Inwe: So... another chapter! Don't blame me for my unoriginality in the previous chapter. Thank you so much for the reviews! I have 50! This chap is ahead in time, but I'll explain what happened earlier during the chapter. BTW, kai4eva90, you asked some questions. First of all, she fainted because she nearly killed herself and all, so she was kind of a little shocked. Second of all, I thought I explained that Yami saved her life by activating the card at the last moment. If you remember the RPG arc (eps 43-45) then you'll know about how this works.

P.S A lot of the words I'm using I got from the thesaurus...

Chapter 6: Not Quite Peaceful

The fire crackled warmly in the crisp night air. Occasionally sparks would fly out of the blaze, so no one wanted to sit too close to the fire. On a night like this there would ordinarily be a large assortment of sounds from various cricket species, but this was no ordinary world. A vast pile of brushwood and tree branches sat close beside the fire, but most of it probably wouldn't be used. The gang had set up camp on the edge of a forest. They had no camping supplies, so they had to make do with sleeping on the ground. Fortunately, there were no bumps in the ground; the virtual world was too perfect for that. The trees on the borderline of the forest stood in a repeated pattern, a stubby one, a tall one, an enormous one, a middle-sized, then another stubby one.

Not that any of the gang noticed this; they were deep in conversation with each other. Well, Mai was on the border between sleep and waking, apparently more towards the sleeping side; she seemed oblivious to the fact that her head had drooped left onto Joey's shoulder. Joey was obviously doing his best to ignore this fact, staring straight ahead. But you could tell his concentration wasn't 'all there', as the answers he gave were merely one or two word answers. Tristan found it particularly hilarious. It was his idea of a joke to say something along the lines of,

"Hey Joey, would you mind if I gave your Red Eyes back to Rex Raptor?"

Joey nodded and muttered, "Mmmm..." in reply.

"Alright, you asked for it!" Tristan walked over to Joey and reached down for his deck. Joey snapped out of his trance,

"Hey, what the hell are you doin' dat for?" he said in an only moderately loud, but very irritated tone.

"Nothing," Tristan answered in an innocent voice, raising his eyebrows to add to the effect, "You just said I could give your Red Eyes back to Rex Raptor! So I thought..."

Joey jumped up, forgetting about Mai completely for a second. "Tristan! Wipe dat smirk off your face! I didn' say dat you could take it! How..."

Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten Mai. And she didn't look too happy, too put it mildly,

"Joseph Wheeler!"

But he wasn't the only one that was out of it. Téa was re-enacting what had happened earlier, in her mind, trying to understand what was going on.

*Flashback*

Téa woke to find herself resting on the body of... what was it? The body gleamed gold as the sunlight reflected off it. The light was dazzling, after spending ten minutes in darkness. Her vision was still been blurred, but somehow she could see... two Yugis? Her mind sluggishly put together the details. Recognition flooded over her. Of course. Yugi and Yami had separate bodies.

She made a soft moaning sound as she struggled upright into a sitting position. Yugi turned at this.

"You alright now, Téa?" he asked.

Téa shook her head vigorously. A sharp pain jolted through her head and she grimaced in pain.

"I'm fine..." she said, her voice just above a whisper.

She looked around to see where the others were, suddenly becoming aware that no one was behind her, and only Yami and Yugi were in front, side by side. A dragon even bigger than the one she was riding on was beside her, with its ash black body and luminous red eyes. Joey was controlling this dragon, showing off quite a bit. The dragon wheeled around and dived, glided, then soared back upwards. Mai was on the same dragon, she seemed to be half-laughing, but at the same time she was screaming,

"JOSEPH! STOP THIS INSTANT!"

Tristan, Serenity and Bakura were on the last dragon, a smaller blue one, with a more comical face. Téa turned back to Yugi, but found that he had looked away, and Yami was there instead.

"I think you should move closer to Yugi and I, just so you don't slip off," he said in his resonant tone.

Téa suddenly became aware of how close she was to falling off the back of the dragon. With no wish to fall again, she slid closer, now looking every where but into Yami's eyes. Those piercing violet eyes somehow always made her feel like he could look into her thoughts.

"Thank you," she said abruptly, remembering what had happened earlier.

"It's my pleasure, Téa," he said, and Téa felt her stomach do a kind of complicated backflip.

The beast flew on. Yugi was still in control of the dragon and the thrill of riding the dragon had worn off. Suddenly there came a cry from below,

"I think we should land here! It looks safe!" Bakura shouted.

"OK! You guys OK with dat?" Joey shouted back, directed the last part towards Yugi, Yami and Tea.

"Right!" Yugi yelled back.

First Tristan, Serenity and Bakura dropped downwards, then Joey and Mai, lastly Yugi, Yami and Tea. The drop was sudden, and it took Tea by surprise. She had the horrible feeling she was going to fall and gripped her hands around Yami's waist, shutting her eyes tight.

*End Flashback*

Her thoughts stopped there. She looked around the group, last of all her eyes falling on Yami, sitting across from her. The conversation suddenly changed and a question was directed at her by Serenity,

"Tea, I wanted to ask you before, how are you feeling?"

Tea looked down as all the attention was turned to her. The gaze that flustered her most was...Yami's. (~*gasp*~)

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Craine swore loudly. (~*insert swear word here*~) Nothing was going to plan. Yet.

"Stop this madness!" moaned a voice from inside Craine's head.

"Never!" he said back in his grating voice, "I must gain the Millennium Puzzle! We must have a Millennium item of our own!"

"Why? Why must it be the Millennium Puzzle? And why must you turn this into a search for the items? This game was supposed to help people, not hurt them!" whimpered the voice, this time speaking out loud.

"Yugi's item is the most important to me! The most powerful duellist in the world is bound to have the most powerful item!"

"Why must you do this? It won't work! You need to win it in a duel!" spoke the first voice.

"I know that you fool! I will duel the spirit of the Puzzle! First I will take out his friends... and loved ones and force him to duel me! In his own body he will be able to feel real, complex emotion. He will be too stricken by grief to duel at his best, and I will have the Puzzle!" grated the second voice.

"Y-you're mad! You can't!"

"Oh, believe me, I can!"

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Yami was watching everyone speak, feeling rather uncomfortable. He felt... there wasn't a word to describe it really. He had never been able to just sit and enjoy himself; he was only called upon, normally, for a purpose, usually a duel. He felt kind of... exposed. It was equally strange to see Yugi sitting right next him, they had of course spoken in two different bodies, but that was in the soul room. Everyone seemed content and lively but Yami just felt almost self-conscious. When someone directed a question to him, he would answer politely but with no real emotion involved. And there was something else too, but he couldn't quite think of what it was, maybe...

"Guys? I think we should sleep for the night. Who knows what going to happen tomorrow?" Bakura said loudly, interrupting Joey and Mai's heated argument (~they argue a lot in my fic~) and everyone else's conversation.

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The group trudged through the wilderness, in the late hours of the morning. None of them could be sure of what the time was, their watches seemed to have malfunctioned. They hadn't met with any danger, and this was strangely unnerving. The forest seemed too dense with trees to travel through there, so they decided to walk around the periphery of the forest until they found a way past. They were now plodding along the banks of a vast lake. As they spent more time in the virtual world, things started to feel more real. The sun was blazing down upon them, they could hear and feel the cool, wet mud squelching beneath their feet and feel the tickling of tree branches as they brushed against them. It was strangely peaceful and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Well, all except Joey and Mai, who hadn't seemed to have forgotten their argument too quickly.

The two repeatedly threw cold glances at each other, but as the morning wore on, the looks became less cold. The gang walked mainly in silence, there really wasn't much to say, after exhausting their conversation topics the previous night. Time passed fairly slowly, without much of a change in scenery, apart from the occasional tree, bush or rock.

After what seemed like hours they saw another cliff face with a small cave carved into the side. Each of them instinctively moved towards what they thought would probably a place containing shelter.

Tea stepped into the cave first. What she saw made her step back in astonishment.

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That was the chapter! It was 1700 words long... long enough for you guys? Well, why don't you review? (that's an order, NOT a request) ^_~

P.S. Sorry, I won't be able to update quickly, because I have an assignment due AND I'm going to Queensland...