"I'll do it." She said, looking towards the rest of the group like she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Mai?" Tristan said, not expecting her to come forward.
"I've been thinking, and yes, I'm more then just a beautiful person, I have a mind too. Anyway, I was thinking, I don't get this Egypt shit at all. All I know how to do is fight. But I know that we can't let that asshole get what he wants. We can't right? So I'll leave the magic shit to you guys, and I'll do what I can. I'll draw their fire."
"No!" I shouted. It was way too dangerous, Mai could get killed. We looked at each other for an extended minute.
"Joseph, you know as well as I do that there is no one else." She said before walking off.
"No, Mai, there's got to be…" I started, but she wasn't listening. She was walking off, her leather boots clacking against the asphalt road.
"Follow her." Tristan said softly to me. I nodded, and chased after her.
That Ancient Egypt bastard had turned people all around into zombies, yet somehow, we were alive. Yugi had a marvelous plan to fix it, but he had to draw upon however that magic worked. We had to cover him, and Mai was going to fight. I didn't want her too. She stood on a hill, facing Domino City, which had fallen into ruins.
"Mai." I came up to her.
"What are you doing here? I can handle this." She said.
"I…I don't want you to do this." I said. "It's too dangerous."
"Joey, you've got way too much to live for. You've got all your friends, your sister who cares for you like no one else, and there are so many people who would be sad if anything happened to you." She said, turning towards the city and drawing two large pistols.
"Me, I've never had anything. I never had friends, I never had a real family, and only a few people would notice I was gone. I've got nothing, so I've got nothing to lose."
"Mai, I…I don't want to lose you." I said, nearly crying.
"Quit crying, you're not weak."
"I am weak, Mai. I'm only strong when I'm with you." I shouted, desperate to get her to understand. I didn't want to live without her. I loved her so much, more then anyone else.
"Remember, Joey, that it may not be as dangerous as we think." She said. "I could do this and nothing could happen at all."
"I know, and I don't care. I don't want to risk you for anything." I came up close to her; I wanted to bring her back.
"Don't…don't do this, Joey." She said, looking away from me. "Don't make this harder then it already is. You're all I have, and I don't want…I don't want to lose you either. But you're all I have; I've got nothing else. So if I lose, all I lose is you. But all of you would lose so much more. That's why I will take their fire." She said again, still not looking at me.
I couldn't convince her, because I knew she was right. That made it even harder on me, I felt like my heart was being pressed under stone blocks.
"Please…please don't die." I said, between sobs.
"Ich werde ein Engel bevor ich sterbe." She said. I had no clue what it meant, but it sounded like it was German.
I heard a sound behind me, which meant Yugi must have been getting started. Mai kept her gaze focused towards the city, and although I knew she wanted me to go back to Yugi, I couldn't leave her. The demons in the city must've seen what was happening, and started to fly towards the light.
That's when Mai started shooting, bullets blazing out of her guns and ripping in to the demon's flesh, dropping them like clay pigeons. I couldn't do anything else but watch her fight, and I was so awestruck by the sight. Wearing her leather jacket and a leather skirt, she reminded me of a dark angel, one who was sent down from Heaven to perform some duties and was scarred by the experience. The corpses of demons starting increasing, but more and more were coming. I was shouting as loud as I could, pointing out ones that were coming close to her. I wanted them all dead right now, even if they were humans before. I wanted none of them to touch her.
But one demon, despite how much Mai shot it, kept on coming. It's face had been shot to shreds by her pistols, but it still flew on towards her on leathery bat wings. It slashed her, right at the shoulder, it's long claws digging through her skin like it was tissue paper.
I screamed out her name, and yet she ignored it, and continued to shoot. The demon did fall down, and it looked like we had a brief moment of reprieve, no more seemed to be coming. I cradled her body in my arms. The wound didn't appear to be severe, but she looked so pale, did that fucking demon poison her?
"Mai" I shouted. "Are you okay?" She looked right at me, and smiled. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I heard more demons from the city. Yugi wasn't finished and Mai appeared to be incapacitated.
"I know. You don't want me blubbering now. We've still got a mission to do, right? Don't worry, Mai, I'll protect you." She looked ahead at me without acknowledging; she probably couldn't understand me now, as I picked up her guns. More demons were coming from the city.
"Ich werde ein Engel bevor ich sterbe." I shouted, what Mai said to me before this whole thing started. I started firing off, shooting as many as I could. I was no expert like she was, but the things were so goddamn big that it was like shooting the broad side of a barn.
"Anyone else want some? Come on, I'll fight till my heart stops!" I shouted, demons corpses dropping out of the air like flies.
The last demon I saw was the mother of all demons. The bitch was monstrous, so I could start at her from far away, but like the demon that clawed Mai, it just wouldn't go down. It came up closer to me, it's face obliterated and covered in bullet holes, but still walked like nothing ever happened. It reached out its claws and got me right in the chest. I felt my skin rip and tear, my chest muscles splintering like wood. It lifted me up into the sky, and I still fired. I fired until there were no more bullets, and then I started kicking the damn bitch's face. It gave out a loud howl, and then it collapsed to the ground. It retracted it's claw at the last second, my chest exploding in blood. It fell to the ground motionless, while I, with some difficulty, slithered over to Mai. It didn't look like any more demons were coming, so I placed on of the guns back in her hand. She had not moved since I saw her last, and I was sure that we were both dying, and nothing could help us.
"Joey," I thought I heard her say. Was she alive? I didn't know. Then I fell to the ground, my arms losing all their strength to hold me up.
"Ich werde ein Engel bevor ich sterbe." I said with difficulty. Now I knew what it meant.
"I'll become an angel before I die."
She was already an angel, had already been one. She was my angel. I had always hoped that I would be an angel for her, and now, finally, I think I got my wish.
TristanWhatever Yugi did had finally worked, so I went to find Joey and Mai. I'd seen no demons come close to Yugi, so they must have done their job. I was relieved; maybe it wasn't as dangerous as we thought. We could all go back to the city and drink many toasts to our victory. Nothing prepared me for the sight I saw.
Joey and Mai were there alright, among the corpses of demons, I couldn't count how many, because I didn't care about them, Joey and Mai were on the ground, and they both were bleeding.
"Joey, Mai!" I shouted. Mai was pale and unresponsive; Joey was not conscious and bleeding out of his chest. The wound appeared to run deep, cutting all of his muscles, but not deep enough to have hit his organs, due to the lack of tissue on his wounds. Mai appeared to have been poisoned somehow, so I started CPR. Was she going to pull through? Yugi came up behind me; Tea must have stayed with Serenity to prevent her from seeing this sight.
"Do something!" I ordered him, then turning back to Mai. He appeared to consult with the spirit inside the puzzle for a minute, and then he put his hands on my shoulders.
"I'm not sure if this will work, but I can try something." The deeper voice of the spirit said. "Go to Serenity, she needs you the most now." His voice relaxed me, even though I was hysteric. I stood up, and picked up Yugi, bring the short kid to my eye level.
"This better work." I said, before walking off. I walked back to Serenity, and held up close to me as she wept, her tears absolutely soaking my shirt. She cried until she fell asleep, and when she did I was able to change shirts and rest with her. And when I slept, I thought I saw an image of Joey and Mai together, embracing each other. And I saw a bright light erupting from both of their backs.
Could it have been…wings?