Summary:  Tragedy strikes.  Joey Wheeler is gone forever.  Or is he?  Joey POV.  Post Duelist Kingdom AU.  Will eventually be Seto/Joey shounen-ai.

Author's Notes:  Well, I thought I'd try writing a YuGiOh fic.  And it's still going.  And whoa, still going.  But it'll be over soon!

I think I'm starting to run out of ways to say thank you for reading this fic ^_^

Angel-Belle:  Yes, you may!  Though I'm not sure that's an original line...

JaguarKitty2006:  Who knows?  Bakura's keeping it a secret.

Jou-pup:  *shrugs* Maybe there's something wrong with Kaiba?

KeMu:  It's a line from some chapter way back when Joey visited Yami at the Game Shop.  I forget which chapter that was...

Llyxius:  Another fic?  Maybe after I recover from this one :P  Thanks for the Seto *munch munch*  Cannibal?  Who, me?

LukeSkywalker'sLady:  It might still be a Seto/Joey.  Actually, it probably is...  I think.  Drat, I should know by now!

The Immortal Duelist:  Yup ^_^  Though 24 chapters shouldn't count as 'first YGO fic' anymore, should it?

Warnings:  Character death (sort of), language, angst, eventual Seto/Joey.

Disclaimers:  I don't own YuGiOh or any other brand names you might come across.  No mud was harmed in the making of this fic.

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Being Dead Ain't Easy

Chapter Twenty-Five:  Reunion

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Kaiba opens the door and lets everybody in.  Tea, Tristan, and...  I look lower.  There he is.  Yuugi.  Yami Yuugi, I mean.  Tea's sorta hovering over him while Tristan goes and leans against a wall, glaring holes at Kaiba.

I wanna say something, but I'm pretty tired from all that talking I did before.

Kaiba ignores everyone but Yuugi.  "Mutou."

"Kaiba," he says back.  He frowns at all the bandages.  "You look terrible."  Yami Yuugi suddenly notices Yami Bakura.  "You!"

The other Egyptian smirks.  "Pharaoh."

Yami Yuugi shoots a nasty look at Kaiba.  "What is he doing here!?" he hisses.

"I would think that'd be pretty obvious, Mutou.  I don't go around performing Egyptian rituals in my spare time, you know."

Yami glares at the other Bakura.  "I hope you know what you're doing, Kaiba.  This one cannot be trusted."  He looks around... for me, I guess.

"Um, Yami?" whispers Tea.  "What's going on?"

Kaiba blinks.  "You mean you don't know?"

Yami Yuugi coughs.  "Ah...  I didn't have enough time to explain, so I just said you invited me here for a private duel and that I would appreciate their emotional support."

"You mean they don't know!?  How am I supposed to-"

"Where's Joey?" Yami interrupts.

"Living room, but-"

"What kind of sick joke is this, you bastard!" Tristan explodes and gets in Kaiba's face.  "Are you going to kill us too!?"

"What?  Joey's here?  How, what...?"

"Joey!"  Yami Yuugi rushes into the living room, leaving Kaiba to deal with two really pissed off people and a shifty-eyed thief.  I don't blame him.

"Yo, Yami."  I try to sound better than I feel, drawing on what's left in me.  It works; kinda weird, but I'm feeling better already.

He walks up to me.  Frowns.  "You look... awful."

"I never woulda guessed."  I try real hard not to look at myself now.  Nothing I wanna see.

"The ritual must be done soon, Joey, whatever it may be."  Yami sits down beside me.  "What exactly does this ritual entail?  Kaiba was rather... vague."

I can see Kaiba leading everyone to another room, stumbling just a little.  I wonder what he wants to say that he doesn't want me to hear?  Or maybe he just wants to give me some privacy.

"Bakura says that we're gonna use a bit of everybody's energy or something and stick me in a card."

"But... seven people?"  Yami frowns.  "He doesn't need so much power simply to trap you in a card.  What is he going to do?"

I think it sounds fishy, too.  "I dunno.  He's gonna 'improvise'."

"That sounds rather ominous.  And dangerous."

Always nice to talk to somebody with some sense.  "You don't hafta go for it if ya don't want to.  Bakura's up to something and I don't want you guys to get hurt."  How am I gonna 'live' with myself if I'm okay but everybody else is... not?  Answer:  I can't.  "'Sides, I'm already dead.  Can't even move.  Just sneak out when Kaiba's not lookin'."

Yami Yuugi shakes his head.  "I won't abandon you, Joey."  He takes a deep breath.  "Joey, I... we... that is...  I respect you.  I'm sorry I didn't say so when you first came to me."

Okay...  "Uh, I respect ya, too."

Yami shakes his head slowly.  "I mean so much more than that, Joey.  I mean you are a loyal friend.  I mean..."  He stares off into space, trying to think of the words.  Yami comes back to the here and now, sighs.  "Yuugi would like to speak to you.  Know that his words are from both of us."

The Puzzle flashes and Yuugi takes over.  He blinks.  "Joey?"

I smile.  He can see me, finally.  About time.  "Hey, Yuugi."

"Joey!" he cries.  He leaps onto me and tries to hug me.  It's like he's trying to hug steam.  Yuugi freezes, but then he just sorta wraps his arms around where I should be.  I can't even pretend to hug him back.  He moves his legs so they're not in mine.  "I missed you," he whispers.

I know.  "I missed you too, Yuug'."  So why'd I hang out with Kaiba, instead?  Man, here I am callin' Kaiba a lousy human being, but I'm not doing much better than he is.

Yuugi sticks a hand into his jacket.  "Do you want your deck back?  Your dad gave it to me, but since you're still around..."  He stops, swallows.  "It's... um... missing a few cards."  He looks down.  "I'm sorry.  I know it means a lot to you."

Gee, I wonder where those cards went.  "It's okay, Yuug', you can keep the deck.  It's not like I need it anymore."  And if I wanna see those missing cards, I can always ask Kaiba and Bakura to flash 'em at me, the bastards.

Yuugi sits back down.  It's gonna hurt him so bad if I don't make it, and he's gonna hafta watch this time, too.

"You're the best friend I ever had, ya know that, right?  I'm gonna miss you."

Yuugi looks at me like I'm being weird.  "Don't talk like that, Joey!  Everything's going to work out, you'll see!"

Uh huh.  Yuugi's not that naïve.  "Sure it will."  Who's he trying to convince?

Yuugi nods.  "It will."  He got this intense look in his eyes, trying to make me believe.

I open my mouth, close it again.  When he looks at me like that...  Okay, Yuugi.  No saying words we don't need to say.  I mean, we don't need to say anything, right?  All I have to do is look in your eyes, and all you have to do is look in mine.

No goodbyes, 'cause this is gonna work.

"Wanna hang out after this is all over?  You and me and, well, everybody?  After school, I mean.  Maybe we can all go to Burger World or somethin'.  And maybe we can bring Moneybags, too.  He needs to eat."

"That'd be great!"  He breaks out into a smile and I feel like the best guy in the world.  How does Yuugi do that?  I smile back.

And then I hear someone slam into a wall.

They're too far away and I can't see what's goin' on from the couch!  Another slam, and a groan.  Shit, is Kaiba beating up my friends!?  I try to get up.

"Joey, stay here!" whispers Yuugi.  He switches back to Yami and rushes off.  "What's going on!?" he yells.

Slam.

Shouting.

I'm not gonna just sit there and listen to this.  I put in some massive effort and end up falling on the living room floor.

Black out.  Don't know how long.

When I come to, I can still hear them fighting.

Bad idea, I know it's a bad idea.  I can feel it, boy can I feel it, all woozy and up is down and inside out, but I'm not gonna let everybody kill each other.  I sorta float my way to where all the noise is as fast as I can.  Which is pretty damn slow.

I finally make it there, but I'm too dizzy to see what's going on.  Wait, okay, there we go.  The guy who's standing there not doing anything's probably Bakura, so the bunch o' bodies wrestling on the floor's Kaiba, Tristan, Tea, and Yami Yuugi.

...What!?

"I'LL KILL YOU!  I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Tristan, stop!"

"Kill him later!  We need him for Joey's ritual!"

Nobody's noticing me.  "WHAT THE HELL'S GOIN' ON HERE!?" I shout.

Yami Bakura smirks.  "The High Priest decided to tell your little friends what was going on.  He was foolish enough to also tell them that he was the cause of your little problem."  He looks me over.  "I suggest you rest.  This whole exercise is pointless if there is no more soul left to work with."

I ignore him.  I've got other things to worry about.  "EVERYBODY BREAK IT UP!"

"ENOUGH!"  A big wave of shadow power blasts out from the center of the mess and everyone's blown apart.  When I can see again, there's only one guy left standing.  "THIS IS NO TIME TO BE FIGHTING!" yells Yami Yuugi.

Yami Bakura gets up first, but doesn't say anything.  He's just... watching with a smile on his face, like this is all fun and games.

Tea and Tristan get up, too.  Tea's lookin' at him like he's a stranger.

Tristan's knuckles are bloody.

And Kaiba's not getting up.

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