2. Connections

The trip down the side tunnel turned out to be a waste of time. After walking for about twenty minutes down an increasingly narrow passageway, they decided to turn back to catch up with the others.

As they retraced their steps, Joey stuck close to Mai, partly because Evan the purser-from-hell was also sticking close to her, trying to strike up a conversation, but mostly because he was getting worried about her again. She had been uncharacteristically quiet since they left the others, walking stiffly with her hands jammed into her pockets and her head down. Every attempt either he or Evan made at conversation was either rebuffed or answered with one or two words.

When they reached the place where the two tunnels branched and headed down the one the torch-lit one, Joey noticed that Kaiba had fallen behind. Stopping, he looked back to find the young CEO reading the hieroglyphics painted on the walls.

"What's it say?" he asked.

"More nonsense about the 'three nameless pharaohs' and their 'selfish deeds' and the 'greatness of Ramesses.'"

Joey noted with some surprise that Kaiba sounded bitter. "Since when do you care?"

"I don't," Kaiba snapped, but Joey wasn't so sure. While Kaiba was always overly serious and Joey had never so much as seen him crack a smile that wasn't cold and calculating, there was something in his current somberness that was very unlike the Kaiba Joey was used to. Rather than gruff and caustic, there was an almost a sad quality to his eyes as he lingered on a bit of hieroglyphics on the wall. Reaching up with his hand, he touched one of the markings with something bordering on reverence. Then he scowled in disgust and turned away, muttering, "Please. There's a reason she's a Light Attribute."

"What?" Joey asked.

"Nothing," Kaiba muttered, turning away.

"Kaiba, what did it say?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Kaiba said brusquely.

Joey looked at Mai to see what she thought, but her expression was guarded and she remained silent.

"Kaiba, everything here concerns all of us," Joey said, trotting to catch up with Kaiba who was now walking quickly with long strides. He stopped short so suddenly that Joey almost ran into him.

"If you must know, it's just another cock and bull story about the 'dark deeds' of the 'nameless pharaohs,' and how they summoned a 'monster of great evil' to help destroy the Millennium Items, 'an evil Ka from an evil Ba.'" Kaiba glowered angrily. "Just a lot of nonsense. She was not evil."

"She?" Joey asked, and then he remembered that Kaiba had said something about a Light Attribute. There was only one Light Attribute monster that could stir this kind of emotion in Kaiba—only one monster of any attribute, actually—though Joey had never thought of it as a she before. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"

"Oh please, you are not all hot and bothered because someone's picking on your favorite Duel Monster! It's just a stupid card," Mai scoffed.

Joey glared at her, taken aback by her harshness. "Like your Harpies are just cards?" he retorted, all the while thinking I can't believe I'm defending Kaiba to Mai. "And you weren't in the Memory World, you didn't see how the whole Ka thing worked. The monsters, they come from people." He turned back to Kaiba. "Who was she?"

"I don't know," Kaiba replied. "All I know is her name was Kisara and she sacrificed herself for him."

Joey wasn't sure, but he guessed the him referred to Kaiba's alter ego, Seto, one of the Pharaoh's sacred guardians and then later the successor to the throne. Kaiba said nothing more, but turned and started walking again.

"It's all crap," Joey said, following behind with Mai trailing after them. "Everything written here is one hundred percent crap."

"When I want your opinion, Wheeler, I'll ask for it. Just don't hold your breath," Kaiba barked.

Normally, Joey would shoot off a retort, but he said nothing, sensing this was not a subject to use as bait in one of their usual sparring matches.

"Okay, now what the hell are you talking about?" Evan asked. "You're back to talking about Duel Monsters?"

"It's based on a game the ancient Egyptians played. Yugi told you that before," Joey reminded him.

"Okay, but I still don't get what you guys were talking about."

Joey sighed. "Okay, Evan, here's the deal. I'll give you the Cliff Notes version, okay?" He then went on to give as brief a summary of the connection between the Shadow Games of ancient Egypt and the current Duel Monsters game as he could manage, including a little bit about the Millennium Items.

"So Pegasus made up this card game after some ancient Egyptian mythology?"

"Something like that," Joey responded.

"And these 'Millennium Items?'"

"Real artifacts. Yugi used to own one and so did Pegasus and a couple of other people we know. They were all buried when a temple collapsed when we were in Egypt two years ago, but Weevil somehow got a hold of some pretty good fakes. We think."

"Is that why Yugi wants to go after them? What, he really is like Indiana Jones or something?"

Joey snorted. "Not quite."

After walking for another hour or so, Joey, Evan, Kaiba, and Mai caught up with the others in a large cavern, darker than the rest because it was larger and the torches were not able to fully illuminate it. In the middle was a large underground lake, so still and inky black Joey would have thought it was a black hole instead of water. The main group had decided to stop there for the night. Duke and Mokuba were by the water's edge scooping some of it up with one canteen then filtering it through a handkerchief into the other canteens. Serenity, Rebecca, and Yugi were spreading out blankets while Téa and Tristan were arguing about whether the women and teenagers should be included in the watch schedule Tristan was trying to set up. Evan immediately headed toward them to throw his weight around, but Joey, deciding he wasn't going to get within a mile of that debate, headed for his sister to see how she was holding up.

Téa and Tristan finished their argument—Joey wasn't sure who won but didn't care so long as someone woke him up when it was his turn for watch duty. He watched as people claimed their spots to sleep. Kaiba and Mokuba stretched out near each other and Rebecca picked a spot as close to them as Yugi and Duke would allow. Téa and Serenity set up near to Rebecca with Duke and Tristan as close to Serenity as Joey would allow. Evan picked a spot near the entrance. Mai, Joey noticed, made a point of finding a place away from everyone else near the wall of the cave. Frowning, he started to head toward her when Téa grabbed his elbow.

"Joey, will you do me a favor?" she asked. "Will you go talk to Yugi, make sure he's okay? I think that story about the Millennium Items really got to him."

Joey followed her gaze and saw that, Yugi, who had been with Rebecca last he looked, had since moved to a corner well away from everyone else. Joey looked from Yugi to Mai, torn.

"Why don't you talk to him? I'm worried about Mai, too," he replied.

Téa sighed. "He doesn't want to talk to me right now," she said quietly, and Joey frowned as he realized that Yugi's choice of a spot was away from Téa as well.

"Why? Something happen between the two of you?"

"No. Nothing that won't take care of itself once we get the heck out of here," she answered, wrapping her arms around herself a little forlornly.

"What?" he asked.

"No, really, it's fine. He just… I think right now he needs his best friend and not…" she stopped, looking stuck.

"His girlfriend?" Joey supplied helpfully with a broad grin.

She looked down with an embarrassed smile, blushing a little. "Yeah, I guess that's the word, isn't it? Not used to it, I guess." Then the smile faded as she pleaded, "Please, go talk to him."

Joey's eyes were once again drawn from Yugi to Mai. Téa followed his gaze.

"I'm worried about her, too, Téa. She's been really quiet and she was pretty nasty to Kaiba when we were split off from the rest of you."

Téa snorted. "Since when do you consider being nasty to Kaiba a bad thing?"

Joey cocked his head back and forth. "Well, yeah. But this was different. He found something in those hieroglyphs about Blue-Eyes. I think… I think it had something to do with the girl Blue-Eyes came from. You know, that whole Ka thing? But it seemed to really bother him and Mai dug into him about it only being a card. But she doesn't think that way. She thinks of her Harpies almost like they're family."

"Why don't I go talk to Mai?" she suggested. "She does have more than one friend, you know. Maybe she needs to know that."

Joey felt a wash of gratitude. "That would be great, Téa. You rock, you know that?" He paused a moment, and then added, "I already told Yugi, but I want you to know how happy I am you two finally got together." He leaned forward conspiratorially. "He's the only one who's good enough for you, you know. If you'da brought any of those New York boys around, I'da had to kick their asses."

She laughed. "You only say that because you're Yugi's friend."

"No, I say that because I'm your friend. Not a guy out there is good enough for you. I mean that."

She blushed again, but her smile was genuine. "Thanks, Joey."

He winked at her, and then she went to go talk to Mai while he went to go see Yugi, who was sitting off to the side, leaning back against the cave wall, his eyes closed. Joey slid down beside him.

"Nice place, huh? All it needs are a bunch of bats to give it that full creepy effect," Joey said conversationally.

"Yeah," Yugi agreed blankly without opening his eyes. "Oh, we found two more MRE wrappers and some other leftovers from the provisions, by the way. Rex and Weevil were definitely here earlier."

"Just keep following the trail of breadcrumbs," Joey said. When Yugi didn't say anything more, he asked, "Hey Yuge, you doing okay?"

"Yeah."

Not convinced, Joey went on. "Don't let that story from the hieroglyphics get to you, okay? You and I both know how it really went down. We know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys."

"I know," Yugi said opening his eyes. "That doesn't bother me."

"Okay, then what is bothering you? Is something up with you and Téa? You two have been joined at the hip since we got to this island, but not so much since we came down here. What gives?"

Yugi looked past Joey to where Téa was sitting with Mai. "I need to figure out what's going on here, and, well, being 'joined at the hip' as you put it has made it hard to think about anything besides her."

So that was why Téa said she didn't think Yugi wanted to talk with her.

"I really screwed up, Joey," Yugi went on. "We found Rex and Weevil in this place last night, or at least the first room of it, and if I hadn't forgotten because I was so happy being with Téa, we could've come here sooner. Maybe Pegasus would never have gotten hurt and maybe I wouldn't have had to duel with Rebecca and gotten so out of control. I really hurt her…."

"Yuge, stop beating yourself up about that. First of all, Rebecca knows that wasn't you. She'll be fine. And second, how were you supposed to know that Rex and Weevil pilfering food was more involved? They're just petty cheats and crooks. Who knew there was more going on?"

"I should've known. Maybe I would've if I hadn't been so… preoccupied. Rebecca even warned me before that I was letting this… this new thing with Téa take over my brain, that I wasn't thinking clearly. She caught onto the weird vibe of this place long before I did."

"So what?" Joey replied. "You're supposed to be the guy who knows everything first, who's on the job twenty-four/seven?"

"No. But I do need to be thinking clearly right now and when I'm with her, I'm not exactly thinking very clearly."

Joey smiled. "Fair enough. But give yourself a break, okay? It's okay to be happy. No one deserves it more."

But Yugi shook his head sadly and looked back over at Téa and Mai. "I think I hurt her feelings."

Joey brushed it off with a wave of his hand. "Eh, girls. You tell them you need five seconds alone and they think you're breaking up with them."

Yugi sat up straight, looking alarmed. "You don't think she thinks—"

"Whoa, that's not what I meant," Joey said, holding his hand up. "Téa's pretty level-headed. Most of the time," he added, smiling to himself as he thought of how she could work herself into a lather over Rebecca. "Everything will be fine when this is over and you can get all cozy again." He nudged his friend with his shoulder.

Yugi just sighed, looking in Téa and Mai's direction again. "Do you ever get to the point where you can be in love with someone and when you're with them still have enough brain leftover to think about something else?"

Joey followed his gaze, his eyes stopping on Mai. She was never far from his thoughts. "I'll let you know if I ever get there." He shook himself, like trying to wake up from a dream. "So let's give ourselves a trial run, forget about them for two seconds and try and figure out the other stuff."

Yugi groaned. "I've been trying, Joey, but none of this makes any sense. Why is this place here? Why are Rex and Weevil involved? Why are we losing control during our duels? If they're Shadow Games, they're not like any Shadow Games we've played before. The closest I can compare it to is…."

He hesitated, and Joey looked at him expectantly. "Yeah?"

Yugi looked down, uncomfortable. "The closest I can compare to is Marik using the Millennium Rod to control people's minds."

"You're thinking of the duel you and I had on the pier in Battle City," Joey said with a trace of bitterness. That explained Yugi's discomfort; he wouldn't want to remind Joey of how his mind had been controlled and he'd been forced to duel Yugi in a match that almost cost both of them their lives. Joey shook his head. "But no, that was totally different. That was like… like I wasn't really there. He controlled my mind, my actions, everything. And when I broke free, I couldn't even remember most of what had happened. These duels aren't like that at all."

"No," Yugi agreed, "they're not. I don't feel like someone else is controlling me. I just feel so angry. Like it's still me, only darker. Like the worst part of me pulled out in the open."

"Yeah, that's exactly it," Joey concurred. "That's nothing like when the Millennium Rod controlled me."

"And that duel wasn't a Shadow Game anyway," Yugi added. He leaned his head back against the cave wall in frustration. "Then what is this? And how do we stop it? Eventually we're going to find Rex and Weevil, and I'll bet my last pound—or yen, or dollar, or whatever—that they're gonna want to duel the two of us."

"That's a sucker's bet. Those two losers blame us for everything that's ever gone wrong in their lives," Joey said. "I'm positive they'll want to duel the two of us."

"So how do we do it without becoming something we don't want to be? And what do we do if we don't come out of it when it's over, like my last duel with Rebecca?"

"Well, we can always let Kaiba knock us around. It could be like an early Christmas present. What to give the filthy rich guy who has everything," Joey snickered.

Yugi didn't so much as crack a smile. "That's not good enough. We have to figure this out."

"Hey Yuge, give yourself a break there, okay? We'll figure it out. We always do."

"But none of this makes any sense, Joey! How do these four pharaohs fit in? How did Rex and Weevil get involved? The only time they've ever even been close to a Shadow Game was the night before we went to Egypt and Bakura sent them to the Shadow Realm. But I don't think he actually dueled them or anything, I just think he wanted to stop them from stealing the Millennium Items from me. And they woke up on their own a few days later."

Joey frowned. "Well, maybe that's enough. And maybe someone just heard them spouting off to us and thought they could stir up the hornet's nest."

"But who? Who else on that ship is a part of this? Goradon? Someone else entirely?"

"I bet we'll know when we find those two freaks. The way they run off at the mouth, they'll probably spill everything they know."

"I don't know, I'm guessing they don't know much. They're only a small piece of this, and yet here we are, chasing after them through who knows how many miles of tunnels. I'm not sure we'll get many answers when we do find them."

"If Weevil has the Millennium Puzzle, we'll know if it's real. That's something."

The mention of the Millennium Puzzle brought another conflicted look to Yugi's face.

"What, you worried that they might be real?"

"It would certainly explain how the Shadow Realm could be opened again," Yugi replied sadly.

But that wasn't what was bothering him. Worrying about the Shadow Realm and how it could be opened again wouldn't cause whatever inner struggle he was having. That was pretty straightforward: find out how to close the Shadow Realm and do it. "So what else is going on?"

"Nothing," he replied, too quickly.

"That's the kind of nothing that always means something."

Yugi sighed again. "I don't see how they could be real after we saw them disappear down that chasm with the whole temple collapsing down on top of them. But if they are… if they're back, then what… what about the spirits that came with them? Are they back too?"

For a moment Joey thought he was talking about the evil Spirit of the Ring, Bakura's Yami that Yugi had finally and definitively beaten in Egypt. He opened his mouth to remind him of that, that the Ring seemed inert and that the evil Bakura was gone for good, when he realized that Yugi wasn't talking about Bakura's Yami spirit at all.

He was talking about his own.

"Are you talking about Atem? You think if the Puzzle is back that… that Atem…?" He found he couldn't even finish the thought. It was like hoping for a loved one to return from the dead. No, it was hoping for a loved one to return from the dead. He just didn't even want to go there.

"I have no idea."

"Man, Yuge, don't get your hopes up. I don't know if you can come back from… wherever it was he went. His spirit wasn't in the Puzzle when it was buried. Why should it come back? I mean, not to be gross or anything, but what if… what if we were talking about your dad?" Yugi's father had died years ago. "If you dug up his body it would still be an empty body. It wouldn't suddenly have his soul back just because you dug it up. And the Millennium Ring. That doesn't seem to have the evil spirit in it. Mai's had it in her pocket since this afternoon and nothing's jumped out to possess her." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, pal, but I don't think it's possible."

"Since when has being impossible stopped stuff from happening to us?" Yugi asked.

"You got a point there," Joey conceded.

Yugi sighed. "I bet he would be able to put all these pieces together."

"I don't know about that, Yuge. I think you got it in you."

"That's what Téa says."

"Well, she seems to have a better handle on the whole Atem thing than any of the rest of us," Joey pointed out. "Listen, buddy, I know you miss him and you want him to come back, but I don't wanna see you get your hopes up only to be disappointed."

Yugi raised is eyebrows and gave Joey an odd look. "I…. In some ways it would be so much easier to take the back seat and let him take over like it used to be. But…." He looked down again, his hands twisting in his lap. "Joey, would I be the worst person in the world if I… if I didn't know if I'd want him to come back or not?"

This surprised Joey. Yugi had been heartbroken when Atem had left, and his insecurity about getting through this new challenge without his other self certainly made it seem like he wanted him back. But it made sense, too. Joey certainly wouldn't be crazy about having to share his body with someone else, no matter how close they were.

"No, you wouldn't be the worst person in the world. He belongs where he is, Yuge. That's why you did that Ceremonial Battle in the first place, right? And you, I can't even imagine what it must be like, having to share yourself with someone else. Well… maybe I got a small taste of it when Marik was controlling me."

Yugi shook his head. "Totally different. That was an invasion. Atem and I… we were a team. Partners." He said the last word with a sort of melancholy fondness. "And I do miss him. A lot. And… if he could stop this, keep everyone safe, it would be better for him to be here."

"Why am I hearing a big 'but' here?"

"But… I'm used to his memories. I've just started learning how to be me without him, you know? I don't know what would happen if we were two separate people again, or two separate spirits anyway."

"What would happen? You mean, like you might lose his memories and they'd be only his again?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, there's that," Yugi said.

Joey frowned, not quite following where Yugi was headed, until he saw Yugi's gaze drift past him, back to Téa and Mai.

And then it clicked.

"Téa? Are you worried about what would happen with you and Téa if…"

Yugi neither confirmed nor denied it; he just looked down at his hands once more.

"Yuge—" Joey started to protest, ready to assure him he had nothing to worry about, but suddenly he found himself at a loss for the right words.

Yugi's feelings for Téa had been obvious for as long as Joey had known him, long before they were friends, even. Had they not become friends when they did, Joey was sure, to his shame, that he probably would have eventually used that fact as yet another weapon with which to torment Yugi.

Téa's feelings about Yugi, however, had been all over the map in the time that Joey had known them, and the presence of the Pharaoh had only made things murkier. She'd gone from fiercely protective of Yugi in the beginning, to seeming to have a crush on the Pharaoh, to the whole weird jealousy thing whenever Rebecca called Yugi her "boyfriend." She'd tearfully clung to Yugi in a way that seemed well beyond mere protectiveness when his soul returned from the Orichalcos, but then was all about the Pharaoh months later in Egypt, devastated at his having to return to the spirit world to the point where Joey had to physically stop her from following him. And, of course, there was the way she avoided all of them—Yugi in particular—for a week after they returned from Egypt, and the way she was so quick to theorize that he was somehow both Yugi and Atem when Yugi realized he had the Pharaoh's memories that Joey had been very worried that she was merely looking to substitute Yugi for Atem.

But then when Yugi left Cairo on the dig, Téa's feelings for him at last seemed to crystallize into something a little more clear. She'd abruptly broken up with the boy she'd been dating at the time and when she visited Domino at Christmas, Joey could tell right away that she had feelings for Yugi. It had been more than eighteen months since Atem had left and her conversations about Yugi seemed firmly rooted in the present, so Joey had finally stopped worrying that she was merely confusing one for the other and began to be genuinely excited at the prospect that his best friend might at long last get the relationship he'd longed for since before Joey even knew him. This is why after they'd dueled that last night on the ship he'd been so confident in assuring Yugi that she was interested in him . He'd never even hesitated then.

Now he did hesitate, however, finding himself unable to offer the same assurances he'd offered just three nights ago. Atem's presence always confused Téa—it confused them all, really, but the friendships the rest of them had with Yugi could easily accommodate Atem, whereas Téa's romantic feelings could not, at least not in a way that made sense or was fair to any of them. So what if he did come back? Would it bring the two of them—no, the three of them—right back where they started, miles apart, participants in a bizarre triangle that none of them had asked for and was none of their faults? Joey shuddered to think. He loved Atem in his own right, but his loyalty was firmly with Yugi and he couldn't bear the thought of his friend getting hurt like that, not after finally, finally getting what he had always wanted more than anything in the world.

"I… I just don't think it's possible. I think the Millennium Items are fake anyway," he said at last.

"You don't know what she'd do if he came back, either," Yugi said quietly, seeing through Joey's deflection.

Joey groaned. "Listen Yuge, she loves you. Stop worrying about what she may have felt in the past when he was here. He isn't here and you are and she loves you. Just as you are. You gotta know that."

"I try to. It's just so hard for me to believe that she could see anything in me without all the stuff that came from him."

"Argh, Yuge, you're killing me here," Joey groaned. "You keep acting like he came to you because you needed him, but you've got it all backwards. He came to you because he needed you. And Téa needs you, so stop being a schmuck and believe in yourself. Believe in her."

"I'm trying, but it isn't easy."

"Who said it was supposed to be easy? The only thing that really matters is that you two love each other. All of this other stuff," he said, waving his hand to encompass the cave and maybe even the whole island around them, "this is the distraction. We'll find Weevil, kick his ass, shake him until he spills about who gave him the fake Millennium Items and why, we'll get rescued, and you and Téa will ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after, get married, have two-point-five kids and a house in the suburbs, yadda yadda ya."

Yugi snorted. "Kill me now."

"Okay, you can forget the kids and the 'burbs, at least for a few more years yet, but you know I'm right about the rest of it. You know you two are meant to be. It's like your destiny or something."

Yugi shook his head. "No. It was Atem who always talked about destiny. I think… I think saying love is about destiny is just a way to deny responsibility. Love isn't destiny, it's a choice."

"This from the guy who's been in love with the same girl since elementary school," Joey smirked.

"It still was a choice. And she has a choice, too."

"And she chose you. Or haven't you noticed?"

"But would she make the same choice if circumstances were different?"

Joey sighed. "That's a stupid question, Yuge. It's like falling in love with a widow and tormenting yourself asking if her first husband came back from the dead, would she pick him or you? It's an impossible question and you can drive yourself crazy worrying about it for no reason. You say loving her is a choice? Then choose it and stop second-guessing it. Make your own destiny with her."

"I'd really like that. More than anything."

"Then do it."

Yugi nodded and gave him a small smile. "Yeah, Joey, you're right."

"Course I am," Joey grinned, leaning back with his arms folded behind his head. Well, mission accomplished. At least Yugi looked a little less despondent now. He just hoped that Téa had the same effect on Mai.