8
Spoilers: If Duke and Tristan are trapped somewhere, you're too early.
Notes:
Not really necessary, but... In Douglas Adams' book 'Life, the Universe, and Everything', you can learn to fly by falling and forgetting to hit the ground. In the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun", the crew is trapped in a Wild-West place that isn't actually real and forced to get into a gunfight. When they know for certain that it isn't real, the guns don't do them any harm.
"But what if it's poison?!" Duke yelled.
"It isn't real! How the hell could it be poison?!"
"How could we get wet? How could we be hungry? How could we jump off a building?"
"How did we do that, anyway?" Tristan asked suddenly.
"Um... I'm not sure, actually."
"That was pretty high up."
"Yeah, that should have hurt us a lot more than it did."
"Maybe because you weren't expecting to be hurt?" Serenity suggested.
They turned to her, staring blankly.
"Maybe nothing can happen in here unless you expect it to. Like, if a branch hits you in the face--"
"Stop rubbing it in," Tristan muttered, going red.
"--then you expect it to hit you and hurt. But if you didn't know about the branch, maybe it wouldn't hurt, or would just go through you."
"Hmm," Duke said thoughtfully. "That makes sense. Like Douglas Adams."
"Like that old episode of Star !" Tristan cried.
"But it'd be hard to not expect these things..."
"Like in Star Trek," Tristan said, nodding. "Too bad we don't have Mr. Spock here."
"... You are such a dork."
"Oh yeah?! You worshipped Pegasus!!"
"And what's wrong with that?!"
"Na na na na na!!" Serneity clapped loudly. "Entrails, nose, quiet?"
"Yes'm." They very quickly subsided.
(Now if I can just get them home alive...)
"What about the fruit?" Tristan asked.
"Why ask for trouble?"
"No, I say we should eat it. Can't hurt us if we don't think it's poison."
"But we do think it's poison."
Serenity sighed.
9.
Spoilers: Noah episode in which Joey gets into a duel.
Joey was starting to really, really hate castles.
(I mean, god's sakes, man! Lookit all this junk! You got the fancy furniture, an' all the stupid paintings, and the fancy moulding and junk... If I get rich? No castle for ME, man. I'm just gonna buy some fairly big house on a beach somewhere. Or a mansion.)
(Hell. Like I'm ever gonna have t'worry about THAT. Yeaaah, and aliens've been making them crop circles. Suuure.)
Joey sighed, headed down another corridor. (Place is a freakin' maze... "Use your head, Joey"... Labyrnith. Yeah, oughta be sophisticated enough for Ma. Got the whole Greek thing and all. With the myths, and the... huh...)
Joey furrowed his brow. (What was that myth about again? Some guy an' some bull-thing... Oh yeah! Kid's kingdom has to pay ransom to this other kingdom by givin' em some people for this monster to eat. Kid decides to try and beat th' monster, and volunteers to be part of the ransom. So he goes, and they tell him to go into this big maze. They figure he'll never find the way out, an' the monster'll eat him. But what they don't know is this girl who's got the hots for 'im gave him a thread or somethin' so he could figure out th' way he came.)
(Damn, wish I'd thoughta that. I think I've been in this hallway twice.)
He stopped and studied a picture. (Okaaay, five times. Let's try turnin' right...)
(Makes y'wonder, though... If this is the labyrnith, where's the monster?...)
Joey was rapidly losing patience with this whole stupid little game. He yelled something-- he wasn't sure exactly what afterwards-- and kicked the wall...
...which crumbled.
"Whoa. Cheap wall," he commented.
And crumbled some more.
"Really cheap wall," he said, just a little incredulous. But he forgot that immediately when he saw a big brass door.
(Hell, if it gets me outta this stupid castle, why not?) he thought, and yanked it open.
(Hot damn! The blimp!) Yeah, right there in front of him was the stupid KaibaCorp blimp that had started all this trouble in the first place. All right! They could get out of this stupid place now! Probably everyone else, being smarter then he was, had already found it.
(Hope S'renity didn't get stuck with Tristan an' Duke,) he thought as he ran into the blimp. (Someone'd probably die. Actually, prob'ly all of 'em, 'cause Serenity's fair that way and if anything happened ta her, the other two wouldn't last long...)
The blimp was empty.
(Suspiciously empty,) Joey groaned to himself. (Dammit! If this place ain't real, then this blimp prob'ly ain't either. DAMN! Now Cap'n Clich'll think I'm a moron!)
(Wait. Would that be a bad thing?) He slowed down just a little. (Onea the reasons I beat Weevil, besides that he completely sucks, was 'cos he thought I was a moron. He let me have facedown cards, he thought I made rookie mistakes... Yug' wouldn't'a gotten away with any of that, everyone knows that Yug' can do that stuff.)
(So maybe I should pretend I don't realize this is all fake, an' let 'em all think I'm that stupid if they will. Then I can do somethin' smart an' show 'em up!)
Joey beamed, proud of himself for coming up with a strategy. ('Course, it's probably not gonna work... )
Little did Joey know that he'd just discovered one of the main strategies of dueling: being underestimated was arguably the most powerful advantage in the game. Neither did he know that it was a strategy his mentor Yugi used far more often than he could admit. There were plenty of things that Joey didn't know... But fortunately for him, he was a damn quick learner...
10.
Spoilers: Joey v. Idiot Lawyer Man, over custody of the body
/The hell was that?/
/What was what, Yami?/ Yugi asked, very quickly.
/Why on earth did you give her your coat like that?!/
/'Cause it's cold out here!/
/Exactly! It's cold out here, which is why you should have kept the thing./
/It's called politeness, chivalry. It's the right thing to do!/
/So you think that she can't handle the cold as well as you can?/
/Well, yeah!/
/Isn't that just a little insulting?/
/Um... Well, she's not complaining..../
/Of course not, she gets a jacket out of it while you try to get her not to notice that you're jumping around shivering!/
/Um... what?/
/This puts many things into perspective. That 'women's movement' thing.../
/After your time./
/Yes, back in my day, we didn't give women our coats./
/God in heaven, Yami! Back in your day, you didn't even HAVE coats!!/
/All right, you have a point, but I still think you're letting her use you terribly./
/YAMI!/
/Oh, right, sue me for missing a few thousand years of the evolution of protocol./
/You told me yourself you know what I know!!/
/... What are we talking about?/
/I don't know, you lost me about twenty minutes ago./
/Weren't we still in that maze twenty minutes ago?/
/What maze?/
/The, the thing, with the doors and the same room over and over again./
/Yeah, what about it?/
/Um... We were still in it twenty minutes ago./
/Were we?/
/I think so.../
/Why were we talking about the maze?/
/Um, I think it had to do with women's rights./
/The hell were we talking about that for?/
/Since when do you say stuff like 'the hell'?/
/Since when do you say 'stuff'?/
/Since when... Where are we again?/
/What were we talking about?/
/No, where the hell are we?!/
/Don't we know?!/
/I think we.../
"Hey, look!" Téa said, aware of the cold, but not of Yugi's extreme distraction. "A door!"
/Should we go through it...?/
/Wha-- YES!/ Yami yelled mentally, as he suddenly realized how dangerously out of it they were.
/But what if there's something--/
/Let's GO!/
Yugi and Téa went through the door and found themselves in a large courtroom.
"Joey!" Yugi cried, surprised.
/Yugi?/
/Um, yeah?/
/Get your damn coat back./
/Wha?/
/Neither of us can think straight in the cold, get your damn coat back./
/It's cold?/
/GET THE DAMN COAT!/
Yugi slowly became more aware as he say by Téa on the bench.
/Was I saying something?/
/I don't think so./
/I thought I was saying something.../
/Can't remember./
/I should know what I was saying.../
/Blame hypothermia and let's get past it, hmm?/
/I was--/
/Look! Joey's in a duel./
/Oh yeah! Oh, man! Look at the guy that dude is! Card! Whatever! With the--/
/Good, now explain that to them./
Yami sighed in relief as Yugi did.
11.
Spoliers: Same as above.
Notes:
Based on my theory of Joey and his family. His mother is completely made by me, except that she exists and left a long time ago. All details as to her past, and as to Joey's teacher, and as to just about everything else in this one, is completely my opinion. You didn't miss anything.
"I still think you could be anything," she'd said.
"Yeah, well, you don't have much company," he'd said.
"Then everyone else is an idiot. Give it a try, Joey!"
"Give what a try?"
"Try in your school, try to read more, try more in everything. I know you aren't."
"I couldn't be anythin', ma."
"You're just trying to tell me you think you're doomed to a life at a fast-food restaraunt."
"I was thinking maybe a welder, but yeah."
She used a startlingly rude word to display her incredulousness. "That might work on everyone else, Joey, but NOT me."
"What might work?"
"That little 'I'm stupid, I can't do nothin'' thing you've got going on. I don't buy it."
"My teachers do."
"Your teachers are morons. None think you're worth anything?"
"Well... there's this one psychopath who's tryin' t'tutor me..."
"Let her! You could do this, Joey."
"No I couldn't."
"Yes, you could! Joey-- if you won't for yourself, think of your sister. You think you aren't worth anything? Well, she doesn't. Go prove her right. You'll surprise yourself, I'm sure."
"...I ain't gonna be a doctor."
"And why not?"
"I, uh, really kinda don't like needles an' all."
"Okay then. That's valid. So be a lawyer."
"Wha?! An' be in all those jokes?!"
"Not all lawyers are evil, Joey. A lot of them are good and do good things!"
"Don't you have to know a lot of stuff for that, like pre... pre... dammit... Precedents?"
"Yep."
"I seen those books in the library! They got shelves of the things! I ain't learning all that!"
"So? You could be a lawyer, or an engineer, or an architect, or a realtor, or anything you wanted, Joey!"
"..."
"Give it a try, Joey. For us, okay?"
"...Ah, all right, if it'll get you all off my back, what the hell..."
"And work on the grammar first. And the vocabulary. Sadly neglected."
Joey looked at the ugly psuedo-judge.
(A lawyer, huh?) he thought. (Pretty far-fetched... Still... If I were a prosecutor or a defense attorney or something... That would be pretty damn cool...)
"One hundred and thirty-two, Joey," his psychopath teacher had said when he'd brought it up, smiling softly. "Got an advantage over 98 of the population already. Why the hell not?"
And then she'd thrown a textbook at him, as she had a really annoying habit of doing. "Wanna add it in with the others?"
He'd thrown up his hands. "Fine! Fine. I'll read the damn thing, but I won't understand a word!"
(Except I kinda did understand a few of the words, didn't I?...)
He drew a card, feeling a lot better now that Yugi was sitting there behind him. "Assault, battery, judicial misconduct... Gotta look up the ethics codes when I get the hell out of here... Not that this guy's gonna be anything but a disembodied spirit when I do..."
"What was that?" the psuedo-judge demanded.
"Man, there's gotta be a hundred ways you're breakin' the ethics code right now," he said defiantly. "And when I beat you, I'm gonna look 'em all up, just for the hell of it, 'cos you know where you'll be? Still dead. And you know where I'll be? Still struggling with my stupid hair every morning. Stuff won't stay down right, it sucks. But guess what? You ain't never gonna know. And the bar's never gonna be able to give your butt the kicking it so richly deserves. Or am I in contempt?"
The psuedo-judge glared at him and opened his mouth.
"You're damn right I got contempt of this court. I got more'n enough to flood this damn place. But let's forget that and get to the part where I wipe your psuedo-judicial butt all over this courtroom!!"
"He used the word 'psuedo'," Téa whispered, impressed.
"It's a prefix," Yugi said absently.
/And that is because that Joey kid is damn smart. They'll never believe it, but he is./
Joey thought of his mother, who had never finished law school, and all the half-forgotten days of reading the textbooks she'd left behind. Why the hell not?
"I got a lawyer," he said. "Bring it on."
12.
Spoilers: The day of Serenity's operation, and also there's a mention of a KaibaCorp blimp.
Notes:
Again, very little of this is canon, you didn't miss anything. Joey's mom, while she exists and is alive in the series, was never shown talking to Yami or really doing anything after the day of S's operation. All I know is she's a brunette.
Apparently-- I haven't got any proof of this except from a novel but it jibes completely with the animé I've seen-- in Japanese divorce law, the father always gets the oldest child. It does make a lot of sense, except that it's completely idiotic... But it makes sense with the plot...
She was very nervous.
(Shouldn't have let either of them go anywhere near that crazy thing...)
Another to add to her list of mistakes; it was, however, probably dwarfed by all the others.
(Look at these rumors. Magic, and holograms that can kill you, and, and...)
(Shouldn't be reading this.)
She closed the window of the Duel Monsters discussion board and was left staring at something more concrete; a major news magazine's article on "The Darker Side of Duel Monsters: Innocent Game, or Evil Cult?"
(If it were some conservative thing...) But it wasn't; this magazine, if it was biased at all, most certainly leaned toward the liberal. They wouldn't print a story like this just for the hell of it...
(Well of COURSE they would!! That story about the sharks all the other summer...)
(But they'd have to have something to back it up...)
She narrowed her eyes as she read the sidebar. "Industrial Illusions..."
The former CEO of that corporation had been hospitalized for some sort of psychotic break-- after holding a tournament--which Joey had been at-- and won the money they'd needed so much.
(My son... In the same house as that psychopath??)
(Castle... it was a castle, it said very specifically... Not a house, a castle...)
(...No, I'm still stuck on the house.)
She sighed, let her head drop a little. (I got Serenity away...)
(I should have taken him, too. To hell with the law, I should have taken him anyway.)
She sighed again; she'd taken up that argument with herself a thousand times, and it hadn't done any good. (What's done is done, and he turned out okay, better than okay; that's what matters.)
(He shouldn't have been in that tournament. Money or no money, he shouldn't be in the same county as--)
She stopped.
"Technology company KaibaCorp," the sidebar read, "has taken over Industrial Illiusions' grasp on the Duel Monsters market, adding new technology to the game, such as startlingly realistic holograms."
(He mentioned a Kaiba... He mentioned several Kaibas. He mentioned a KaibaCorp...)
She skimmed through the rest quickly. Seto Kaiba was apparently a very young, very brilliant... psychopath. God knew she was reading the worst into it, yes, but...
(They say he's got vendettas against people... Yugi?! That sweet little spiky-haired kid?! Or was that his older brother? They looked so alike, I can't remember... No, the kid was Yugi. His brother... I don't think he ever mentioned his name, no. Nice kid though, really bright.)
(Really bright. Too mature for his age, too reserved, but he caught Joey's concussion before anyone else did... Thirteen hours and he hadn't been able to find home or the hospital... I should have known that something was wrong...)
(And I would have picked up on it, yes, but he saw it first, and I think I owe him for that.)
Yes, the taller spiky-haired kid had come in, looking slightly worried.
"Is Joey all right?" he'd asked.
She'd blinked at him, not anywhere near her best. "What?..."
"He said that he was accosted in the alley last night, around-- I don't know-- it would have had to have been eight o'clock at the latest, probably six or seven. What time is it now, about nine? Later? Maybe eight? Either way... If he was unconscious in that alley for all of that time, I personally would be concerned. If he wasn't unconscious in that alley for all of that time, and he couldn't find his home, or the hospital, or anywhere else he might find help... Well. I know... possibly I know less than nothing about the medical sciences, but I don't think that could possibly be a good thing..."
She'd stared at him as in sunk in-- then ran to Joey.
"Joey? Where were you last night?"
He'd looked at her blearily. "Told y', got beat up by some stupid morons in hoods..."
"After that." She'd held his shoulders, staring straight into his eyes to keep his attention; yes, his spiky-haired friend was right, something had to be wrong here.
"Uh... I was... I was tryin' to get to the 'ospital, but I couldn't fig'r out where I was, and I had a headache, an' I was dizzy, an' I felt kinda sick..."
Now that she was looking for it, Joey looked like hell. He'd seemed fine when he'd gotten there, yes, but that supply of strength seemed to have faded, and the clarity he'd had while talking Serenity out of that room must have been something he'd pulled out of necessity...
"Still feel a li'l sick..." he murmured, sounding half-awake.
Yes, now that she was looking for it, Joey very obviously had a concussion. How he'd recovered enough to be so lucid when Serenity needed him... Well, there was undoubtably mercy in the world somewhere; some of it apparently had floated their way.
She trusted that kid... man... she wasn't even sure which term to use when describing him; he seemed very old, but looked young... and there was something else that was young in him too...
Either way, she trusted him as much as she'd ever trusted anybody after the divorce; he hadn't really given her that much reason, but he had some sort of aura... Dark, and very old, and very wise. He seemed the sort of person who would keep secrets and give advice as well as he could, but admit it when he didn't know enough to help. He seemed like a guy... who did the right thing, a little like Serenity, and Joey, and Yugi, for that matter....
So she'd grabbed his arm when she'd seen him, just before her only children had embarked on this debacle.
"Is this... Are they going to be... This is safe, right?" she'd asked.
He'd looked at her, unhappy, in a way that said he knew the truth very well but wasn't completely sure that he should tell her.
"No," he'd said simply.
"I... But they're not going to get hurt or anything, right...?"
Another pause; she decided she didn't like it when he paused.
"I can't guarantee it..."
"But it's not like I should, should forbid them to go or anything..."
"... In truth, forbidding them to go would probably be a very wise idea."
A shadow crept behind his eyes, like some sort of cloud. "Things... tend to happen in tournaments associated with this game, as I'm sure you'll find out. Do I think he'll be in physical danger? No. But... This game seems to atttract all of the other sorts of danger, and sometimes even physical danger as well...."
"...Do you think... Do you think there's any way I can stop them?" She'd known it was ridiculous, asking for advice about her children from a sixteen/twenty-one/two hundred-year-old, but somehow she couldn't convince herself he wasn't qualified.
He'd smiled faintly. "Serenity will follow Joey, and I've been trying to dissuade Joey from entering this tournament since before it began. You could tell him he'll be endangering Serenity, but if Serenity hears that, she'll be all the more set on going, and either he'll have to stay behind with her, or she'll come along with him..."
"Why can't they both stay?" Her voice sounded ridiculously small, like a child asking where the family dog went when it died.
"For Joey, it's part pride and stubbornness. He likes that he's good at something... He wants it to be widely known that he's good at something."
"He didn't prove that the last time?"
He'd smiled more widely and shook his head. "Not to everybody. There are still many very important holdouts... Actually, nobody takes him seriously-- maybe not ever. So I suppose I understand why he's willing to go through this tournament to prove himself."
"Oh..."
"But that isn't all. He also wants to be there for me, I'm afraid... I can't persuade him that I'd really be much happier if I knew he was safe, far away. Perhaps in Canada."
She'd smiled and nodded. "That," she'd said fondly, "is my Joey."
"And also, he made someone else a promise to be here and help... He doesn't break his promises if he can help it."
"That," she'd said, smiling brokenly, "is also my Joey."
He'd paused. "I think you should know that your son is very smart, very brave, and very loyal. I think you should know that with your help, he's finally starting to learn that. He is, fortunately, one of the fastest learners I have ever met."
She smiled. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He'd smiled graciously, then sighed.
"What is it?"
He'd looked at her, a measuring look in his very strange eyes. She'd suddenly started to wonder exactly how old he was, anyway, and who he was, and what had happened to him before she'd met him....
"A nagging feeling," he'd finally said, his voice very low and quiet. "One of those feelings that everything terrible that is happening right now and will happen in the near and not-so-near future is entirely my fault."
She still wasn't entirely sure what he meant, but she understood the sentiment very well.
"Can you prove it wrong?" she'd asked.
Silently he shook his head.
She'd nodded quietly, symapthetic.
That, she suddenly realized, was why he'd confided in her. She understood, and he could tell that she did.
She sighed and looked back at her computer screen. (Yugi Moto...)
(The common link...) she thought, as something began to emerge from the back of her mind. (All these things in this article, almost all of them he's been involved, or gotten involved, or been the reason the whole thing started...)
(Is that what he meant?)
It had to be. It was all coming together; Yugi Moto and his brother-- suddenly she didn't quite believe that the taller man was Yugi's brother-- were objects of fascination to this, this Duel Monsters cult that seemed to exist. Which was why man-who-looked-like-Yugi thought it was all his fault, and why Joey kept getting sucked into it with him.
She looked at the report again. Disappearances, psychotic breaks...
(Whether it really is his fault or not, he thinks it is; I should know. He thinks he's causing all this, and he doesn't like it, because it's hurting his friends, and also people who aren't his friends. He doesn't want Joey involved, but Joey keeps coming because he's Joey and he's loyal to his friends, and every time Joey tags along his friends get into danger, and it worries the hell out of him...)
She had no logical basis for this. None at all. It could all be explained as bad luck and coincidence; there was no reason to suspect a pattern at all...
Except a blimp, and a concussion, and an ancient-looking pair of red-purple eyes...
She could never prove it, but she knew it was true.
She spent a long time staring at the picture of Yugi on the computer.
13.
Spoilers: If you're still wondering what's wrong with the Big Five that they haven't tried to pick off any of the three least experienced duelists in the field yet, you're too early.
Notes:
just after seeing the ep No way this is going to happen in the next episode, but dammit, it should, and that's what these are all about.
Computers, when they were first made, were dependent on vaccum tubes. That has long since been improved.
She'd been shocked that he actually admitted it.
It had done no harm, of course; she wasn't a moron, and she was on speaking terms with her brother. And Joey had gone on for ages about how Yugi had taught him everything he knew and that was why he was following him. So when Tristan had started saying those silly things about how he was her brother's mentor, she'd been shocked for a few seconds. But after a minute, she'd figured out that he was just trying to impress her, and, well, she let him.
She hadn't expected him to ever actually admit he'd been lying.
She'd been stringing them both along a lot the past hour or two, partly because she was annoyed with them, and partly because she was scared and...she wanted someone to protect her.
(Yeah. I wanted someone to protect me.)
She looked at herself in a kind of disgusted awe. (How could I let them do that!)
She didn't know what was going on, and she needed someone to protect her, but neither did they, and...
And...
(And that's what that pile of scrap metal has been doing, attacking me all these turns. He knew they, being cutely brave but morons as well, would spend all their time trying to protect me, and we'd all fall down.)
(He was using us....)
"Serenity!" Duke cried, desperately. "Come on, none of us will get out of here if we don't keep fighting!"
"Sixty seconds," she said, voice low.
(He was using me, because he thought I was weak, and you know what I did? I proved him right. I bleeping proved him right.)
Something in the back of her head was slowly stirring.
(He thinks I'm weak, and he thinks I'm a moron, and all I'm doing is proving him right.)
A slow, cold fury was slowly seeping through her mind.
(This,) she realized suddenly, (is why Joey came here. This. Everyone thinks he's weak, and they think he's a moron, and they try to use him to get at his friends, and that-- that's the worst thing in the world.)
And here she was, on her knees, sobbing like a little girl, weak, helpless, and proving the rusty bucket of bolts over there right.
(No.)
No, not anymore and never again. She made a mistake; she'd fix it. Tristan was coming back, and that stupid robot was going to get stuck upside-down next to Satan in the centermost circle of hell.
(Hell no.)
She was not weak. She wasn't weak, and she wouldn't be weak, and she wasn't depending on everybody else anymore.
(Joey has the right of it.)
(I bet he thinks that I'm either going to sit here and keep crying and be useless, or be so angry that I'm reckless and get us beaten too. Well, no. Hell no!)
She rose, slowly, keeping her head down.
(There are cards that bring monsters back from the graveyard. If I bring his Deck Master back, won't he come too?)
(I know what I need to now, and Joey taught me the basics of this-- the basics of all of this. Duel Monsters and fighting psychos and standing up because that's what people do--)
(Joey taught me this, and if he can do it, I can too, because I'm not some weak and stupid little girl! My name is Serenity Wheeler, sister of Joey, daughter of a woman who braves her own burning fire every day, and I have fought against doctors and lawyers and the government and my own body, and this dolt isn't gonna stop me!!)
(YOU WILL NOT USE ME, EVER AGAIN!!)
"What the hell are you waiting for!" she snapped. "Scared? Of course not, you're too damn stupid."
Duke's head snapped around and he stared at Serenity like he'd never seen her before. Maybe he hadn't.
"Come on, you worthless pile of vaccum tubes! Scared of the tiny little girl? You weren't before, because humans are weak, particularly the females... And also? Change your syntax there. You call me 'female' again, I'm gonna reprogram you with a hatchet."
She was trembling, she was scared out of her mind, she was mourning, she was furious, and she was strong.
(Try it. Go ahead. You are not using me ever again. You are not using me, ever again.)
Somewhere in a tunnel, Joey stopped stock-still and Yugi tripped over a rock.
"Guys?" Téa asked, slightly bemused, and held out a hand to Yugi.
/...What was that??/
"The hell?" Joey said softly, holding a hand to his head and sounding slightly unnerved.
"What's the matter?" Téa glanced at them both.
"Somethin' just... Dunno... It was like..." Joey trailed off, then shook his head violently. "Nah, it was probably nothin'," he said.
/Translation: That scared the hell out of me./
"C'mon... We'd better go find S'renity." Joey started running again.
/Translation: It was something to do with Serenity and I'm scared out of my mind./
/Thanks for the translation there, but I kinda got it, Yami.../ Yugi was trying to focus on keeping up with everyone, talking to Yami, and trying to figure out what had just happened all at once.
Yami helpfully started to help him figure it out, easing the load. /It must have been Serenity./
/It didn't seem like her.../ Yugi shivered.
/Something's gotten her very angry./
/That's bad, right?/
/Well, if she's angry, it means something has happened to make her angry, and most likely it's something to do with the Fab Five./
/"Big Five"./
/I am expressing my contempt for them by refusing to remember what they call themselves./
/Yaamii.../
/However, on a brighter note, I doubt that whatever she's angry at will be having a very nice time in the near future./
/What makes you think that?/
/She's a Wheeler,/ Yami said simply. /That family has power./
/Power?/
/Yes, power. You haven't noticed?/
/Well... I've been trying not to notice that kind of thing.../
/Well, you don't need to be as psychic as you are to sense it. It's just common sense; look at Joey. He's here, is he not? He changed in a few weeks from someone who couldn't beat Téa to someone who came remarkably close to beating us./
/Are you, by any chance, ever just a little arrogant?/
/Oh come on, you know we're good./
/It's still a bit snobbish to say it like that./
/Yugi.../
/Yes, yes, not the point. What kind of power?/
/All kinds, really. You felt that flash, Yugi. Rage and power and defiance./
/Rage and defiance... Well, yes.../
/Yugi, it hit you so hard that you tripped over a rock. You may be extraordinairily psychic, but that still takes quite a bit of power./
/Well.../
/You couldn't even think for a second, it was so powerful!/
/How did you know that?!/
/I know absolutely nothing that goes on in your mind, Yugi, and I'm also completely blind to psychic phenomena. I myself didn't sense it at all./
/...Please don't use the irony next time, Yami. I'll have to hurt you./
/Sorry./
/Okay, it was powerful. But Serenity's a novice.../
/Yes, but from that flash, I imagine she's just learned something the very, very hard way. She's not an idiot by any standards, and she does know the basics of Duel Monsters, as well as several strategies the top duelists have used. That power... Would you want to face it?/
/...Yes, I see. You're right./
/Really? Oh, good. I was getting so tired of being wrong all the time./
/Don't make me come in there, Yami, we've got better things to do./
/...I could take you./
/What the hell is wrong with you?!/
/...Sorry. I just get very proud when Joey... What's the term? Something or other and takes names. It's nice to see him prove them all wrong./
/So it was the duel he just won?/
/Yes./
/...Yeah, he did take names, didn't he?/
/And we taught him everything he knows./
/Yeah, that's pretty darn cool./
/We should tell him that someday./
/Yami, shh./
Spoilers: If Duke and Tristan are trapped somewhere, you're too early.
Notes:
Not really necessary, but... In Douglas Adams' book 'Life, the Universe, and Everything', you can learn to fly by falling and forgetting to hit the ground. In the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun", the crew is trapped in a Wild-West place that isn't actually real and forced to get into a gunfight. When they know for certain that it isn't real, the guns don't do them any harm.
"But what if it's poison?!" Duke yelled.
"It isn't real! How the hell could it be poison?!"
"How could we get wet? How could we be hungry? How could we jump off a building?"
"How did we do that, anyway?" Tristan asked suddenly.
"Um... I'm not sure, actually."
"That was pretty high up."
"Yeah, that should have hurt us a lot more than it did."
"Maybe because you weren't expecting to be hurt?" Serenity suggested.
They turned to her, staring blankly.
"Maybe nothing can happen in here unless you expect it to. Like, if a branch hits you in the face--"
"Stop rubbing it in," Tristan muttered, going red.
"--then you expect it to hit you and hurt. But if you didn't know about the branch, maybe it wouldn't hurt, or would just go through you."
"Hmm," Duke said thoughtfully. "That makes sense. Like Douglas Adams."
"Like that old episode of Star !" Tristan cried.
"But it'd be hard to not expect these things..."
"Like in Star Trek," Tristan said, nodding. "Too bad we don't have Mr. Spock here."
"... You are such a dork."
"Oh yeah?! You worshipped Pegasus!!"
"And what's wrong with that?!"
"Na na na na na!!" Serneity clapped loudly. "Entrails, nose, quiet?"
"Yes'm." They very quickly subsided.
(Now if I can just get them home alive...)
"What about the fruit?" Tristan asked.
"Why ask for trouble?"
"No, I say we should eat it. Can't hurt us if we don't think it's poison."
"But we do think it's poison."
Serenity sighed.
9.
Spoilers: Noah episode in which Joey gets into a duel.
Joey was starting to really, really hate castles.
(I mean, god's sakes, man! Lookit all this junk! You got the fancy furniture, an' all the stupid paintings, and the fancy moulding and junk... If I get rich? No castle for ME, man. I'm just gonna buy some fairly big house on a beach somewhere. Or a mansion.)
(Hell. Like I'm ever gonna have t'worry about THAT. Yeaaah, and aliens've been making them crop circles. Suuure.)
Joey sighed, headed down another corridor. (Place is a freakin' maze... "Use your head, Joey"... Labyrnith. Yeah, oughta be sophisticated enough for Ma. Got the whole Greek thing and all. With the myths, and the... huh...)
Joey furrowed his brow. (What was that myth about again? Some guy an' some bull-thing... Oh yeah! Kid's kingdom has to pay ransom to this other kingdom by givin' em some people for this monster to eat. Kid decides to try and beat th' monster, and volunteers to be part of the ransom. So he goes, and they tell him to go into this big maze. They figure he'll never find the way out, an' the monster'll eat him. But what they don't know is this girl who's got the hots for 'im gave him a thread or somethin' so he could figure out th' way he came.)
(Damn, wish I'd thoughta that. I think I've been in this hallway twice.)
He stopped and studied a picture. (Okaaay, five times. Let's try turnin' right...)
(Makes y'wonder, though... If this is the labyrnith, where's the monster?...)
Joey was rapidly losing patience with this whole stupid little game. He yelled something-- he wasn't sure exactly what afterwards-- and kicked the wall...
...which crumbled.
"Whoa. Cheap wall," he commented.
And crumbled some more.
"Really cheap wall," he said, just a little incredulous. But he forgot that immediately when he saw a big brass door.
(Hell, if it gets me outta this stupid castle, why not?) he thought, and yanked it open.
(Hot damn! The blimp!) Yeah, right there in front of him was the stupid KaibaCorp blimp that had started all this trouble in the first place. All right! They could get out of this stupid place now! Probably everyone else, being smarter then he was, had already found it.
(Hope S'renity didn't get stuck with Tristan an' Duke,) he thought as he ran into the blimp. (Someone'd probably die. Actually, prob'ly all of 'em, 'cause Serenity's fair that way and if anything happened ta her, the other two wouldn't last long...)
The blimp was empty.
(Suspiciously empty,) Joey groaned to himself. (Dammit! If this place ain't real, then this blimp prob'ly ain't either. DAMN! Now Cap'n Clich'll think I'm a moron!)
(Wait. Would that be a bad thing?) He slowed down just a little. (Onea the reasons I beat Weevil, besides that he completely sucks, was 'cos he thought I was a moron. He let me have facedown cards, he thought I made rookie mistakes... Yug' wouldn't'a gotten away with any of that, everyone knows that Yug' can do that stuff.)
(So maybe I should pretend I don't realize this is all fake, an' let 'em all think I'm that stupid if they will. Then I can do somethin' smart an' show 'em up!)
Joey beamed, proud of himself for coming up with a strategy. ('Course, it's probably not gonna work... )
Little did Joey know that he'd just discovered one of the main strategies of dueling: being underestimated was arguably the most powerful advantage in the game. Neither did he know that it was a strategy his mentor Yugi used far more often than he could admit. There were plenty of things that Joey didn't know... But fortunately for him, he was a damn quick learner...
10.
Spoilers: Joey v. Idiot Lawyer Man, over custody of the body
/The hell was that?/
/What was what, Yami?/ Yugi asked, very quickly.
/Why on earth did you give her your coat like that?!/
/'Cause it's cold out here!/
/Exactly! It's cold out here, which is why you should have kept the thing./
/It's called politeness, chivalry. It's the right thing to do!/
/So you think that she can't handle the cold as well as you can?/
/Well, yeah!/
/Isn't that just a little insulting?/
/Um... Well, she's not complaining..../
/Of course not, she gets a jacket out of it while you try to get her not to notice that you're jumping around shivering!/
/Um... what?/
/This puts many things into perspective. That 'women's movement' thing.../
/After your time./
/Yes, back in my day, we didn't give women our coats./
/God in heaven, Yami! Back in your day, you didn't even HAVE coats!!/
/All right, you have a point, but I still think you're letting her use you terribly./
/YAMI!/
/Oh, right, sue me for missing a few thousand years of the evolution of protocol./
/You told me yourself you know what I know!!/
/... What are we talking about?/
/I don't know, you lost me about twenty minutes ago./
/Weren't we still in that maze twenty minutes ago?/
/What maze?/
/The, the thing, with the doors and the same room over and over again./
/Yeah, what about it?/
/Um... We were still in it twenty minutes ago./
/Were we?/
/I think so.../
/Why were we talking about the maze?/
/Um, I think it had to do with women's rights./
/The hell were we talking about that for?/
/Since when do you say stuff like 'the hell'?/
/Since when do you say 'stuff'?/
/Since when... Where are we again?/
/What were we talking about?/
/No, where the hell are we?!/
/Don't we know?!/
/I think we.../
"Hey, look!" Téa said, aware of the cold, but not of Yugi's extreme distraction. "A door!"
/Should we go through it...?/
/Wha-- YES!/ Yami yelled mentally, as he suddenly realized how dangerously out of it they were.
/But what if there's something--/
/Let's GO!/
Yugi and Téa went through the door and found themselves in a large courtroom.
"Joey!" Yugi cried, surprised.
/Yugi?/
/Um, yeah?/
/Get your damn coat back./
/Wha?/
/Neither of us can think straight in the cold, get your damn coat back./
/It's cold?/
/GET THE DAMN COAT!/
Yugi slowly became more aware as he say by Téa on the bench.
/Was I saying something?/
/I don't think so./
/I thought I was saying something.../
/Can't remember./
/I should know what I was saying.../
/Blame hypothermia and let's get past it, hmm?/
/I was--/
/Look! Joey's in a duel./
/Oh yeah! Oh, man! Look at the guy that dude is! Card! Whatever! With the--/
/Good, now explain that to them./
Yami sighed in relief as Yugi did.
11.
Spoliers: Same as above.
Notes:
Based on my theory of Joey and his family. His mother is completely made by me, except that she exists and left a long time ago. All details as to her past, and as to Joey's teacher, and as to just about everything else in this one, is completely my opinion. You didn't miss anything.
"I still think you could be anything," she'd said.
"Yeah, well, you don't have much company," he'd said.
"Then everyone else is an idiot. Give it a try, Joey!"
"Give what a try?"
"Try in your school, try to read more, try more in everything. I know you aren't."
"I couldn't be anythin', ma."
"You're just trying to tell me you think you're doomed to a life at a fast-food restaraunt."
"I was thinking maybe a welder, but yeah."
She used a startlingly rude word to display her incredulousness. "That might work on everyone else, Joey, but NOT me."
"What might work?"
"That little 'I'm stupid, I can't do nothin'' thing you've got going on. I don't buy it."
"My teachers do."
"Your teachers are morons. None think you're worth anything?"
"Well... there's this one psychopath who's tryin' t'tutor me..."
"Let her! You could do this, Joey."
"No I couldn't."
"Yes, you could! Joey-- if you won't for yourself, think of your sister. You think you aren't worth anything? Well, she doesn't. Go prove her right. You'll surprise yourself, I'm sure."
"...I ain't gonna be a doctor."
"And why not?"
"I, uh, really kinda don't like needles an' all."
"Okay then. That's valid. So be a lawyer."
"Wha?! An' be in all those jokes?!"
"Not all lawyers are evil, Joey. A lot of them are good and do good things!"
"Don't you have to know a lot of stuff for that, like pre... pre... dammit... Precedents?"
"Yep."
"I seen those books in the library! They got shelves of the things! I ain't learning all that!"
"So? You could be a lawyer, or an engineer, or an architect, or a realtor, or anything you wanted, Joey!"
"..."
"Give it a try, Joey. For us, okay?"
"...Ah, all right, if it'll get you all off my back, what the hell..."
"And work on the grammar first. And the vocabulary. Sadly neglected."
Joey looked at the ugly psuedo-judge.
(A lawyer, huh?) he thought. (Pretty far-fetched... Still... If I were a prosecutor or a defense attorney or something... That would be pretty damn cool...)
"One hundred and thirty-two, Joey," his psychopath teacher had said when he'd brought it up, smiling softly. "Got an advantage over 98 of the population already. Why the hell not?"
And then she'd thrown a textbook at him, as she had a really annoying habit of doing. "Wanna add it in with the others?"
He'd thrown up his hands. "Fine! Fine. I'll read the damn thing, but I won't understand a word!"
(Except I kinda did understand a few of the words, didn't I?...)
He drew a card, feeling a lot better now that Yugi was sitting there behind him. "Assault, battery, judicial misconduct... Gotta look up the ethics codes when I get the hell out of here... Not that this guy's gonna be anything but a disembodied spirit when I do..."
"What was that?" the psuedo-judge demanded.
"Man, there's gotta be a hundred ways you're breakin' the ethics code right now," he said defiantly. "And when I beat you, I'm gonna look 'em all up, just for the hell of it, 'cos you know where you'll be? Still dead. And you know where I'll be? Still struggling with my stupid hair every morning. Stuff won't stay down right, it sucks. But guess what? You ain't never gonna know. And the bar's never gonna be able to give your butt the kicking it so richly deserves. Or am I in contempt?"
The psuedo-judge glared at him and opened his mouth.
"You're damn right I got contempt of this court. I got more'n enough to flood this damn place. But let's forget that and get to the part where I wipe your psuedo-judicial butt all over this courtroom!!"
"He used the word 'psuedo'," Téa whispered, impressed.
"It's a prefix," Yugi said absently.
/And that is because that Joey kid is damn smart. They'll never believe it, but he is./
Joey thought of his mother, who had never finished law school, and all the half-forgotten days of reading the textbooks she'd left behind. Why the hell not?
"I got a lawyer," he said. "Bring it on."
12.
Spoilers: The day of Serenity's operation, and also there's a mention of a KaibaCorp blimp.
Notes:
Again, very little of this is canon, you didn't miss anything. Joey's mom, while she exists and is alive in the series, was never shown talking to Yami or really doing anything after the day of S's operation. All I know is she's a brunette.
Apparently-- I haven't got any proof of this except from a novel but it jibes completely with the animé I've seen-- in Japanese divorce law, the father always gets the oldest child. It does make a lot of sense, except that it's completely idiotic... But it makes sense with the plot...
She was very nervous.
(Shouldn't have let either of them go anywhere near that crazy thing...)
Another to add to her list of mistakes; it was, however, probably dwarfed by all the others.
(Look at these rumors. Magic, and holograms that can kill you, and, and...)
(Shouldn't be reading this.)
She closed the window of the Duel Monsters discussion board and was left staring at something more concrete; a major news magazine's article on "The Darker Side of Duel Monsters: Innocent Game, or Evil Cult?"
(If it were some conservative thing...) But it wasn't; this magazine, if it was biased at all, most certainly leaned toward the liberal. They wouldn't print a story like this just for the hell of it...
(Well of COURSE they would!! That story about the sharks all the other summer...)
(But they'd have to have something to back it up...)
She narrowed her eyes as she read the sidebar. "Industrial Illusions..."
The former CEO of that corporation had been hospitalized for some sort of psychotic break-- after holding a tournament--which Joey had been at-- and won the money they'd needed so much.
(My son... In the same house as that psychopath??)
(Castle... it was a castle, it said very specifically... Not a house, a castle...)
(...No, I'm still stuck on the house.)
She sighed, let her head drop a little. (I got Serenity away...)
(I should have taken him, too. To hell with the law, I should have taken him anyway.)
She sighed again; she'd taken up that argument with herself a thousand times, and it hadn't done any good. (What's done is done, and he turned out okay, better than okay; that's what matters.)
(He shouldn't have been in that tournament. Money or no money, he shouldn't be in the same county as--)
She stopped.
"Technology company KaibaCorp," the sidebar read, "has taken over Industrial Illiusions' grasp on the Duel Monsters market, adding new technology to the game, such as startlingly realistic holograms."
(He mentioned a Kaiba... He mentioned several Kaibas. He mentioned a KaibaCorp...)
She skimmed through the rest quickly. Seto Kaiba was apparently a very young, very brilliant... psychopath. God knew she was reading the worst into it, yes, but...
(They say he's got vendettas against people... Yugi?! That sweet little spiky-haired kid?! Or was that his older brother? They looked so alike, I can't remember... No, the kid was Yugi. His brother... I don't think he ever mentioned his name, no. Nice kid though, really bright.)
(Really bright. Too mature for his age, too reserved, but he caught Joey's concussion before anyone else did... Thirteen hours and he hadn't been able to find home or the hospital... I should have known that something was wrong...)
(And I would have picked up on it, yes, but he saw it first, and I think I owe him for that.)
Yes, the taller spiky-haired kid had come in, looking slightly worried.
"Is Joey all right?" he'd asked.
She'd blinked at him, not anywhere near her best. "What?..."
"He said that he was accosted in the alley last night, around-- I don't know-- it would have had to have been eight o'clock at the latest, probably six or seven. What time is it now, about nine? Later? Maybe eight? Either way... If he was unconscious in that alley for all of that time, I personally would be concerned. If he wasn't unconscious in that alley for all of that time, and he couldn't find his home, or the hospital, or anywhere else he might find help... Well. I know... possibly I know less than nothing about the medical sciences, but I don't think that could possibly be a good thing..."
She'd stared at him as in sunk in-- then ran to Joey.
"Joey? Where were you last night?"
He'd looked at her blearily. "Told y', got beat up by some stupid morons in hoods..."
"After that." She'd held his shoulders, staring straight into his eyes to keep his attention; yes, his spiky-haired friend was right, something had to be wrong here.
"Uh... I was... I was tryin' to get to the 'ospital, but I couldn't fig'r out where I was, and I had a headache, an' I was dizzy, an' I felt kinda sick..."
Now that she was looking for it, Joey looked like hell. He'd seemed fine when he'd gotten there, yes, but that supply of strength seemed to have faded, and the clarity he'd had while talking Serenity out of that room must have been something he'd pulled out of necessity...
"Still feel a li'l sick..." he murmured, sounding half-awake.
Yes, now that she was looking for it, Joey very obviously had a concussion. How he'd recovered enough to be so lucid when Serenity needed him... Well, there was undoubtably mercy in the world somewhere; some of it apparently had floated their way.
She trusted that kid... man... she wasn't even sure which term to use when describing him; he seemed very old, but looked young... and there was something else that was young in him too...
Either way, she trusted him as much as she'd ever trusted anybody after the divorce; he hadn't really given her that much reason, but he had some sort of aura... Dark, and very old, and very wise. He seemed the sort of person who would keep secrets and give advice as well as he could, but admit it when he didn't know enough to help. He seemed like a guy... who did the right thing, a little like Serenity, and Joey, and Yugi, for that matter....
So she'd grabbed his arm when she'd seen him, just before her only children had embarked on this debacle.
"Is this... Are they going to be... This is safe, right?" she'd asked.
He'd looked at her, unhappy, in a way that said he knew the truth very well but wasn't completely sure that he should tell her.
"No," he'd said simply.
"I... But they're not going to get hurt or anything, right...?"
Another pause; she decided she didn't like it when he paused.
"I can't guarantee it..."
"But it's not like I should, should forbid them to go or anything..."
"... In truth, forbidding them to go would probably be a very wise idea."
A shadow crept behind his eyes, like some sort of cloud. "Things... tend to happen in tournaments associated with this game, as I'm sure you'll find out. Do I think he'll be in physical danger? No. But... This game seems to atttract all of the other sorts of danger, and sometimes even physical danger as well...."
"...Do you think... Do you think there's any way I can stop them?" She'd known it was ridiculous, asking for advice about her children from a sixteen/twenty-one/two hundred-year-old, but somehow she couldn't convince herself he wasn't qualified.
He'd smiled faintly. "Serenity will follow Joey, and I've been trying to dissuade Joey from entering this tournament since before it began. You could tell him he'll be endangering Serenity, but if Serenity hears that, she'll be all the more set on going, and either he'll have to stay behind with her, or she'll come along with him..."
"Why can't they both stay?" Her voice sounded ridiculously small, like a child asking where the family dog went when it died.
"For Joey, it's part pride and stubbornness. He likes that he's good at something... He wants it to be widely known that he's good at something."
"He didn't prove that the last time?"
He'd smiled more widely and shook his head. "Not to everybody. There are still many very important holdouts... Actually, nobody takes him seriously-- maybe not ever. So I suppose I understand why he's willing to go through this tournament to prove himself."
"Oh..."
"But that isn't all. He also wants to be there for me, I'm afraid... I can't persuade him that I'd really be much happier if I knew he was safe, far away. Perhaps in Canada."
She'd smiled and nodded. "That," she'd said fondly, "is my Joey."
"And also, he made someone else a promise to be here and help... He doesn't break his promises if he can help it."
"That," she'd said, smiling brokenly, "is also my Joey."
He'd paused. "I think you should know that your son is very smart, very brave, and very loyal. I think you should know that with your help, he's finally starting to learn that. He is, fortunately, one of the fastest learners I have ever met."
She smiled. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He'd smiled graciously, then sighed.
"What is it?"
He'd looked at her, a measuring look in his very strange eyes. She'd suddenly started to wonder exactly how old he was, anyway, and who he was, and what had happened to him before she'd met him....
"A nagging feeling," he'd finally said, his voice very low and quiet. "One of those feelings that everything terrible that is happening right now and will happen in the near and not-so-near future is entirely my fault."
She still wasn't entirely sure what he meant, but she understood the sentiment very well.
"Can you prove it wrong?" she'd asked.
Silently he shook his head.
She'd nodded quietly, symapthetic.
That, she suddenly realized, was why he'd confided in her. She understood, and he could tell that she did.
She sighed and looked back at her computer screen. (Yugi Moto...)
(The common link...) she thought, as something began to emerge from the back of her mind. (All these things in this article, almost all of them he's been involved, or gotten involved, or been the reason the whole thing started...)
(Is that what he meant?)
It had to be. It was all coming together; Yugi Moto and his brother-- suddenly she didn't quite believe that the taller man was Yugi's brother-- were objects of fascination to this, this Duel Monsters cult that seemed to exist. Which was why man-who-looked-like-Yugi thought it was all his fault, and why Joey kept getting sucked into it with him.
She looked at the report again. Disappearances, psychotic breaks...
(Whether it really is his fault or not, he thinks it is; I should know. He thinks he's causing all this, and he doesn't like it, because it's hurting his friends, and also people who aren't his friends. He doesn't want Joey involved, but Joey keeps coming because he's Joey and he's loyal to his friends, and every time Joey tags along his friends get into danger, and it worries the hell out of him...)
She had no logical basis for this. None at all. It could all be explained as bad luck and coincidence; there was no reason to suspect a pattern at all...
Except a blimp, and a concussion, and an ancient-looking pair of red-purple eyes...
She could never prove it, but she knew it was true.
She spent a long time staring at the picture of Yugi on the computer.
13.
Spoilers: If you're still wondering what's wrong with the Big Five that they haven't tried to pick off any of the three least experienced duelists in the field yet, you're too early.
Notes:
just after seeing the ep No way this is going to happen in the next episode, but dammit, it should, and that's what these are all about.
Computers, when they were first made, were dependent on vaccum tubes. That has long since been improved.
She'd been shocked that he actually admitted it.
It had done no harm, of course; she wasn't a moron, and she was on speaking terms with her brother. And Joey had gone on for ages about how Yugi had taught him everything he knew and that was why he was following him. So when Tristan had started saying those silly things about how he was her brother's mentor, she'd been shocked for a few seconds. But after a minute, she'd figured out that he was just trying to impress her, and, well, she let him.
She hadn't expected him to ever actually admit he'd been lying.
She'd been stringing them both along a lot the past hour or two, partly because she was annoyed with them, and partly because she was scared and...she wanted someone to protect her.
(Yeah. I wanted someone to protect me.)
She looked at herself in a kind of disgusted awe. (How could I let them do that!)
She didn't know what was going on, and she needed someone to protect her, but neither did they, and...
And...
(And that's what that pile of scrap metal has been doing, attacking me all these turns. He knew they, being cutely brave but morons as well, would spend all their time trying to protect me, and we'd all fall down.)
(He was using us....)
"Serenity!" Duke cried, desperately. "Come on, none of us will get out of here if we don't keep fighting!"
"Sixty seconds," she said, voice low.
(He was using me, because he thought I was weak, and you know what I did? I proved him right. I bleeping proved him right.)
Something in the back of her head was slowly stirring.
(He thinks I'm weak, and he thinks I'm a moron, and all I'm doing is proving him right.)
A slow, cold fury was slowly seeping through her mind.
(This,) she realized suddenly, (is why Joey came here. This. Everyone thinks he's weak, and they think he's a moron, and they try to use him to get at his friends, and that-- that's the worst thing in the world.)
And here she was, on her knees, sobbing like a little girl, weak, helpless, and proving the rusty bucket of bolts over there right.
(No.)
No, not anymore and never again. She made a mistake; she'd fix it. Tristan was coming back, and that stupid robot was going to get stuck upside-down next to Satan in the centermost circle of hell.
(Hell no.)
She was not weak. She wasn't weak, and she wouldn't be weak, and she wasn't depending on everybody else anymore.
(Joey has the right of it.)
(I bet he thinks that I'm either going to sit here and keep crying and be useless, or be so angry that I'm reckless and get us beaten too. Well, no. Hell no!)
She rose, slowly, keeping her head down.
(There are cards that bring monsters back from the graveyard. If I bring his Deck Master back, won't he come too?)
(I know what I need to now, and Joey taught me the basics of this-- the basics of all of this. Duel Monsters and fighting psychos and standing up because that's what people do--)
(Joey taught me this, and if he can do it, I can too, because I'm not some weak and stupid little girl! My name is Serenity Wheeler, sister of Joey, daughter of a woman who braves her own burning fire every day, and I have fought against doctors and lawyers and the government and my own body, and this dolt isn't gonna stop me!!)
(YOU WILL NOT USE ME, EVER AGAIN!!)
"What the hell are you waiting for!" she snapped. "Scared? Of course not, you're too damn stupid."
Duke's head snapped around and he stared at Serenity like he'd never seen her before. Maybe he hadn't.
"Come on, you worthless pile of vaccum tubes! Scared of the tiny little girl? You weren't before, because humans are weak, particularly the females... And also? Change your syntax there. You call me 'female' again, I'm gonna reprogram you with a hatchet."
She was trembling, she was scared out of her mind, she was mourning, she was furious, and she was strong.
(Try it. Go ahead. You are not using me ever again. You are not using me, ever again.)
Somewhere in a tunnel, Joey stopped stock-still and Yugi tripped over a rock.
"Guys?" Téa asked, slightly bemused, and held out a hand to Yugi.
/...What was that??/
"The hell?" Joey said softly, holding a hand to his head and sounding slightly unnerved.
"What's the matter?" Téa glanced at them both.
"Somethin' just... Dunno... It was like..." Joey trailed off, then shook his head violently. "Nah, it was probably nothin'," he said.
/Translation: That scared the hell out of me./
"C'mon... We'd better go find S'renity." Joey started running again.
/Translation: It was something to do with Serenity and I'm scared out of my mind./
/Thanks for the translation there, but I kinda got it, Yami.../ Yugi was trying to focus on keeping up with everyone, talking to Yami, and trying to figure out what had just happened all at once.
Yami helpfully started to help him figure it out, easing the load. /It must have been Serenity./
/It didn't seem like her.../ Yugi shivered.
/Something's gotten her very angry./
/That's bad, right?/
/Well, if she's angry, it means something has happened to make her angry, and most likely it's something to do with the Fab Five./
/"Big Five"./
/I am expressing my contempt for them by refusing to remember what they call themselves./
/Yaamii.../
/However, on a brighter note, I doubt that whatever she's angry at will be having a very nice time in the near future./
/What makes you think that?/
/She's a Wheeler,/ Yami said simply. /That family has power./
/Power?/
/Yes, power. You haven't noticed?/
/Well... I've been trying not to notice that kind of thing.../
/Well, you don't need to be as psychic as you are to sense it. It's just common sense; look at Joey. He's here, is he not? He changed in a few weeks from someone who couldn't beat Téa to someone who came remarkably close to beating us./
/Are you, by any chance, ever just a little arrogant?/
/Oh come on, you know we're good./
/It's still a bit snobbish to say it like that./
/Yugi.../
/Yes, yes, not the point. What kind of power?/
/All kinds, really. You felt that flash, Yugi. Rage and power and defiance./
/Rage and defiance... Well, yes.../
/Yugi, it hit you so hard that you tripped over a rock. You may be extraordinairily psychic, but that still takes quite a bit of power./
/Well.../
/You couldn't even think for a second, it was so powerful!/
/How did you know that?!/
/I know absolutely nothing that goes on in your mind, Yugi, and I'm also completely blind to psychic phenomena. I myself didn't sense it at all./
/...Please don't use the irony next time, Yami. I'll have to hurt you./
/Sorry./
/Okay, it was powerful. But Serenity's a novice.../
/Yes, but from that flash, I imagine she's just learned something the very, very hard way. She's not an idiot by any standards, and she does know the basics of Duel Monsters, as well as several strategies the top duelists have used. That power... Would you want to face it?/
/...Yes, I see. You're right./
/Really? Oh, good. I was getting so tired of being wrong all the time./
/Don't make me come in there, Yami, we've got better things to do./
/...I could take you./
/What the hell is wrong with you?!/
/...Sorry. I just get very proud when Joey... What's the term? Something or other and takes names. It's nice to see him prove them all wrong./
/So it was the duel he just won?/
/Yes./
/...Yeah, he did take names, didn't he?/
/And we taught him everything he knows./
/Yeah, that's pretty darn cool./
/We should tell him that someday./
/Yami, shh./