Disclaimer: Don't own anything here. Except Craine and Jonothan. Who are boring anyway.

Inwe: I LIVE! I know, I know. Yet another slow update. But I have recently discovered that I have a life:gasp: Tehe. Yeah, so I have been busy with other things. Oh, and me and Luthien-Anwaman have been having a challenge where we have to write something about a canoe ride or similiar in this chapter of both our fics. I also want to thank some one or another who put this as their Fanfiction of the month. I'm not sure who it was, but that lightened up my day!

This chapter is dedicated to… well, I'm going to give it to Luthien-Anwaman, because the 100th reviewer actually sent the same review twice. :blinks: She's my regular reviewer closest to the 100 mark.

Chapter 10: Up River

Téa shook her head again, and blinked again. "Y- Yami? Is that you?"

She was sure she was hallucinating. She had hit her head pretty hard on that pile of leaves. She was feeling incredibly dizzy and was repeatedly shaking her head to clear it. It wasn't a good feeling in the slightest. Téa heard another crash as Joey and Tristan landed on the ground, bowling over Yami in the process. She screamed. Yami, Joey and Tristan stood up quickly and moved away from the place they had shot through. This was lucky, because Mai, followed by Serenity, Yugi and Bakura came through at that moment.

Téa, feeling overwhelmed, looked up at her friends and asked, "What just happened?"

The gang let out a huge cry of joy at seeing Téa. They rushed forward to pull her up and bombarded her with questions and cries of, "We thought you could be gone!"

"How did you find me?" she questioned.

"Yami, here, knew just where to find you. He was so worried…" said Yugi, grinning, and Téa flushed.

"We all were." Yami interjected. He wasn't so sure why he needed to let Tea know so urgently that he wasn't the only one worried, but for some reason, he did.

"Dat's right! But we need to get out of here… dis place is givin' me the creeps…" Joey said.

Without warning, Yami felt a strange sensation take over his body, not alike the feeling they all had when they had first arrived in the virtual world. In moments, he was no longer standing in the glen, but in a large conference room, empty but for two people.

"Thank you so much for joining us, pharaoh," said Craine, reclining self-assuredly back on his chair.

"Us?" said Yami.

Craine gestured vaguely to Jonothan.

"Straight to the point, I assume that you and your dear little friends would like to get out of your little world…" Craine stated. He seemed to have rehearsed this whole conversation, able to predict exactly what Yami was going to say.

"Yes, we would," Yami said bluntly.

"Wonderful," said Craine, "then you are just the person that I wish to converse with at this moment. How much would your friends be willing to stake to get you out of the virtual world?" Yami watched Craine cautiously.

"Anything within reason."

"And what is within reason? Do you count death?" Craine continued at a shake of the head from Yami, "Danger?"

Yami nodded, "Again, Craine, within reason. What sort of danger?"

"Pharaoh… have you ever been canoeing?"

Yami appeared on the screen in front of the gang.

"Craine has told me to tell you that you will be canoeing down an underground river, and we will be one step closer to getting out of this place. I'm not allowed to help you at this stage, but he says that he will put me back into the world once you are at your destination. I don't trust him, but this seems harmless enough. Follow the tunnel on your left until you reach the river. Craine is provided you with canoeing equipment. I'll meet you there. Good luck."

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"Oh, please. Tell me we aren't canoeing across that!" Mai said, as she stared warily at the river.

"What would you say if I told you dat… we are?" Joey answered, eyeing the river off in the same way.

"Look, I know that Craine told us that we were going to canoe down an underground river, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind," Yugi said.

The river was sure, a river. But the thing Craine seemed to have forgotten was the fact that the whole river was, instead of water, entirely filled with boiling, molten, scorching, blistering magma. The gang, minus Yami, was still about 100 metres away from the actual river, but already it was so hot it was as if they were having every bit of moisture in their bodies sucked away into oblivion.

"Hey! Look there!" Téa shouted, "There's something just ahead!"

"What? You mean the giant magma river? Uh… we can see it Téa!" Tristan said.

"No, no, no… Just ahead!" Téa yelled in exasperation, "Right there!" She pointed to a spot just ahead of the gang, where two canoes, paddles, and a collection of strange, white suits in various sizes.

Yugi ran forward. "These must be heat blocking suits…" he said, picking on up, "I knew that Craine wouldn't really make us just row across the magma without protection."

"Come on, Yugi, do you really dink some suit is goin' to protect us from dis?" Joey said, looking bewildered.

Yugi's shoulders slumped. Bakura piped up, "Actually, he might be right… Craine did create this world; he could do whatever he likes to this place, so these suits will probably override the system in some way…"

The gang nodded. "Fine, we'll put these on…" Téa muttered. She picked up the smallest suit.

"That'll be for Yugi!" Tristan laughed, snatching the suit from Téa and throwing it to Yugi. Yugi blushed and made a strange sound in his throat.

Once every member of the gang was clothed in one of the hideous suits, they set off down the path to the river, dragging the canoe behind them. The suits really did completely block out the heat, but they all had a terrible feeling that if one of them fell in, there would be problems. What would happen? Can you die in the virtual world? Maybe, like during the Noa saga, they would have to give up their bodies for some reason or another. Perhaps, medical research… Craine really did seem to be crazy. The idea filled them with a sense of cold dread.

Suddenly, Tristan cried out in alarm, after no one had spoken since they had put the suits on, "I CAN'T LET CRAINE TAKE OUT MY BRAIN AND PUT IT IN A HUMAN ROBOT, FOR HIM TO SEE IF IT WORKS! I'VE ALREADY HAD THAT HAPPEN WITH A MONKEY!"

"Tristan, he couldn't put it in a human robot, dere wouldn' be enough brain power to keep it alive. I mean… the monkey was fine…" Joey said with an air of pride, he'd been the one to make up an insult this time.

Tristan blinked and then shouted back at Joey, "Hey, at least a monkey has more intelligence than a goldfish!"

"My brain is bigger than a goldfish's!"

"IS NOT!"

"IS TO!"

"IS NOT!"

"IS TO!"

"Come on, guys, stop fighting. This is pointless. Joey, your brain isn't the size of a goldfish!" Mai interrupted.

Tristan and Joey both fell silent. Joey didn't dare ask if she meant his brain was bigger or smaller than a goldfish's.

By this time, they had reached the bank of the river. No one was making any move to put the canoes in the magma. All of them looked like they were wising that they could just walk away from the river, and magically turn up in a completely different place.

Téa bit her lip as she watched the magma churn with molten rock. "I guess… we can just get across this now. Yeah, we'll be fine!" she said, gathering up every last ounce of courage in her body. "We've done worse before!"

"You're right, Téa! We can do it! Ok, let's just get into these canoes, and we'll get to the opposite bank of the river. It shouldn't be too far." Yugi said, not all together confident himself, but he was smiling encouragingly at Joey, Tristan and Mai, who were still looking rather dubious.

After much encouragement, argument and downright difficulty, the gang managed to get themselves into both canoes, but the problem remained on how to get them in the magma, if they couldn't stand in it when they were pushing it in. They were all huddled in the two canoes (Joey, Mai, Tristan and Serenity in one boat, and Yugi, Téa and Bakura in the other) but they were still on dry ground, and they couldn't see any possible way to get the canoes into the magma. Suddenly, they felt the ground shift underneath them, and they were suddenly floating in the magma.

"This shouldn't be possible…" muttered Yugi, wincing, "The canoes should have burnt up… we should have burnt up… And how are we going to use the paddles in the magma…? It's too dense…"

"It's fine, Yugi… this is Craine's virtual world… he wouldn't have set us an impossible task, and he can do whatever he wants to this place," said Téa.

Tristan and Joey ended up using the paddles in the first boat, and Yugi and Bakura were using them in the other. Mai flatly refused to paddle, Joey flatly refused to let Serenity paddle, and Téa didn't seem to want to either. None of them actually wanted to do the paddling, but Yugi and Bakura decided that they should do it, since they were guys and Téa was a girl.

(A/N: I don't know much about canoeing, so if this is a little messed up, I'm sorry.)

Joey and Tristan took a few tentative strokes. The canoe moved forward, moving through the magma just about as smoothly as if they were going through water. The canoe wasn't moving smoothly at all though, Joey and Tristan were having considerable trouble moving the paddles in unison, and the canoe seemed to be constantly lurching from side to side. Mai rolled her eyes.

Yugi bit his lip and moved to the paddle through the magma. The canoe turned slightly to one side. Bakura grabbed onto the paddle and straightened to canoe out, so it was pointing forward. Both let out a huge sigh of relief. Téa grinned. "See, guys? It wasn't so hard!"

Joey and Tristan continued to struggle with the canoe. "Easy for you to say…" muttered Tristan, and Joey snorted. Both were immediately surprised at themselves. There was something about the tense atmosphere of this Virtual World that made tolerating each other much harder than what was normal. Instead of insults and other comments just bouncing off and being forgotten, they were settling under the skin and staying, and the memory of the insult stayed with them, niggling at their consciousness like a particularly annoying mosquito. In reality, they would have been a little exasperated by Téa's enthusiasm at the worst possible time, but here, it seemed to be a million times worse than usual.

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"This is crazy, Craine! What are you doing to my friends? I wouldn't have agreed to this if you had told me what they were really going to be doing!" Yami shouted at Craine, who was still looking placidly and unconcernedly at the screen.

"Pharaoh, pharaoh… Sit down. Would you like a drink? Your dear friends will be as right as rain…" Craine signaled at Jonothan, who brought a tray of cakes and drinks over to where Craine and Yami were. Yami looked absolutely disgusted.

"How can you sit there while my friends could be about to die? How can you?" Yami demanded.

"You're not helping your friends right now, are you pharaoh? You're worthless. They don't need you," Craine said, calmly, as though he was commenting on the weather.

Yami knew better than to respond. He sank down into the chair and watched intently at his friends' progress on the screen.

"Just out of interest, pharaoh… you don't think of her," Craine said, flicking his finger towards Téa, "as anything more than a friend, do you?"

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Téa had given up on any attempts to cheer up her friends, who seemed to be fixed on their current tasks. They didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, other than the fact that they were currently canoeing down an underground river filled with magma. But really, in their circumstances, it didn't seem to be as much of a threat as it would be in reality. Most things seemed to be different in this virtual world. Most feelings (hate, for example) were intensified, but the feel of the things around them seemed to have lessened considerably. The ground wasn't as hard, and water wasn't as wet. And of course… Yami had his own body now.

Téa's head still hurt from the fall, but nevertheless, she decided that this moment, the one where she was floating over magma in a ridiculous suit, was the moment that she was going to figure out her feelings for Yami. Her face didn't give a glimpse of the massive internal struggle that brought her to her conclusion.

I like him.

There. She had done it. Finally, she had admitted it to herself. Just that seemed to have lessened some kind of weight from herself to a large extent. She almost laughed out loud. She didn't think she would be admitting that anytime soon, let alone while her life lay in significant peril. There was one question remaining… WHY? She didn't have a clue. It was just like that. And she knew she'd thought that for a while. Téa knew there had to be a reason… but why try and figure it out now? She'd taken a huge step, and least she thought she had, and that was what mattered for the moment.

Téa was jolted out of her thoughts by a sudden scream coming from the other boat. Mai and Serenity were screaming, Tristan was shouting… and Joey, Joey had disappeared! Téa was filled with panic. Yugi and Bakura were urgently steering the boat over to the other boat.

"JOEY! JOEY! JOEY!" Mai and Serenity were screaming, and the whole cave sounded with his name.

"What happened?" Téa yelled in horror. How could he have fallen in?

Yugi and Bakura had brought the boat over to the other, and were fixatedly staring at the magma. Tristan was still shouting, looking ready to dive in after Joey. Serenity was sobbing, and Mai seemed to be as well, Téa couldn't tell. The two boats were alight with panic and terror, each person reacting differently to what had happened, but each different reaction meant the same thing; their friend was gone.

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Yami shot up out of his chair. "Joey! What did you do to him, Craine? Get him out of there. NOW!"

"Calm down, pharaoh… you'll see what will happen, all in good time."

Yami was shaking with anger. Something was telling him that nothing had happened to Joey. That Joey was safe, and Yami was hoping that that something was right.

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Joey hadn't resurfaced for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly, a drenched blonde head bobbed to the surface. It was of course, Joey, and he looked absolutely bewildered. He shook out some droplets from his hair, blinked, and said, "I-I'm not dead! I don't feel different at all…"

Mai almost fell out of the canoe. "You idiot! What the heck do you think you're doing? We were worried sick about you… and…" She looked furious, but Téa could see that behind her mask of fury, she was almost weary with relief.

"JOEY!" the rest of the gang shouted together. "We need to get you out of the magma and into the canoe." Tristan said, looking jubilant.

"You know, I really don't think this is magma…"

"What do you mean it's not magma, Joey? You almost died in there!" Mai positively shrieked at Joey, who was still looking confused.

"Some of de magma got inside my mask. It tastes like… water!" Joey said, splashing about in the water like a maniac. "It isn't dangerous at all!" He hauled himself into his canoe, almost making it topple over into the water.

"Be careful, Joey!" Yugi shouted to him, looking unbelievably glad to see him, just like the rest of the gang.

Joey flopped into the canoe, flooding the canoe with magma, or whatever it was. "I'm sorry I scared you, guys!" He said, for a moment looking sincere. "But this is not magma. I dunno what it is, but it's not magma." To demonstrate, he took one of his gloves off and dipped his fingers into the liquid that the canoes were floating in. His fingers came out, and they weren't horribly disfigured, and Joey didn't seem to be in pain.

"I think it's just coloured water, guys. It's orange food dye… or something…" Yugi said.

"But what about the heat… the way it looked…" Mai whispered, looking at Joey like it was the first time she'd ever done it properly.

"It could have just been an illusion. Craine did it, just to scare us." Bakura said, now picking up the oars again.

"We might as well just get out of here then…" Tristan said weakly. Everyone was still in quite a bit of shock. First Joey had disappeared, just like that, and now he was sitting in the canoe, drenched from head to toe, and looking like he'd had some of the best fun he'd had for a long time. It wasn't plausible. It wasn't reasonable. It wasn't conceivable. But it had happened, and the evidence was right before their eyes.

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Inwe: WHOO! Longest chapter yet! Please tell me what you think! (I think there was a bit of OOCness in that chapter, to tell you the truth)