The voice on the other end of the line said.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked, snapping out of the trance she'd been in, all her regained defensiveness rushing back into her voice.
"Does it matter?"
"If you don't tell me it obviously matters to one of us."
"You're a smart girl, Lebecca. Just like Tim.your brother."
"Tim's not my brother." She snapped into the phone.
"As you will. But whoever he is, do you know where he is, Lebecca?"
"What did you do to him?" she whispered dangerously. "Where is he?"
"That would be telling. But-why don't you come to the tournament this summer and find out?"
"What-" she began to ask, but the line went dead, the silence soon replaced by the drone of the dial tone.
"Lee?" Matt said, coming closer to her. "Lee, are you okay?"
"Yes." She whispered. "I'm fine." She leaned back against him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her slim body against him as she shook with tears. He kissed her on the cheek. "It'll be fine, Lee. Don't worry. It'll be okay." He glanced over at Ben.
"Look, they obviously don't know much about you two if they think you're brother and sister." Ben said consolingly. "They're not nearly as smart as they think they are if that's what they think."
"Or maybe," Matt said, rocking Lee back and forth gently. "Maybe we don't know as much as we think."
"Mom," Tim said in to the darkness, "I'm ready for you to tell me what happened."
"What do you mean?" Mai asked her son. "What happened with what?" She saw that he was shivering.
"You know what I mean. I'm ready to hear the truth. The whole truth." He added as she opened her mouth.
"Tim-"
"If you're going to lie, I don't want to hear it. So don't bother."
"Tim-the truth, as you put it-it's very complicated. You're not old enough to understand it."
Tim sat and stared at her, his dark eyes meeting her light ones. Finally he looked away and nodded slowly. "Okay. No, really. I get it. Makes perfect sense."
"I'm sorry, it's just-"
"I completely understand. I mean, why should I know the truth about myself, right?"
"Tim, I wasn't lying to hurt you. I was lying to protect you."
"From what?"
Mai looked around the dark room bitterly. "From this. From having to use your power-" she broke off and smiled at him. "-Your extraordinary power, for evil."
"They can't make me."
"Yes they can." She whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Tell me the whole thing." He whispered back. "If I can't handle it you can stop-really-but I can."
Mai closed her eyes, then opened them, consenting. Tim sat back and folded his arms across his chest. Mai took a deep breath and began.
Joey opened the door of his house wearily. Then he gasped in surprise and held the door open for his niece, pulling her inside. "Lee? What the-" it looked like she had been crying, and he looked past her at Ben's car pulling away from the house. He looked back at Lee, and pulled her into a rough hug before shutting the door.
"What's wrong?" he whispered into her hair. "What happened?"
"My mother-father." She choked out. "Tim."
"We were sixteen." Mai began, speaking into the darkness, knowing that her son was there, listening, absorbing every word she spoke. "We were so young. You see, we were here on this island. It was the second time the tournament was hosted, and none of us could wait to get back. Are you sure you want to hear this?"
Tim nodded, then realized she couldn't see him in the dim light. "Yes," he said out loud.
Mai sighed. "Everyone was here-Yugi Motou, Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor, Espa Roba-so many people, so many duelists, we couldn't wait.
"I was there, of course. I loved the game, back then, but then something happened that changed the way I see it. Peter Pegasus-he was only twenty, then, but so cruel-they say he's the grandson of the first Pegasus, but really he's a distant cousin or something. Peter-he cursed the game. No-he cursed me."
"What?"
"You know about the Millenium Items?"
"Yeah."
"He wanted them. Yugi knew he did, he knew the tournament was rigged-that's why he dropped out early. He gave all his star chips-you know about the star chip system?"
"Uh huh."
"Alright. Yugi gave all his star chips to his best friend and left early, to protect the Millenium Puzzle-and himself. And Peter would stop at nothing-he decided that he first needed to control time before he stole the other items, so he-"
"So he's trying to take the spheres." Tim finished for her. "But how did he curse you?"
Mai looked down unhappily at the ground. "He knew that you would have the power to use the spheres. He knew that you could help him."
"But I wasn't born. What did you have to do with it?"
"I'm your mother, Tim! You being born depended on me. He cursed me-from that moment on, whenever I-whenever a girl-duels, the first monster card she plays is set free."
"You've lost me."
"When the game was real, when the magic was real, the monsters from the game would come to life when the game was played. But they were trapped in the cards. Sixteen years ago, before you were born, Peter Pegasus used magic to make the monsters come to life when a girl duels.
Well, the world discovered that whenever I dueled a monster was set free. With the help of archaeologists, they found out about the game and the past Shadow Games, and forbade girls to duel, to stop the monsters from coming to life."
Tim was thinking. "But one girl didn't follow the law, right? One girl-and she duels all the time-Every time my friend Lebecca-Lee-duels, she sets a monster free?"
"Yes. They never made the evidence public, so there's no way she could've known."
"But Lee-"
"Tell me about Lee."
"What's to tell?" Tim asked, wondering why his mother wanted to know that now.
"Lee.comes into the next part of the story. I'd just like to know more about her, is all."
"Well okay. Lee is.I don't know.she's just Lee. She's defensive, she's independent, and dependent at the same time. She loved to duel, but mostly just because she's not supposed to. She's beautiful. She acts twice her age, but she seems young, sometimes."
"She has the other sphere."
"Yes." Tim looked curiously at his mother. "Where'd she get it, anyway? You gave me mine, but Lee-"
"I gave it to Lee, too. You see, Tim," Mai said, reaching out to touch her son's face, "The curse rests inside the Millenium Items. To destroy the curse, the Millenium Items must be destroyed.
"That's your destiny, Tim. You and your twin sister have to use the power you have to get rid of the other items, before it's too late."
"Twin?"
"Lebecca."
Back in Domino, Joey sighed across the room at his niece. "You're not going, Lee!"
"Well, I'm sorry, uncle, but you can't stop me!"
"Oh yes I can!"
"You don't have any power over me!"
"I'm in charge of you if your parents aren't here! You have to listen to me! Until they get back, I'm your legal guardian!"
"Look, Joey, you went running around Duelist Kingdom when you were sixteen; why shouldn't I?"
"It's different!"
"How is it different?"
"You're a-"
"If you say that, I will kill you."
"What was he going to say?" Yugi asked from the couch, watching Lee and Joey argue.
"He was going to say it's different because I'm a girl."
"That was not what I was going to say."
"Yeah it was."
"No, I wasn't!"
"Don't lie!"
"I'm not lying! And you're not going anywhere, miss, so don't count on it!"
"Ben and Matt will go with me-it'll be perfectly safe!"
"Oh, sure! You'll bring your high-school friends with you! That'll make it so much safer!"
"Ben will have graduated in two weeks, when it's time to go."
"Ok-ay.your college friend and your high school friend." Joey sighed. "What college is Ben going to, by the way? Does he know?"
"Now you're changing the subject."
"Hon, you're not going anywhere. You might as well give up, sweetheart." Joey looked at his watch. "Look, go to bed. It's late, and you have school tomorrow."
"I'm not tired."
"I didn't say that. I said go to bed. Now go!"
Lee rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. Joey slumped down in a chair next to Yugi. Yugi looked up from the book he was reading.
"You were going to say because she's a girl, weren't you." It wasn't a question.
"Hey, I wasn't thinking!" Joey protested lamely. "You know what, shut up. I'm going to bed." He stalked out of the room, and Yugi went back to his book.
In the darkness of the castle, Tim glared at his mother in disbelief. "What?" He spat out in frustration. "What are you talking about? No-you're wrong."
"Tim-I knew you'd act like this-calm down."
"How can I calm down? My best friend is my twin! This is not a normal situation! I can freak out if I want to!"
"You knew, though."
Tim took a deep breath. "Yeah, I really did. I think-I think I didn't want to admit it, but we knew, all right. Both of us." He looked up at his mother's sweet face. "You've left out one part." He said.
"Have I?"
"Who is my-our father?"
"The best friend. The one who Yugi gave his star chips to. It was him."
"Tell me his name." Tim said softly. "Tell me."
Mai shuddered and said a name she had been avoiding for sixteen years. "Joey Wheeler. His name is Joey Wheeler."
Joey Wheeler woke to the sound of someone crying. It took him a minute to focus, but then he leapt up and ran to the living room where Lee was sleeping on the couch. He sat down next to her.
"C'mere, Lee." He held her close and let her cry into his neck. "Hey, calm down. It'll be okay." He stroked her tear stained face. "They'll all be all right, I promise."
"I'm so scared." She whispered.
"I know. So am I."
"I don't want to be scared. It's not helping them-It's-I have to help them."
"It's okay to be scared." He said, and she pressed against him. Hadn't Ben said that to her yesterday, when they were walking home? Maybe they were right. She closed her eyes and leaned against him. Joey held his niece tight, more like a friend would hold another friend.
More like a father would hold his daughter, than an uncle his niece.
"That's Lee's uncle." Tim told his mother.
"No. That's Lee's father."
"Does he know?"
"No. I never told him."
"Why?"
"To protect him. Until the curse was broken."
"When we-" He shook his head. "If we break the curse, will you tell him?"
"Yes."
He sighed. "How will we know how to destroy the items?"
"You'll know."
"How will we find them?"
There was a catch in Mai's voice as she answered, "Leave that to the Dream- catcher."
***
A fifteen-year-old Lee Kaiba slammed the door of her house and stomped into the living room. "C'mon, dad. Mom?"
"Lee, we've told you, we have to move. We've talked about it, we've decided to do it, and that's all there is to it."
"I don't want to leave Domino, though! And in the middle of the school year?"
"I'm with Lee on this." Her uncle Mokuba said from the other side of the room. "Seto, there's no reason for you to move now. At least wait until next year."
"Mokuba, I have to be closer to work. This commute is to much."
"But I'm there. I can handle Kaiba Corps until next year, and you can take full control then."
Seto sighed. "No. We've already made plans."
"Yes. And Lee," Serenity put in, "Lee, it's not like we didn't tell you about this."
"Yeah, but-Never mind." Lee sighed and stalked out of the room. Then she came back and stuck her head in the door. "What's the name of this town?"
"Nahway." Serenity said. "And there's a school near our house. Nahway High School? You'll love it."
"I am so sure."
"Really. They have a great drama program!" Serenity added brightly.
"I am overcome with joy." Lee said, flashing her parents a fake smile. She thumped up the stairs, and the whole house shook as she slammed the door of room.
In her room, Lee sat on her bed, shuffling through her deck.
NHS, she thought, you had better have some pretty hot duelists. And I hope they're ready for Lee Kaiba. Because if anyone gets in my way-they're gone.
Anyone. ***
Moon Shadow: Hey, y'all!
Endless Myth: She's back. I told you she would be. ^_^
Moon Shadow: Please review! O_o! Ow! Still can't type!
Endless Myth: You fool! Get away from the keyboard! *Sighs* review, please, people!