Sakakku

x

Notes: I offer NO promise that the quotes I used from the episodes will be accurate. In fact, several times I intentionally changed them. The overall themes, however, are the same.

Um… people knew this was going to be JoeyMai, right? That was practically the only couple I knew was going to be consistent, because I've had this chapter planned from the beginning.

This is a reposting of the chapter. I can now guarantee that the scene between Joey and Mai when they first met is accurate. I argued fiercely against my family getting DVR, but it did come in handy. When the episode was finally on, I watched it over and over and transcribed furiously. ::wide grin:: It's better than I remember… ::sigh:: But Joey's a moron.

x

x

x

Chapter 29

xXx

Téa shifted restlessly. Ever since her recapture, she'd been placed in a different room, a much less welcoming one (not that she'd particularly enjoyed the last one). It was small, dark, contained only a cot, and lit only by a single small window. There was no chance of escaping by that- not that she hadn't tried. But it was too high up, first of all, and anyway it was too tiny for even her head.

But she'd been hearing the weirdest noises.

Shivering, she nudged the cot over with her foot until it was positioned under the window and hopped up. If she stood on her tiptoes, she could see the very top of the wall.

Except… her eyes widened. The wall wasn't there anymore! It had been replaced by a giant dark bubble, reminiscent of the one Pegasus had created when he dueled Yugi! She tried desperately to see some more, but nothing was moving. Growling in frustration, she dropped down from the bed and leaned against the door, pressing her ear against the cold stone, trying futilely to hear anything that would tell her how her friends were.

xXx

Ishizu's eyes went completely blank. Shoulders rigid, her mouth opened automatically, moving in shapes that didn't quite seem to correspond with the words.

"Ishizu!" Shadi said urgently, grasping her arms.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come out here," Pegasus said worriedly. Mokuba forgot all past wariness of Kimo and tried to shrink back under the older man's coat.

They were standing on the steps of the temple, having emerged from the hidden underground area. They were the only five left- they had traveled together all the way to Akuma, met up with most of their long-sought friends, only to have the group disperse once again. Now everyone was in the palace, with the exception of Odion who wouldn't have made it there yet. All the five could do was trust to fate and hope that their friends could band together and fight the evil lurking in Marik and Bakura.

Unfortunately, when they stepped outside, they saw that the whole of the palace was coated with a seething black mass. Their friends and family were doing battle in there- inside the shadows. Pegasus himself had created one of these bubbles- a secluded area of the Shadow Realm, brought to this world but impenetrable from the outside.

"Seto's stuck in there?" Mokuba had asked in a quivery voice, and then Ishizu's face had gone blank and she'd started speaking.

"Those who were present when the shadows erupted are trapped within their own minds," she said clearly if not loudly. "To free themselves from the shadows, they will have to come to terms with WHO THEY ARE."

WHO THEY ARE

WHO…

THEY…

ARE…

Joey looked around, startled. He'd clearly heard a voice, slicing through the swirling darkness. "Come to terms with who I am?" he wondered aloud. Something brushed against his shirtsleeve, and he turned to see a deathly pale Mai Valentine.

"Mai!" he said suddenly, moving as if to hug her, but abruptly the mist parted beneath his feet. He and Mai looked down at the same time and saw a scene that was, though entirely unexpected, strangely familiar.

"You think me losing my starchips is funny, Joey Wheeler?" Mai screeched, stamping her booted foot. "Those are mine! Give them back!" She reached out angrily towards his fist, and their hands collided in midair. Palm to palm, they froze, until Joey broke the silence.

"Of course they're yours, Mai," he said, pushing the small chips into her hand and, reluctantly it seemed, withdrawing his own hand.

Mai stared at the starchips, then up at the disheveled blonde boy. "R-really, Joey?"

"What on earth?" Mai wondered aloud, but the clouds were already shifting.

Joey moved slightly awkwardly in the over-large Rare Hunter robes. He was lurking in a small alcove right before a door that would lead to the palace, shuffling his feet on the edge of the grass.

"Man, Ishizu's going to kill me…" he moaned, but nevertheless carefully disentangled Bob from his loosely constructed 'pocket'.

"Where are we?"

"This is one of my memories," Joey said nervously. "D'you think we're trapped in our own minds?"

"Bob, my man," Joey said, placing the lizard on the ground and patting his head. "Wait for me, okay? Or, if it looks like I'm gonna die or am otherwise occupied, find your way out. It's just that I can't take you in with me. I don't know what's going to happen in there."

Joey hung his head. "Bob's probably still where I left him," he said. "When we get out of here, I'll have to remember to go back for him."

"I think we have slightly bigger problems, Joey Wheeler," Mai said in a voice that was slightly bordering on hysteria. "How do you know we're going to get out of here at all?"

"Don't look at me like that!" Joey put his hands on his hips and gave Bob a stern look. "It's not going to be a very pleasant time in there. You're much safer out here. Just- don't tell Ishizu, okay? I'll get you back soon and she'll never have to know."

"Did you hear a voice when we first got here?" Joey asked, trying to be practical. It wasn't a skill that came easily to him, unfortunately…

"Come to think of it, I did," she said, closing her eyes and trying to remember. "It said something like we have to come to terms with 'who we are'."

"Okay," he said, his voice growing excited. "So once we do that, maybe this weird Shadow-world will go away and we'll be back!"

"It sounds like that…" Mai said slowly.

"Yeah. So, uh… how do we come to terms with who we are?"

The ground shifted again, and new clouds of mist rolled in.

The small child gazed out the window. It was a beautiful, sad sight: The golden-haired girl was dressed in a lacy blue dress, and her loveliness was apparent even at the young age. But her large violet eyes were filled with tears as she stood on a huge, empty, unfriendly landing on the second floor of a forbidding mansion. She pressed her small hands to the glass of the picture-window and gazed out at the gray landscape; it was raining.

"Is that you?" Joey asked, his voice unexpectedly soft.

Mai felt her throat clench up. This was a memory she'd tried to repress, this along with a thousand other times when she'd been alone and afraid. It was a past long gone; she'd outgrown that stage. For a time she'd survived on her own, and then her façade had disappeared entirely. It had started when she met Yugi and Joey and the others, and living with Serenity had reformed her completely. She was no longer a lonely child; she was no longer a tough teenager pretending not to be lonely. But just because she'd opened herself up to new friends didn't mean she had to relive the past!

"Will Mother and Father be at dinner tonight?"

The elderly woman, dressed in white and black servant's clothes, was gently combing Mai's hair. Mai's question caused her to falter for a moment, however.

"I don't think so, dear. I believe that they are eating with some of your father's friends."

"Oh." She stared determinedly straight ahead.

"I know they'd rather be home with you, Mai darling-"

"No they wouldn't. It's okay."

Joey reached out and touched her arm. She repressed the urge to shake him violently away, clenching her teeth.

"Where are your parents now?"

"No idea," she responded flatly. "I lost contact with them ages ago. After I got my first job, I didn't need them for anything."

His silence disconcerted her, especially since this was Joey.

Under them, the clouds were parting to reveal another scene from their past, one she didn't recognize right away, because she hadn't paid much attention to it the first time.

"Well, what do we have here?" Mai asked succulently.

"Wow…" Joey breathed, staring at her with huge eyes.

"So, you're the Yugi kid everybody's talking about?" Mai questioned sweetly.

"Wa-hoo, check it out!" Joey whistled, like an idiot.

"But I'm amazed that a squirt like you could beat Kaiba! You're famous, you know," she said, leaning right over Yugi.

"Thanks very much I… think," Yugi said in a rush, blushing furiously.

"Hey, miss, I'm a really good friend of the famous Yugi, the master duelist! In fact,-" Joey began in an official tone, betrayed by his dopey smile, but Mai cut him off.

"Look, you're either a champ or a chump." Addressing Yugi, she said, "Cut this guy loose. He's fashion-challenged and deserves to be crushed in the games."

She sauntered away, and Joey watched her go with the same star-stricken big eyes. "Please, crush me…" he snickered.

Mai shot him a disparaging look over her shoulder. "I'll crush you all eventually," she said with great certainty, a hint of a smile upon her lips. "The name's Mai." Then she walked away without another word.

"I don't remember that," Joey said, his face burning.

She laughed aloud, relaxing after the previous painful image. "I do now, but just barely. It was when we first met."

"I figured," he said in a strangled voice, his face still a firey shade.

"Stop your crying, Joey Wheeler," Mai commanded imperiously. "You look like a big baby."

"I'm not crying," Joey lied defensively. "I've just got something stuck in my eye."

Mai watched him for a moment, then sighed. "Here, take this," she said, extending the handkerchief. Joey stared in wonderment as it parted slightly, revealing her tournament card.

"Now, that, I remember," Joey said quietly, watching the scene re-unfold. "You saved my life right there."

"It wasn't a big deal," she muttered, embarrassed.

Things swirled around them and a chill passed through the area. Mai squinted through the fog; it was thicker than before. Then her mouth parted in amazement at the new scene she saw.

Joey sat alone by Mai's bedside. The blonde girl was lying, unconscious, in just her underclothes under the sheets. She was breathing peacefully, but a certain dullness was set over her features, a certain lifelessness.

Joey's eyes were hidden from view. His head was bowed low. He didn't say anything, just sat there for an eternity, watching Mai.

Finally, he broke the silence.

"I swear to you, Mai… I will save you."

Joey and Mai exchanged pale, fearful glances. "I know that, logistically, if I were unconscious I wouldn't remember this," Mai whispered. "But I really don't remember it at all."

"Neither do I," Joey said slowly, shaking his head. "You don't think it's… the future, do you?" he asked anxiously.

Mai felt a stab of fear in her heart. "I hope not."

"It is not your future."

Joey and Mai whirled around. A woman was walking- or was she floating?- towards them through the mist.

"It is not your future," she repeated. "It is an alternate timeline."

"What happened?" Mai wondered aloud.

The woman's pretty face darkened. "You were banished to the Shadow Realm," she said, and Mai gasped. "By Marik."

"That's an alternate timeline?" Joey demanded, and the woman nodded. "Man, we were screwed even in that universe," he ground out, pounding his fist into his open palm.

"Who are you?" he suddenly asked, noticing that her features looked familiar. The second the question was out, however, he realized the answer.

The woman smiled sadly. "You don't know?"

He took in her blonde curls, her slender figure, her blue eyes. "Cecelia."

She nodded, then a light wind blew by and dissipated her figure. Mai drew back in astonishment.

They didn't speak for a while. Slowly, their eyes drifted back to the scene still playing out under them: Joey, sitting studiously by Mai's bedside.

"I WILL save you!" he shouted suddenly, jumping up. For the first time, they could see his face. It was lined with a thousand worries, and there were dark circles under his eyes, but there was also something deeper burning. His amber eyes blazed with a furious passion.

Joey started slightly.

"It looks…" Mai began, her eyes open in wonderment.

"What?" he asked quickly, turning to her.

"It looks…" she cast her eyes downward. Then, reluctantly, her gaze shifted back to the scene. "It looks like you love me," she breathed, almost against her will.

Joey was silent. Then slowly, he edged towards her. She turned to face him, staring directly in his eyes, and saw something of the passion she'd observed in the vision.

And slowly, slowly- so slowly- he put his arms around her, seeming relieved when she didn't shy away. She automatically tilted her head back, faintly registering that he was indeed slightly taller than her. But that was okay. Everything was okay as their lips met, and the shadows around them melted back into the blue skies and sunshine and green grass of the world they'd just left, except that there was a huge seething mass of shadows just off to their right.