~*Mind-Mazed*~
Hours had passed by. Joey laid on a hospital bed with an IV attached to his arm. A bandage covered his chest where he had been shot.
Serenity, Tristan, Duke and Yugi were in the waiting area, talking of normal things. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm did not last long as each of them could not get Joey off their mind.
"You guys," Serenity's voice started to shake. "Is Joey going to be all right? Damn it!! Why are they taking so long?"
"Serenity," Tristan held Serenity's hand, squeezing it tightly. "You have to calm down. If you keep worrying about your brother like that, there's a chance that he won't make it."
Suddenly, Yami showed up. His eyes looked around before looking at the rest.
"Yami?!!" everyone except Yugi gazed at him.
"They said you and Tea died." Duke was shocked at what he was seeing before glaring at Tristan. "You guys lied to me!! You said they were dead!"
"It's a long story Duke." Yami replied.
"Yami," Yugi looked up at his dark spirit. "Where's Tea?"
"I…well…" Yami started to say. He then looked up, seeing Tea at the pharmacy purchasing ice cream. Slowly, she made her way towards the rest of the gang.
Suddenly, a doctor emerged from the operating room. With a clipboard in one hand and his other hand ran through his hair. His white suit made him stand out.
"Doctor!" Serenity jumped up, running towards the doctor, throwing her arms around him. "How's Joey?!? How's my brother?!? Will he be all right?!?"
The doctor looked down at Serenity, adjusting his glasses before placing his hand on the back of her head. "Your brother…"
"How is he doc?" Duke stood up.
"Well…" the doctor took a quick look at his clipboard. "Your friend Joey is in a coma right now. He was lucky that the bullet was a few inches from his heart."
"Why can't you wake him up?!?" Serenity started crying, shaking the doctor. "Why? Why? Why?" her hysteria was attracting the hospital staff, visitors, and the patients.
"Serenity you have to calm down." Tristan tried to pull Serenity away from the doctor. "Joey's not dead. He's still okay!"
But Serenity's hysteria did not fade so easily. Yami watched Serenity going crazy. His eyes kept its gaze on the doctor. Something did not seem right about him. There was something vaguely familiar about him. As he watched, the doctor smirked. Suddenly, it made all sense to Yami. The doctor under that entire disguise was none other than Marik.
Marik reached inside his pocket, taking out a vial and opening it. He then took out a syringe, inserting the liquid. Serenity was still holding onto the doctor, still sobbing. No one except for Yami and Tea suspected that the doctor is really Marik. He then held up the syringe. "My dear, if you can't get a hold of yourself, I'm afraid I have to sedate you."
"I believe that is not necessary." Yami glared at Marik.
Slowly, Marik looked up at Yami, then at Serenity. He dropped his arms to the side. Pointing his finger to the door he exited from, he quietly said. "He's in there. You may visit him now." He took a step back, eyeing Serenity. "Just keep the hysteria to a minimum level."
Yami slowly passed by Marik glaring at him. "I'll take these few moments to check on Joey. When I come back, I will deal with you."
Marik laughed softly. "Go ahead, I'll be waiting."
Sneering, Yami followed the rest inside. Only Tea remained outside leaning against the wall, slowly eating her ice cream. Marik eyed Tea for a long moment before making his way towards her. She didn't look up, attempting to ignore him. Smirking, he grabbed Tea's wrist slightly, pulling her close to him, nearly causing her to drop her ice cream.
Startled, Tea's eyes widened as she came face to face with a man she knew too well. "You…"
"So we meet again my dear." That smirk had yet to leave his lips.
"I know you and Bakura had something to do with Joey." Tea glared up at him.
"Oh really?" that smirk never left his lips. "You should be surprised that neither of us was involved in the shooting but it was you."
"Stop making up bogus stories Marik. There's no way I would do such thing especially to my best friend."
"Say what you wish dear because Joey will remember his attacker," he lifted her hand that held the ice cream. Parting his mouth, he took a bite out of the chocolate ice cream. "I suggest you visit your friend Joey before I take you again."
"And what exactly does that supposed to mean?" looking up, he saw Yami standing behind him. His arms folded across his chest.
"Well, well Yami." Marik turned towards him, releasing his grip on her wrist. "How's your friend Joey?"
Yami nodded to Tea and at that, she left to visit Joey. He then turned towards Marik. "I know you had something to do with Joey's shooting."
"On the contrary," Marik smiled. "I had nothing to do with that pathetic boy's gun down."
"Oh come on Marik." Yami's gaze locked onto Marik's. "As far as I know, Joey's one of the people you truly hate besides me, Yugi and Bakura."
"A rather vague way of putting it." Marik took a glance at his clipboard. A young nurse approached Marik, whispering something in his ear. Quirking an eyebrow, he turned to the nurse, giving her a vial filled with blue liquid. "If Takasaki's hysteria gets worse, sedate him with this. It should calm him down." He then watched the nurse leave.
"Marik who are you after?" Yami cracked his knuckles. "Whoever it is will be a good enough reason for me to kill you."
This only got Marik laughing. "Me and Bakura have our own tasks but our goal is the same."
"What is your goal you freak?!?" Yami was livid.
"Detective?" a young girl's voice called out. "What are you doing here?"
Startled, Yami looked up seeing Miyako walking hand in hand with Ryou. "Mi…Miyako? Uh…" he then glanced up at Marik, who was glaring down at Ryou. An uncomfortable silence filled the air.
"Ryou?" Miyako tugged his arm. "What's going on?"
Ryou remained silent as he glared at the two. He then turned towards Miyako. "Nothing. Let's just visit your Uncle Joey."
"Wait a minute." Miyako's eyes turned towards Marik. Her eyes widened as she realized who the doctor really is. "Marik?"
"It's the girl." Marik grinned.
"Miyako," Ryou tugged the sleeve of Miyako. "Who's Marik?"
"Detective," Miyako pointed to Marik. "That's the man who killed Michirei Nagasawa. That's the one! That's him! Arrest that son of a bitch!!" she started to charge towards Marik but Ryou restrained her.
"Miyako," Ryou wrapped his arms over her shoulders. "Get a hold of yourself."
Yami gazed down at his own daughter, unsure of what to do. He was no detective at all. It was the same, he realized, for Bakura and Marik. They both are not what they seem to be. Marik was no doctor and Bakura was not the sweet, innocent Ryou that Miyako knows.
"If you'll excuse me, I have another patient to deal with. Case of…" he chuckled at this. "Hysteria." He turned around, tucking the clipboard under his arm.
Miyako watched in surprise at the scene that took place. She then glared at Yami. "Detective, what the hell is going on?"
Sighing, Yami leaned against the wall. "Miyako…your father can't stop him."
"What do you mean by that?" Miyako looked at Yami strangely. "My fallen died a few years back. So did my mother."
"Miyako," clenching his fist, he locked his gaze with his only daughter. "Your parents…they're still here."
"What do you mean?" Miyako's eyes gazed into Yami's. Suddenly, realization hit her, as she knew who was the one that stood before her.
"Come on Miyako," Ryou took her gently by the arm. "Your uncle…"
Miyako finally wrenched her gaze away from Yami, following Ryou to the room.
Joey slowly awoke in the darkness. Groaning, he slowly stood up looking around. "What the…Where am I?"
"Let's just say a place far from my urge to finally snap you in half." A shadow slowly stepped forward.
"Who are you?" Joey squinted his eyes, trying to get a good look at the one who spoke.
"Let's just say I'm a friend of your niece Miyako."
"Miyako…" Joey repeated the name.
"Yes, your niece is okay for now. Great dangers will befall on her, however."
"Tea shot me. I can't believe she would do something like that."
"I'll tell you one thing Joey. That night, that was not your friend but a puppet who is possessed."
"That sounds like the works of Marik and Bakura."
The figure nodded. "Ah yes, those two."
"So how do I get back into the real world?" Joey looked around, noticing a huge maze in front of him. His eyes widened as he saw two entrances. "What is this?"
"A mind is a maze that the right path must be chosen to enter the light and escape the dark. Choose carefully Joey. One path could lead you back to your friends, yes. But shall you choose the wrong path, your soul will be sent into the shadow realm for all eternity. Once you have chosen your path, you cannot turn back." The figure vanished, leaving Joey standing there. Looking around, the scenery was not at all pleasant. More likely, it was more of a dark cave.
Joey looked at the two entrances. "God, which one should I take?"
Meanwhile, Serenity, Tristan, Yugi, Duke, Tea, Ryou and Miyako gathered in Joey's hospital suite. Duke tried to calm Serenity down, trying to ease her hysterical state. Finally, Duke gave in as Serenity ran to Joey's bedside, wrapping her arms around him. "Oh Joey damn it!! Wake up!! You can't leave everyone like this!! You can't!! You just can't!!" her face started to twitch violently as she started to shake him wildly. "Joey! Joey!"
Before Tristan and Duke could stop her, two nurses stepped in, grabbing Serenity by the arm, trying to restrain her from her own brother.
"Doctor," one of the nurses called out. "You were right after all. She's gone crazy!"
"She's not crazy!" Tristan insisted.
Marik entered with a syringe in hand filled with green liquid. Approaching Serenity, he knelt down, rolling up her sleeve, inserting the needle in her shoulder, pushing the barrel, watching the liquid going inside her skin. Serenity cried out in pain at first but started to feel a bit woozy, collapsing to the floor.
"Doctor," Duke watched on as the nurses carried Serenity out of the room. "What exactly did you give Serenity? Where did they take her?"
Marik kept his gaze on Joey, not looking up at Duke. "It's just a simple drug that will calm her down and put her to sleep for twelve hours. We have a few guest beds in this hospital so she'll be spending the night."
Miyako crossed her arms over her chest glaring at Marik. "You can stop lying Dr. Marik. Your story is as fake as you are."
"Marik?!?" Duke, Tristan and Yugi looked up at the doctor.
Marik laughed softly. "If I'm a liar as you claim, what do I really tend to do?"
"First of all, the drugs you have given Serenity will make her hysteria worse. She will be up to a point when she is no longer herself. Second, you placed her in the psychiatric ward."
"You did what?!?" Duke glared at Marik.
"Why you…" Tristan cracked his knuckles.
'You couldn't be more correct child." Marik laughed as he took out his millennium rod. Suddenly, the room darkened as Marik took out his millennium rod. Suddenly, the room darkened as Marik brought in a whole new darkness.
"The shadow realm?" Miyako looked around.
"Oh yes my dear. In here, I'll send your friends on a free trip to hell." Suddenly, the darkness vanished from the room, as everything seemed back to normal.
"What happened?" Tristan looked around.
"I have no idea you guys." Yugi looked up at Marik. "Someone has to be as powerful as Marik to get rid of the Shadow Realm."
Marik glared down at Miyako. "Trying to save those who care about you? I applaud you for being able to have enough strength to pull that off."
"But…" Miyako looked at Marik strangely. "Marik, I did not banish the shadow realm."
Marik's gaze shifted towards Ryou. He then turned towards the door, exiting the room.
Duke, Tristan and Yugi looked up at Miyako strangely. For most of them, it was their first time knowing that Miyako studied the Dark Arts.
"How do you know this sort of thing Miyako?" Duke took a glance at Miyako before looking at Tea. "You're her mother. You should know all this!"
"Well…" Tea started to say, her gaze at her daughter, then at Ryou, then at Tristan, Joey, and Yugi. Suddenly, Marik's voice overflowed in her head. Tea, just leave these pathetic mortals and meet me outside the hospital. She held her forehead, feeling the voice of Marik pounding in her mind.
"Tea," Yugi slowly approached her. "What's wrong?"
"I…I…you guys I have to go." Tea started to head towards the door.
"What?" Tristan was surprised Tea was just going to leave. "Are you just gonna leave Joey like this? You, of all people should know that."
Tea's hand rested on the doorknob, the pounding in her head had yet to cease. Do it Tea. Leave these screwed up nobodies for now. You can deal with them later. And at then, Tea twisted the doorknob, leaving the room.
"What's going on with her?" Duke looked out the door.
"I wish I knew." Yugi sighed sadly. "Yami said she was never like this until he visited Bakura's place. Tea drove off on him and had been missing for hours."
"What was Yami doing at Bakura's anyway?" Tristan gave Yugi a strange look.
"He wouldn't tell me." Yugi took a glance up at Joey.
Meanwhile, as the three engaged in a heated conversation, Miyako took Joey's hand into hers.
"Miya-chan," Ryou placed his hands on her shoulder. "What are you doing?"
Miyako closed her eyes, chanting something. Soon, the rest looked on at Miyako as she continued chanting the same few words over and over.
Joey's feet continued to shuffle his feet on the graveled ground. He had chosen the left path of the maze and had been walking for what seemed like hours. And of all those hours, he wasn't getting anywhere.
"Damn," Joey fell to his knees, exhausted, breathing heavily. "This is getting nowhere. I'm never going to get anywhere at this rate."
Suddenly, the cave floor crumbled and started to crack.
"What the?" Joey looked around. "Oh no! It can't be! I must've taken the path to a funeral…mine." Soon the ground below cracked. Before Joey could react, he too began to fall within the darkness.
Surprisingly, he felt someone reached his hand just in time. Looking up, he could barely make out the face. Within minutes, the mysterious one pulled him up back to the ground.
As soon as Joey got to his feet, he brushed off the dirt, smiling. "You know, whoever you are, I can't thank you enough." And as he looked up to the one who saved him, his eyes widened, unable to believe what he was seeing. "Miyako?"
Miyako smiled. "Been a while uncle."
"How…how did you get here?"
"Long story. Although it's a good thing I showed up in time."
"Why do you say that?"
Miyako's features darkened. "Death cheated on his little maze game. No matter which entrance you have chose, both would have lead you straight to his grip."
"You mean the one who talked to me earlier was death?"
Miyako nodded. "Yes, that was death talking to you." She then turned around.
"Miyako, wait!" Joey called out. "Where are you going?"
Miyako stopped in her tracks, though not looking up. "I forgive you uncle. That night we had a huge fight, if you remember. As for Serenity, the doctors have sent her to the psychiatric ward down the hall." She then vanished.
"Hey, hey he's alive! He's actually alive!"
Joey's eyes opened seeing Tristan, Duke and Yugi surround his bedside. "Where…where's Miyako?"
"Oh?" Yugi looked at Joey strangely. "She became tired so her boyfriend took her home."
"Joey slowly sat up. "Serenity…"
"Oh crap," Tristan slapped his forehead. "We forgot about her."
"You guys go home." Joey started to slip off the bed, yanking off the IV that attached to his arm. "I will get her out."
"Yugi can go home." Duke looked down at Yugi. "We'll stay, just in case the doctors try to stop you."
Joey nodded in agreement. "Right."
The three made their way down the psychiatric ward. Suddenly, a familiar cry could be heard from the right.
"Oh yeah, that sounds like Serenity all right." Said Tristan.
'You guys stay here." Joey made his way towards Serenity's room. Twisting the doorknob, he entered the room seeing Serenity in a straight jacket, sobbing, screaming Joey's name.
"Serenity," Joey made his way towards her, kneeling beside her. "Serenity wake up. It's me, Joey. Wake up."
Suddenly, Serenity's eyes opened, seeing her brother. "Joey?"
"Shhh…" Joey tried to unfasten her straight jacket. In no time, he finally freed Serenity from the jacket. The feeling of his sister's arms around him eased him for a time as he too embraced her.
But something else remained on his mind…
Now To Answer Reviews:
~*Thank you to everyone who reviewed my story during the sequel. I have decided to continue with the story*~
Dreaming Child: Thanks for giving me the confidence to continue with my story. You're the best! ::hugs:: Now…let's not start off any fights ^^
Disappointed Reader: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it there. Now, I respect all of my reviews and reviewers and I respect the criticism they give me. Forgive me if I sound harsh or offensive but I'm not. First, in response to the very first review you have sent me that I was unable to answer the last time, Miyako does not, I REPEAT, does not have any friends. There are only two OOC characters in this story. Michirei was basically someone who hated Miyako…that is until the chapter she died. And if you're talking about Ryou, if you have read this story carefully, Ryou is actually Bakura (Miyako's 2nd father) in disguise who is trying to do something about his daughter. Now, onto the last review you have sent me…I wonder though, if you did take the time to read the note in Ch.20 that stated it was about the daughter and managed to survive the remaining chapters. If you did not like the sequel that much, why did you read it? Nobody asked you to, much less force you. I placed the sequel with the original story because I thought it would be better than just having readers go through the site to find my story. At least this way, the readers would understand the story and wouldn't have trouble finding it. And no, I do not do this to get more reviews. Why? Read why I placed the original with the sequel. Same answer. And another thing, nobody has to be a fan of Miyako. You should be glad I did not dump the rest of the characters and turn them into new characters from my own imagination. I can admit I'm not a huge fan of Miyako but somehow, the pieces fit together when it comes to writing a sequel and I'm starting to like the chemistry she's having with her "boyfriend"…but enough of that. What makes you think I dumped Enchanted Seduction? It's because I have not updated it in more than a month? Is that it? Listen, I did not dump any stories and if I did, I would let people know! The reason I have not updated Enchanted Seduction and have been more focused on "To Dance In The Dark Night" is because unlike ES, "To Dance In The Dark Night" has about two chapters to go. ES is currently being worked on though like some writers, I'm having trouble with the current chapter. Time…isn't that the keyword going on right now…you have to realize that I don't always have a lot of free time because of my studies, newspaper staff, and I rarely have access to my computer due to my older brother becoming obsessed with his new computer car game and takes up the computer for the whole day. So, you see, that's why some stories are not being updated frequently like "Let's Get Ready To Rumble". Maybe you might have more free time than I do but please, don't start getting mad if I don't update on a specific time. It's not like ff.net's writers have to meet certain deadlines just to please readers (I guess the only exception would have to be holiday stories such as Christmas and Halloween). What made you think I'm ignoring my other works anyway? It's not like this is the only story I update. If you want, you can check out my other stories and see when they are updated so you know this isn't the only one that is being frequently updated. I did not specifically stated it was going to be a Yami/Tea/Bakura story like how some stories would specify in their summary. You must know that there are times when authors can't please everyone. By the way, I strongly suggest you do not review any more chapters because the last two will focus basically on Miyako, Ryou(Bakura), Marik, Tea, and Yami. I know you want to review every single chapter but I suggest you do not seeing that you might protest something on how I should have stopped. Well, from what I have read in my reviews, you're outnumbered. Majority of those who read enjoyed my sequel and you're the only one who hates it. It doesn't matter how many reviews I get, it's what people think of my story and all writers and readers should know that. From my point of view, I think it's you who's not respecting me as an author, not because of my story but for other issues such as saying I have ignored my other stories which I did not. That's almost like spreading a rumor to those who are going to read your review. As I said, I do not have all the time in the world to meet with certain deadlines and reader's demands. True, I do think of those who read this as I write my stories but I know that I will not always please them with what I write, just like with Yami and Tea's death. So please, do not read my story anymore if you're going to come up with some other way to stop me. I know you're a die-hard Yu-Gi-Oh fan, not an OC fan from a sequel but I'm not trying to solicit others to be a fan of Miyako now am I?