**A/N Okay listen guys, you are all so incredibly wonderful that I'm updating like two days early!! Lol… I ADORE all of my reviews, you guys are awesome, I love every single one of you ten times more than my stupid ex boyfriend! (a very long story lol.. we'll leave that for a next time… mind you I've just lost my inspiration… I get a lot of my story idea from some of the stupid stuff he does… I'll manage I'm sure lol) No no, like 1000000 times more than him, because I dun like him at all! Anyway, I'll stop rambling about my personal life lol. Anyway, I did indeed love every single review, I really love the long ones lol, every single word of every review. I realize I only got… like 15 or something like that, but that's a lot to me! Oh and congrats to Shadow Ishtar for being number 100! You made me so proud lol… oh hey and if ice girl is reading this I noticed something… you were the first person to review on all three stories so far, except for this one and the only person who beat you was Riss and she don't count because she knew I was putting it up and crap like that, so awesome on you too! Righto… anyway, you'll find the ending of this chapter rather disturbing… but just to let you know I MIGHT update next week just to get this fic in time with my other two. Anyway, enjoy!**

Falling

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd gotten lost," Kaiba said, his voice just not having it's regular 'I'm ten times better than you' tone to it.

"I ought to kill you Kaiba," Joey said, threateningly.

"I'd like to see you try," Kaiba said, though he didn't even bother to sneer. He did note that Joey wasn't nearly as mad as Kaiba thought he'd be.

Joey pulled out a knife. He had no intention on using it, just startling Kaiba long enough so he could get in, get a half decent hit or two in and get back out. Joey ran at Kaiba, his long legs moving quickly. Just as he'd suspected, Kaiba was slightly stunned when Joey pulled out the knife. Joey smirked slightly and quickly threw it away from where they were fighting and raised his right fist. He felt a great jolt of satisfaction as it made contact with the right side of Kaiba's face. Joey should have retreated when he had the chance, but instead he used his left arm and went for Kaiba's stomach. Kaiba moved slightly to the side, though, and ducked. Joey practically went flying over Kaiba's curled up body but Kaiba saved his face from hitting the cement with a hard blow with his elbow to Joey's stomach.

"Shit," Joey gasped from where he kneeled on the ground, one arm propping him up while the other wrapped itself around his rather sore ribs.

Kaiba hadn't gotten out of the first phase painlessly either. He raised his hand to his lip and wiped the blood from it. "Nice trick, Wheeler," Kaiba frowned, licking at the blood. "Too bad it's probably the only hit you'll get in."

"You'd be surprised what tricks I have up my sleeve," Joey said stumbling to his feet. "I've been planning this since the first time my sister died."

The first time? Kaiba wondered to himself. That's just what Joey had wanted too, for him to think about it. Joey rushed in and punched Kaiba in the stomach. Kaiba keeled over and Joey took the opportunity to bash Kaiba's face on his knee. It was Kaiba's turn to fall to the ground in pain.

"You bastard!" Kaiba shouted through a mouth full of blood.

"Yes, well, I think I have the luxury of saying you started it," Joey said kicking Kaiba in the side.

Kaiba was mad now. Joey had tricked him twice, and twice he'd fallen for it and it was probably going to cost him nearly five hundred dollars to fix his teeth after this fight too. Kaiba slowly pulled himself back up to his feet. Blood covered his stubble covered chin. He'd gone into a weird sort of crisis mood after Mokuba had left his house three days earlier with the news of Serenity dying. He was starting to wonder what was going on though, what could Joey possible have meant by saying 'the first time' that would mean she'd died more than once, and that wasn't humanly possible.

Kaiba was more or less thankful that Joey had decided to give him a fair chance to re-gather himself. Joey wanted a half-decent fight where he got hit too, so hitting Kaiba felt even better. Not just getting Kaiba down and punching him until he was a bloody mess.

"You're lucky she's still alive you know," Joey said. And Kaiba fell for it again. Joey ran at him, but instead of hitting him in the front he ran right past him and sent Kaiba crashing into the ground with his elbow.

Alive! Kaiba said as he crashed into the cement. The only thing that partially saved his face from being completely ruined was the hand he had barley managed to get out. So she's alive, Kaiba thought. This was not a good time to be fighting, and he would not let himself be tricked again. This time he didn't wait for Joey to talk. He did some fancy move just as he hit the ground and was back on his feet before Joey could turn around. But as soon as he did, Kaiba's fist made contact with Joey's jaw. Joey did a 180 degree turn and soon found his forehead making contact with a tree that just happened to be conveniently in front of him.

"Oh that's harsh," Joey mumbled clutching his throbbing forehead. Kaiba didn't stop there, he wasn't nearly as considerate as Joey had been. He reached around to Joey's front and spun him around. He held him against the tree and punched him with his right hand. Once, twice, three times before letting Joey go. Joey fell to the ground, in a lot more pain than he'd bargained for when he'd walked into this fight. But a picture of his half dead sister flashed into his mind and he forced himself to his feet.

"Back for more?" Kaiba asked, wiping some of the blood off his own face with his sleeve.

"You had better believe it," Joey said. "No one gets away with killing my sister." Joey's elbow made contact with Seto's surprised face, and then his shoulder with his not so prepared body. Kaiba fell back down onto the hard brick blocks lining the pathway and Joey kicked him as hard as he could in the ribs.

Kaiba gasped for air as Joey walked a few feet away and leaned on a tree, breathing heavily. "You're- you're sister?" Kaiba demanded.

"Oh yah, didn't you know? It's my baby sister you killed," Joey said. Kaiba knew how Joey felt about his sister, and Joey knew he knew.

"Okay, did I kill her or didn't I?" Kaiba demanded angrily. Though it wasn't nearly as forceful as it would have been if his mouth hadn't been gushing blood. Kaiba stood again, though it was getting harder, and harder to get up each time. Kaiba was surprised when Joey started laughing, but he didn't let his guard down, not this time.

"Oh you killed her alright," Joey said, standing straight up again. "Twice actually, it was you're mother who saved her." And Kaiba's guard went down again. My mother? He wondered as Joey punched him in the stomach again. Joey then brought his elbow down at the very top of Kaiba's spine, but he was careful not to break it, or his back. That's the deal he'd made with Mokuba, Joey would get to fight his brother so long as he came out with injuries that wouldn't do much more than leave a few scars. Mokuba had said it would have been different if Serenity wasn't alive and well. Mokuba would have helped Joey kill him, but that's not what had happened. "Had enough Kaiba?" Joey asked Kaiba who was now lying face down on the ground again.

Kaiba said nothing, Joey assumed that was a yes. Joey began walking away and only stopped long enough to pick up his knife. He left Seto Kaiba to watch him walk away against the dark storm clouds, which just happen to send a huge crash of lightening to the ground, making Joey's exit fairly dramatic.

Kaiba dragged himself to his feet once again. He was bleeding in more than one place, but those wounds would all heal, it was his pride that was permanently damaged. On top of that he didn't understand most of what Joey had told him. He knew each set of information had been valuable, but he didn't understand a lot of it. Apparently she had died twice, but was alive now. It didn't make sense because it was impossible for a person to die twice and still be alive on top of that. But it had been Joey's comment about his mother that had confused him completely. How could his mother have saved Serenity. That really didn't make any sense. Kaiba was in pain, angry, and confused. He began limping his way home, and he didn't put much thought into the fact that he had to go past the hospital to get there.

He was slightly aggravated when several nurses came running out to him, but he was in to much pain to argue when they sat him down in a wheel chair and pushed him into the hospital. It was just coincidence that he ended up on the same floor as Serenity. Everyone watched out Serenity's hospital window, the one that led into the hall as the nurses wheeled him past and into a room at the other end of the hall.

"Well, Joey did quite a job on him," Mai said. She's been totally against Joey fighting Kaiba, only because she didn't want him to get hurt, but she felt rather smug at the sight of Kaiba all bloodied up.

"Let's just wait and see Joey's condition," Mokuba warned. He knew his brother, and although he had helped Joey come up with most of his lines to distract Kaiba, he also knew that Seto would have gotten a few good hits in too. He always did. Though Mokuba was almost sure that, because of the lines they'd come up with, Joey had probably come up on top and he was either still on his way, or he was still lying on the ground back on the walkway.

"Speak of the devil," Tristan said as he looked the other way and saw Joey hobbling his way down the hall. Everyone went running down to see him, including Serenity who had been unhooked from all of her machines but was to stay in the hospital for at least a week. There was a rule that said any patient who came of life support had to stay in the hospital for a week. The doctors had promised that she could have a day pass the next day, but that she still had to come back for the evening. Which was why the fight had taken place that night, instead of the next. Joey didn't want his little sister to have the chance to interfere. Her heart was too big, and she probably would have, too.

"Oh Joey!" Serenity said, stopping in front of him. "You're hurt," she said giving him a concerned look.

"Of course I am, Kaiba ain't no wimp," Joey said. "I knew perfectly well I was going to get hurt going into the fight."

"Oh Mr. Wheeler!" a nurse gasped and came running over to him. "Hurry, we must take a look at you," she said shooing him down the hall. "I don't suppose you had anything to do with how Mr. Kaiba looks right now did you?"

"As a matter of fact I did," Joey said, half smiling with his bloody mouth. "Did I do a not to bad job of him?"

"Yes, you did indeed do a good job, but he seems to have gotten his hits in to. He seems very confused right now though," the nurse said, slightly puzzled.

"Course he does," Joey said, turning his head and looking back at Mokuba. He winked, gave him the thumbs up and was shoved into a wheel chair and wheeled down the hallway and into the elevator.

"Oh dear," Serenity mumbled, tugging gently on Mokuba's sleeve. "You helped him?"

Mokuba nodded, "We both knew Seto would probably win if Joey didn't use strategy, Seto is all about power, you've seen him duel. It was just like adding some magic and trap cards to Joey's attack power, but different," he explained.

"What did he do?" she asked curiously.

"Just said stuff, like "you killed Serenity" and then Seto would be off his guard and Joey would get a few extra hits in. Simple things like that. I helped because I knew what would throw my brother off," Mokuba told her.

"Are you still angry with him?" she asked, facing him and looking into his eyes.

Mokuba didn't answer for awhile. He finally averted his eyes, looked up at the ceiling and ran his hands through his long black hair. "I don't know… I don't think so. I know I should be, I just can't be though."

"No, you shouldn't be. It wasn't his fault, I could have told you too," Serenity said looking at the ground.

"I don't wanna talk about this," Mokuba said wrapping his arms around her. "Let's be happy."

Serenity laughed and nodded. "Be happy," she agreed.

Kaiba sat on the edge of the hospital bed, his heads in his hands. So she had died twice, but she was alive now. She was also Wheelers sister and somehow his dead mother had saved her. It didn't make any sense at all. He did however recall that she was Joey's sister though. He'd seen her during battle city, he'd known she was familiar. That explains that… but what about the rest? How could she possibly have died twice and still be alive now?

Millions of question bombarded Kaiba's already over loaded mind. He also wondered where Mokuba was, he hadn't seen him since that one day when he'd came storming into his office. Kaiba was sure he was alright… he was also sure Mokuba had helped Joey plan out that fight, no one but Mokuba would have known the right things to say to throw him off. Mokuba was a worthy opponent when it came to intellectual abilities. But he wasn't as dedicated, his only draw back.

That meant Mokuba knew something about their mother too. Kaiba didn't believe in angels and devils, but he secretly wondered if something like that could have happened. Could Serenity have been making the journey to heaven and been sent back by his mother. Kaiba shook the dumb thought from his mind. That's impossible he told himself.

"Excuse me… Master Kaiba, but the doctor said you can go if you like," a nurse said, pulling Kaiba back into reality.

"Huh? Oh, right," Kaiba said sitting up immediately. The nurse turned to leave, "Wait," he instructed. "I want to ask you something."

"Yes?" the nurse asked, taking a few steps towards him.

"Serenity Wheeler, can you tell me what happened to her?" he asked.

"Are you related?" she asked.

"No," Kaiba answered.

"I'm sorry sir, I can't tell you," the nurse said turning to leave.

Kaiba grabbed onto her wrist and pulled her back towards him, her face close to his. "Tell me," he said through clenched teeth.

The nurse bit her bottom lip but nodded. "When we picked her up from the Kaiba mansion she was dead, we thought it was from hypothermia but when we examined her closer it seemed she didn't really have hypothermia, she had some of the later stages leading to it, but not hypothermia. We questioned her friends and discovered that she seemed to have became particularly ill from depression. We managed to get her heart beating again and had her hooked up to an IV and other machines when it stopped again. We put her on life support and about an hour later she woke up perfectly fine and healthy. We can't explain it Master Kaiba," the nurse told him quietly.

"And she's fine now?" he asked. The nurse nodded. "Is she in this hospital?" he demanded. She nodded again. "Where?"

"Just down the hall master Kaiba, room 216," she told him.

Kaiba got up and walked out of the room and down the hall to room 216. He looked in the window and saw them all sitting on her bed, laughing happily. She wasn't hooked up to any machines and the color had indeed returned to her face. He noted Joey wasn't there, probably getting checked out too. He stood for a moment, his eyes closed before opening the door. Everyone's heads turned to him.

"Seto," Mokuba said, surprised.

"Mokuba," Kaiba replied, nodding. Then he looked right and Serenity. He expected her to recoil, or run away or something but she challenged his ice blue eyes, smiling, believe it or not. "You're alive," he noted.

"And kickin'" she smiled.

Kaiba looked around at everyone else. Everyone but Serenity seemed to be frowning at him.

"I want to speak with you," he said finally looking back at Serenity.

She bit her bottom lip, frowning slightly. "I get out tomorrow… can it wait?"

Kaiba nodded, exchanged one last look with Mokuba and left.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Mokuba asked, a worried look on his face as they stood in front of Seto's office in the mansion.

Serenity nodded enthusiastically. "I can do this. Face your fears right? This is the only way I'll ever get over this."

"I'll come if you want," he offered.

"No, I want to do this by myself. I'll be fine and if I'm not… tell Joey I give him my permission to do your brother in," she smiled and winked at him. Mokuba just nodded. Serenity turned to face the door, raised her chin and walked in.

Serenity watched Kaiba's eyes scan her thin body. She suddenly regretted not changing into pants once she had finished her class. Her muscles tightened slightly, but other than that she made no other point of showing how nervous she was.

"You're looking well," Kaiba stated.

Of all the things to say, Serenity thought to herself. "No thanks to you," she said, slightly ruder than she had intended.

"That's not what I meant," Kaiba said frowning.

"It wouldn't have been my first choice of words," Serenity said, trying to lighten the mood. "Then again, you're not me, thankfully."

"You seem to have recovered well," Kaiba noted.

"Yup, I'm healthy as can be," she smiled happily.

"This is good news… though I don't entirely understand what was wrong with you in the first place," Kaiba said. He was trying to get something out of her and she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

Serenity sighed, "I love Mokuba, you know that right Kaiba?"

"It's plainly obvious," he mumbled.

"And I would never want to hurt him, not for all the money in the entire world, you understand that too right?" Serenity explained, she was treating him like an idiot, she could see the annoyance in his eyes.

"Of course," he replied.

"And what we," the word was forced and said with an ackward accent, "did would have hurt him."

"I think what you let it lead to hurt him more," Kaiba said, one eyebrow raised.

"Maybe so, but I didn't know I was going to die. All I knew was that I couldn't face him, I didn't think I deserved him anymore. I cheated on him, he doesn't deserve that. And you being his brother only made it worse," she was getting slightly frustrated having to replay the entire night. "I can't really say you took advantage of me because I didn't object but I wasn't in much of a state to do anything."

"Well at least we agree it wasn't all my fault," Kaiba stated.

"I've never once blamed it on you," Serenity objected.

"No, but both of our brothers did and none of your friends looked like they wanted me there yesterday."

"No, probably not, I'll talk to them. But anyway, where was I, oh yes, right so after we… well after we did what we did I didn't think I deserved him because he's so very perfect and I can't live without him and… oh you understand don't you?"

"I'm not stupid," he said in a dull tone.

"Okay well if you understand all this then why am I here?" Serenity said, getting frustrated. She didn't understand what he wanted to know. What was going on? He wanted something from her, she just didn't know what it was. She dug into every corner of her mind during that moment trying to use her logical math mind to figure it out but none of this made sense right now.

Kaiba watched as her eyes darted back and forth, and she chewed on her bottom lip. She was nervous, no frustrated. She couldn't figure out why he wanted her here, and he didn't really know either. He just knew he wanted to talk to her, find out what exactly had happened and make sure it was all over.

"I understand all of this, what I don't understand is why you couldn't tell him, instead of just running away," Kaiba finally said after several minutes of awkward silence.

"I- I was afraid he wouldn't love me anymore. I wouldn't talk to him, but it was always comforting when he tried to talk to me, because that way, at least I knew he still cared," she said slowly.

"Couldn't you see that you were hurting him too?"

"Y-yes… but I-I just couldn't do it. I couldn't tell him, but don't blame all this on me Kaiba. You could have told him just as easily as I could have," Serenity said retaliating.

"I was trying to do what was best for Mokuba. I thought he would probably take it a lot easier with his pretty little girlfriend curled up in his arms crying than if his not so pretty older brother told him out of anger and pity."

"I s'pose… but that still doesn't mean you couldn't have."

"No, I know I could have, I never once said I couldn't have."

"Good…" Serenity trailed off as the ackward silence came again. Serenity looked around the room and then out the huge balcony window. The sky was a mixture of pink and purple as the sun began setting. Kaiba had the perfect view of the ocean out his window and he probably never appreciated it either. Serenity continued to stare out the window, watching the sun set upon the calm water until Kaiba followed her gaze and saw it too.

"Why don't we go outside?" he suggested. She just nodded and follow him out to the balcony. It seemed like much to of a romantic atmosphere for her to be in with him, especially now, but it was just so beautiful.

The ackward silence continued on the balcony as they both leaned against the rail looking out at the ocean.

~*~*~*~*~

"Hey Yami," Tea said enthusiastically. "You ready to go?"

"Sure, where are we going?" he asked.

"I was thinking the beach," Tea suggested.

"It's a little late to be going swimming don't you think?" Yami frowned.

"We aren't going swimming! I just thought we'd go watch the sun set, the water is calm it'll look really nice."

"Why not?" Yami said, allowing himself to be pulled off by the eager Tea.

"It's really nice, isn't it," Tea said as the sat on the beach right near the Kaiba's mansion watching the sun set.

"Yeah," Yami said.

Tea looked over at him. She so badly wanted to tell him how she felt. He sat there, looking out at the water, not saying a word. She wondered what he was thinking, she also wondered if maybe he felt that same about her. He was always nice to her, then again, he was always nice to everyone. But it seemed to her that something was going on, lately they had been doing a lot more things together. Ever since that one day at the club. She decided that if she was going to tell him, now was the time. But there was something she'd forgotten to consider.

How Yugi would feel about it.

~*~*~*~*~

"So… are you okay now?" Kaiba asked awkwardly, all this kindness was weird to him. Being nice was not his first instinct.

"I'm fine…" she said after awhile. "I just needed…" she trailed off.

"To die once or twice?" Kaiba asked in a feeble attempt at a joke.

She smiled and turned to him but quickly jumped back as a shot rang out bellow them. The both turned tot he courtyard bellow them as the glass window behind them shattered.

"What the-," Kaiba mumbled until her saw two small black figures crawling from one bush to another. "It's those guys again! Quick, get inside!

But it was too late, another shot rang out and Kaiba's eyes went wide. His left hand immediately went to his right shoulder as blood gushed out. He stumbled back and leaned backwards over the low railing. His senses dulled as the pain coursed through his bloody.

"Kaiba," Serenity asked, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Kaiba don't die, hold one!"

Kaiba couldn't hear her though, he fell over the rail and gravity began to pull him in. He was quickly jolted awake when he felt someone grabbed his arm and he was motionless. The pain was intense but he managed to look up to see Serenity clutching to his arm, holding him up with all the strength he had.

"Let go!" he yelled.

"No! I won't!" she shrieked as she began to get pulled over the railing too. She screamed as Kaiba's weighted pulled her over the railing and they both began to fall the five floors to the ground.

~*~*~*~*~

"Yami, there's something I need to tell you," Tea said, twisting the front of her skirt.

"What is it Tea?" Yami asked from where he sat on the beach.

"I… I like you," she said quietly.

No! Yugi shouted from within the millennium puzzle,

"I mean, I really like you," she said, a bit more excitedly this time.

No, this can't be happening to me!

"And I've liked you for a really long time,"

"Tea I don't know what to say…" Yami said, just as surprised as Yugi was.

NOOOO!

Yami gasped as he was thrown back within the puzzle and Yugi over took the body.

"No!" he shrieked again. He could no longer contain he rage within him. His fists were clenched as he shrieked. "Get out!" he said entirely out of anger. His hands immediately went up to his head and he collapsed back into the sand.

Yugi I-" Yami tried to explain.

"I don't care! GET OUT!" He shrieked again.

Tea gasped as she watched and heard a small cracking sound. She watched as the eye piece of the puzzle cracked slowly. Yugi didn't even notice, he was engulfed by his own rage. What had she done?

No Yugi please! Yami begged as he felt the puzzled breaking.

"NO!" Yugi shouted, unaware of what was happening to his precious puzzle. And when he finally did notice, it was too late. Yugi's anger disappeared and tears formed in his eyes as he watched the millennium puzzle fall apart piece by piece. The large eye piece raised in front of his face, glowing. "No," Yugi mumbled as the crack straight down the middle became deeper and the piece split into two before his eyes and fell to the ground.

Yami's short figured raised before Yugi, a sad look in his eyes. "I'm sorry Yugi," he said reaching one hand out.

Yugi reached out to grasp his hand but was blown back by a huge force of light, as was Tea. Yugi pulled himself up from the sand. "No! Yami!! What have I done? I've killed my best friend! I'VE KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!" he shrieked tears now flowing down his cheeks. "YAMI!!"

***

Serenity still clutched onto Kaiba's hands as they fell towards the ground. Her screams had left her as the ground came closer and closer towards them. She closed her eyes and a picture of Mokuba and Joey formed in her mind. This is it, she thought, as she was suddenly blinded by a huge bright light. This time I'm really going to die, and with that, everything went dark as their bodies made contact with the ground below.

**So….? What did you think? I'm rather fond of the fight scene lol… I realize I just rushed the yugi/tea part, I'm sorry but I just can't stand either of them. Especially Tea, it's so hard to be nice to her lol. If there was anything you were unclear about (which I hope you weren't because that equals bad writing) then just ask me and I'll try my very best to get back to you, I'm pretty sure I can but my mother might be getting rid on the net because my parents are getting divorced and she's lacking a bit of cash. I'll probably pay for it though, I just got a job. Oh there's another thing you guys need to know. I can't really guarantee updates every two weeks now (well on this one yes, and Akeru has a pretty high chance but because I'm not a huge fan of abaku shi… well u get it) because… well cuz I just got a job lol. Anyway, here's you're update that several of you have so patiently waited for and just for the record if you ever wanna add me to your MSN or e-mail me feel free! I check my mail everyday… usually two or three times a day lol but just make sure you put ff.net in the subject or else I probably won't get it because it'll head right for my junkmail and if it doesn't say ff.net I won't read it. Right then, review at let me know what you think J J !!