Disclaimer: I OWN THEM ALL!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!! (gets a tomato thrown at her by the Japanese lawyers) All right, all right...I lied. 9__9 But hey! A girl can wish, right?
Yami: 9-9 Ahhh!!! (runs and hides behind AnimeFan)
AnimeFan: Don't worry, Yami-sama! I'll protect you from the meany reviewers. (pats him on the head)
Yami: Everyone hates me now, Anime-sama. (sniffs lightly and tears form at the edges of his eyes)
Seto: @.@ I don't hate you, Yami. You just evil at times. (strokes Yami's hair sympathetically)
Yami: I know...but I can't help it. 6.6 (inside Yami's mind - YAHOO!!! ^^' Seto still loves me! Hah! Take that Wheeler!! The cutesy act prevails forever!)
Joey: (is reading Yami's mind with Pegasus's millennium eye) Grrr...(does doggy growl) Yeah...YAMI. We. Don't HATE. You... (inside Joey's mind - That little bastard thinks he can get away with a cute act! Hah! I can't believe Seto's falling for it!)
Seto and AnimeFan: (is cooing over the supposedly depressed bishi, Yami Motou)
Yami: It's all right...I'll just go now...disappear forever...you'll never have to put up with me again... (bows head and sticks his lower lip out into a pout before starting to walk away)
Seto: NOOO!!! YAMI, you can't go! Who will be there for me when I need a thrilling duel! Who will be there for me when I'm acting overly confident and need some sense slapped into me!! Who will be there for me to beat me in competition so I never get overly cocky again!!!
Joey: Hey! I will, Seto-koi! You don't need that guy!
Seto: Um...no offense, Joey...love...but, I always kick your butt in a duel.
Joey: -_____-' (thinks to himself - Damnit, he's got a point.)
Yami: Well...as long as people don't hate me anymore...
AnimeFan: I'm so sorry, Yami! I didn't mean to make you the big bad guy in the story! You gotta look through Yami's eyes, peeps! It kinda makes since, why put the lives of your friends in danger when you know that saving someone who's already beyond the point of saving is hopeless! Yami-sama isn't supposed to be the bad guy of the story! The fat bastard is...err, well actually there is no set baddy in this story. Please don't hate Yami anymore! 9___9 Hate Tea! She's the one you should hate...with her stupid speeches and her overly loud mouth. ^^' Ok, to the story now...
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Not A Moment To Soon
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Lapse Into Darkness
He hated them, he hated them all! How could they do this, betray him like this! And Seto-san! How could they abandon him! Joey was so confused and upset, all he could bring himself to do was stare up at his ceiling in his room with the tears sliding down his face. He didn't know why he was so angry with them all...they hadn't really betrayed him, he hadn't even met them all those years ago when he...ahh, never mind. They had abandoned Seto and in so doing they had abandoned him.
That was that, it was already done and over with and no way was he going back to them to beg for forgiveness. They were no longer his friends, just another bunch of classmates he had to deal with each day. He didn't need them, they weren't water and air to him! But Seto was...Seto was everything to him and if he had to live another day without his brunette he'd curl up in the corner and die!!
"Joey...niisan? What's wrong, why were you so upset back there? Please talk to me," Serenity called from outside his bedroom door.
He hadn't spoken to her since the incident with Yugi and the others. He really didn't feel like talking about that right now. He needed to think of a way to save his precious brunette. Think, think, think...you'd think with his actual IQ he would of figured out a plan of action by now. But Yami was the master of strategy and planning, not him. He was more skilled with business, acting, and action. Oh, he was pretty good with his hands to. Heh, kinda like his Seto. Anyway...
"Joey! Yugi and the others have been calling now for the past hour! They sound upset, why won't you talk to them! Why won't you talk to me..."
Serenity continued to harass his much needed time of silence and solitude. Finally she stopped and after a while he heard her bedroom door close. He reached over and turned off his lamp light, immediately becoming enveloped in the darkness of the night. Sighing contentedly, he closed his eyes and imagined himself floating in nothing but a empty void of emotionless black.
As he floated along he suddenly came to a stop and stood on a solid surface that blended so well with his surroundings that he could no longer tell where the ground and sky separated into themselves. He glanced below him and say a red line on the ground, running right through the middle of his slightly spread legs and melting into his surroundings. Looking to his left, Joey saw images of happier days with his friends and family. There was laughter and joy, love and hope, all those warm things he had come to cherish. Turning his head he looked to the right he saw his past, painted red with crimson blood. There was pain there, a world where only the strong survived and the weak were walked upon or taken advantage of.
Looking away with a fearful shiver he started to cross the red line into the happy things...light beginning to swallow him up. A call from behind him, though, made the blonde whirl around. There was his Seto, clothed in a torn white robe and bloodied pearl white wings. He was being pulled into the pain and blood red world. Long chains covered in barbs and thorns were snaking around him and holding tight, tearing into his clothes and drawing blood...ripping into his wings and crippling them to where he could not fly free. Joey watched as the brunette cried out to him and reached out his hand, begging him to grab it and pull him free of the malevolent chains. Forgetting about the light, about his sister, his friends, Joey turned and crossed the red line into the other world, desperately grabbing for his angel's hand and holding tight as the darkness surrounded them both and swallowed everything.
He bolted up in bed with a strangled cry, his body slickened in a cold sweat and a fit of shivers racking his mental and physical self. Taking deep breathes, Joey realized that it had only been a dream. A really bad dream. When had he fallen asleep? He couldn't remember. Sighing in relief he laid back down and tried to will himself to sleep. He couldn't though, the images of his dream were still fresh in his mind, burning every cell in his brain and body. Suddenly an idea came to him, it was crazy and suicidal no doubt but hell he'd face the risk any day. If no one would help him then he'd just have to take matters into his own hands, regardless of what anyone said or did.
Crawling silently out of bed, he snuck over quietly to his closet and dug through the countless boxes, reaching into the far back for one particular dust covered box in the very back and bottom of his closet. Finally he found it and tugged the medium sized box out, placing it onto his bed and wiping away the cobwebs that had taken home to its surface. His heart beat rapidly and he licked his lips, willing shaky hands to remove the layers of duck tape from the lid of the box before finally flinging it open with a small cloud of dust. Inside the box was a leather jacket, torn and baggy black jeans, a black muscle shirt, chains, belts, leather fingerless gloves, leather boots, and a black headband. Taking yet another deep breath, Joey took out the contents and quickly changed into them, being as silent as possible. He didn't want to wake Serenity. Even if she never forgave him after this, he had already chosen his path and would except the consequences without fear.
Amazingly, the clothes still fit him perfectly even after ten years of no use. Something about them made him feel safe but at the same time different. He felt the old familiar rush of excitement. Pushing that aside, though, he shoved the box quietly back into his closet then turned to his bed once again. Kneeling, he pried at a small section of the carpet that blended so well with the rest of the carpet you'd of never of guessed it to be a secret nitch in the floor. When Joey had gotten the carpet and wood piece open, he reached into the dark nitch and pulled out yet another box, this one tightly wrapped shut with chains. Standing up he went over and dug through his dresser till he found a small rusty key hidden within the piles of shirts and socks. With that key he unlocked the chains and opened the small box. Inside was a jagged-edged dagger in its leather hold and next to that was a silencer. Taking the dagger out, he slipped it onto the leather belt around his waist. Then he stood up, balancing the silencer in his hand. The familiar weight of its steel seemed to calm his nerves and he effortlessly raised it up, practicing his aim and getting used to the old feel of a gun. Finally he slipped it onto the second belt that rested sideways on his waist over the first belt.
Carefully he placed the box back into its nitch and closed it off so no one looking for it would find it. Standing up for the last time that night he dusted himself off and cracked his knuckles, looking around to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied that he hadn't, Joey snuck quietly out of his room and to the kitchen where he pulled out his savings and stuffed that into his pocket along with some breakfast. Taking out a pen and paper, Joey went to work writing a note for his little sister. He wasn't going to just vanish and leave her to not know where he went, even if he was sneaking off to do what his sister had feared him doing the most.
Finally he taped the note to the refrigerator door and headed to the door. Half way down the stairs of the apartment building, he turned around and gave one last glance up to his room. It wasn't to late, he could still turn back and put everything away. Make it look like tonight never happened. Joey contemplated this for a moment, then turned and continued down the stairs. No...he wasn't going to turn back now.
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AnimeFan: That's as much as I'll do for this chapter.
Bakura: Tch, wow! You've really done a great job at hinting at Joey's past conspicuously. (sarcasm coating ever word he said)
AnimeFan: Oh, shut up Bakura! Just because Joey has a gun and dagger hidden in his floor and street trashy clothes in a dust covered box in the back of his closet doesn't mean that he's necessarily an old friend of the nightly streets of the city! I'm sure lots of other people have weapons and trash clothes hidden in their rooms!
Bakura: Oh really? Like who!? (still snickering sarcastically)
Yugi: I do! ( bounces up and down waving his hand in the air)
AnimeFan and everyone else in the world: OO! YUGI!! (inches slowly away from the bouncy boy)
Yugi: ^^
Bakura: Ok... Oo' Now I'm officially freaked out. Oh well, read and review people before Yugi puts those things to use.
Yugi: I like sharp things! They're fun to play with. ^-^
AnimeFan: This is just wrong...just wrong...