Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, any of the charcters, so don't sue me:)

Apathy

"Mom I'm home!" shouted Tea as she entered her apartment and closed the door behind her "You won't believe how many things have gone wrong today!"

Tea was pretty exhausted at that point so immediately proceeded to her bedroom so she could drop off her things. Tea and her mother had lived in the small yet nicely furnished two-bedroom apartment for as long as she could remember. Tea's father had died when she was only about two-years old though, so her mother had raised her all alone. Tea's mother was an extremely secretive person and she honestly didn't like to talk much about anything in the past. This annoyed Tea since she loved her mom very much, but completely failed to understand her.

"Mom?" said Tea as she exited her bedroom and realized that a few minutes had passed and still no response "Mom? Are you home?".

Tea assumed that her mom might still be at work, but then again she might be locked up in her bedroom. She was about to knock on the bedroom door when she noticed an envelope taped to the door and written on it was "Tea". Tea immediately pulled the envelope down, tore it open, and pulled out the paper to see what her mother had to say.

"Dear Tea,

I know you're probably going to think that I've completely lost my mind..but I still have to tell you. Sometimes you think that life was passed you by and your time in the spotlight is over, but other times you might get a second chance. Well darling my second chance has come and I have to take it before it's too late! I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I left you more than enough money to pay the rent for a few months at least. Take care darling and be sure to do all of your homework. Love Amneris...I mean Mom"

"What?" shouted Tea with a look of complete disbelief on her face as reread the note several times just to make sure "I can't believe this is happening!"

She then crumpled the note in her hand, threw it on the ground, and looked away. Tea's mother was a strange person, but at this point she had outdone herself. Tea then walked over the couch and picked up the phone since she really needed to talk to someone...preferrably a psychiatrist.

"Stupid lock..."muttered Amelda under his breath as he struggled to open up the front door of the apartment he shared with Varon "It keeps getting stuck ever since Varon was stupid enough to open it with a screwdriver when he lost his keys!"

After awhile Amelda got tired of walking, so he just decided to go home since he knew he'd have the place to himself. The only thing he wanted was to get out of the uncomfortable clothes he was wearing and just relax on his bed. After a few minutes he was finally able to get the front door open, but as soon as he stepped inside he felt like running back outside.

"What the Hell?" said Amelda as his jaw dropped and he stared at the condition the living room was in "Why does he always do this?"

The living room looked as if though a hurricane had hit it or something. The carpet was almost completely hidden by magazines, empty soda cans, some empty take-out containers, junk mail, sofa cushions, a pizza box with pizza still in it, and it was all courtesy of Varon. Amelda was disgusted but too tired to care, so he simply walked into his bedroom.

Amelda's bedroom was rather small and hardly furnished, but he kept it impeccably clean.The bed was very neatly made and had a blue comforter and pillows that seemed to perfectly match the color of the lamp on the nightstand. There was also a nice cream colored rug that was absolutely spotless and they matched the color of the curtains on the window located directly over the bed. There was a dresser in front of the bed and there was nothing on it except for a tv, dvd player and the keys to Amelda's motorcycle. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a lone chair that was off in a corner.

Amelda gave a deep sigh, quickly took off his jacket,pulled off the tie he was wearing, tossed them onto the chair, and finally tossed himself onto the bed.

"I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to this" sighed Amelda as he looked straight up at the ceiling with his steel grey eyes "This life feels so vague and empty...then again that's what is"

Ever since the Doom Organization disbanded, Amelda was forced to take a whole new look at his life. When Dartz's lies were revealed and the entire truth came into the light, Amelda no longer knew what to believe. He could no longer blame Kaiba Corp for all of his suffering since Dartz had been the true culprit. And now even though Raphael was giving him and Varon a chance to start a whole new life, there was one thought that he just couldn't get out of his head.

"I'm all alone in this world..."said Amelda with an anguished look in his grey eyes as he continued looking up at the ceiling "All I have left is memories...nothing more than memories".

He looked over, opened up a drawer on his nightstand, and pulled out two items: a silver locket and a charred toy robot. While most people would have regarded these items as junk, they meant everything to Amelda since they were all he had left of his family. He very cautiously opened the locket up and when he laid eyes on the picture of his mother, his eyes softened. She look just like he had always remembered and in this particular picture she seemed to be smiling right at him. He then glanced over at the toy robot and as soon as he did, Miruko's sweet, innocent, and trusting little face appeared in his mind.

"Mom...Miruko" said Amelda as he felt his body beginning to tremble involuntarily as he held these items in his hands "I have nothing to live for...I want to be with you two again"

Suddenly a wave of darkness washed over Amelda and he fell into a sudden state of unconsciousness. The locket and the toy robot remained tightly clutched in his hands.

Several Hours Later

"Can you guys believe she did this?" said Tea as she sat on the couch with Joey and Tristan "I swear that woman is having a midlife crisis or something!"

"But dis isn't the first time your mom's just left like that" said Joey as he looked over the note and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair "Remember dat time she went off ta Europe without ya?".

SLAP!

"Ow! What was dat for?" said Joey as he rubbed his head right on the spot where Tea unexpectedly hit him "What'd I do?"

"You're not exactly helping!" said Tea as she sunk down into the couch "This is serious! Besides...this time I don't even know where she is"

"Well she should be back soon enough right?" said Tristan as he took the note from Joey and began to look over it "Besides it's not like she ran off for good and left you all by yourself just cause you're in college now right?"

Joey quickly jumped back since he was almost pretty sure that Tea was going to leap across the couch and slap Tristan for that comment. Instead a look of complete sadness and confusion came over Tea's face and she slowly sank down on the coach. Tea was usually the happy and optimistic one, but only at this point did they realize just how seriously this situation was affecting her.

"My mom is the most apathetic woman ever!" said Tea as her dark blue eyes slowly began to fill with tears "She never really cares what's going on with me...she's so selfish!"

"Don't say that Tea" suddenly said Joey who didn't like to see his friend suffering "I'm sure she cares about your...she jus has a weird way of showin it"

"Yeah I mean she did leave you rent money after all right?" said Tristan as he racked his brain for appropriate things to say "If she didn't care then she wouldn't have left anything right?"

Knock Knock

Tristan was quite lucky since before Tea got a chance to slap him senseless for his "thoughtful" comment, there was a knock on the front door so she got up to see who it was. Much to her surprise there stood none other than Yugi with a backpack in his hand. Joey had called Yugi and left him a voice message about Tea's situation, and apparently he got it. At this point though Yugi had a bit of a growth spurt so he was about the same height as Tea. His voice had also deepened a bit, but he was still the same Yugi. "Yugi" said Tea as she suddenly threw her arms around him and gave him a very tight hug. Yugi was her oldest friend and they had been with each other through good times and bad.

"Well she did again Yugi" said Tea as she slowly pulled away from it "Amneris Gardner is on yet another one of her spur of the moment trips"

Yugi knew that Tea was pretty mad at her mom since she had the habit of calling her by her first name whenever they had some sort of disagreement. Then again Yugi wasn't that surprised since every few years Tea's mother would take off unexpectly, but she'd always returned home very quickly.

"I wouldn't worry about it so much Tea" said Yugi as he looked at her with his beautiful violet eyes and a warm smile "You should know by now that she'll come back, she always does"

"But she didn't even tell me where she went this time!" said Tea as she looked at him with a look of confusion and annoyance on her face "Is she trying to keep me from showing up and dragging her back here?"

"Trust me she'll be back" suddenly said Yugi as he gently took Tea's hand and held it in his own and gazed into her dark blue eyes "I know that she will...". Yugi was indeed Tea's oldest friend and for many years he had held a secret that he wasn't sure she was aware of: He loved her. He loved her and he would do anything to make her happy, but he honestly didn't know whether she cared for him or not. Although he sometimes wondered...

"Yugi you always know just what to say" said Tea as a small smile appeared on her lips as she looked at him, but then she looked over at Joey and Tristan "Unlike two other people in this room"

"Man...I don't know how he does it" said Joey as he looked over at Tristan with a confused look on his face "We've been tryin ta make her feel good for hours and nothin, then he jus comes in here says a few words and now she's happy!"

Tea then mockingly stuck her tongue out at them like a little kid, but at that point she actually felt alot happier. She was happy since she knew that she had three great friends who stuck by her no matter what and were there for her whenever she needed their support. "I'm lucky to have Yugi and those two knuckleheads over there" thought Tea as a big smile appeared on her lips "I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world"

"Big brother! Big brother are you awake?" cried out a young child's voice "Come on wake up sleepyhead!". "Huh?" said Amelda as she slowly opened up his eyes and when he did, there stood Miruko smiling down at him. Miruko was wearing a red sweater with horizontal stripes, brown shorts, and he was holding his beloved toy robot. Miruko also had the same grey eyes as Amelda, but his hair was a different shade of red. Amelda then looked down and realized that he was no longer an adult, he was a pre-teen once again. "About time you woke up!" giggled Miruko as he tugged at his arm "Come on there's something I want to show you!". The little boy then took off running and motioned for his older brother to follow him. "Miruko?" said Amelda who couldn't believe what he was seeing "Wait come back!". There was nothing but darkness all around them and they kept running for quite a distance before Miruko suddenly came to a stop in a very strange spot. There was lone street lamp and it was shining down on a small and rather ornate looking black metal bench. "Is this what you wanted to show me?" asked Amelda as he looked down at Miruko "I don't understand...". Suddenly Amelda looked up once again and now there was a woman standing in front of the bench. She wore a long black dress, long black gloves, and shoulder length dark hair, but her face wasn't visible since her back was turned to them. "I wanted you to see her" said Miruko as he looked up at his big brother "The lady in black". "The lady in black?" said Amelda who was now completely lost "Who is-"

Before Amelda even had the chance to finish his sentence, everything was suddenly surrounded by a dark mist. When the mist subsided, he realized that Miruko, the lady, and everything else had vanished. He was also an adult once again. "What's happening?" thought Amelda to himself as he looked around in the darkness "What the Hell is happening?"

"Amelda!"

"Huh?"

"Amelda!" suddenly cried Varon's voice as it echoed through the darkness "This isn't funny! Please wake up already!"

Varon came home shortly after Amelda and he knocked on his bedroom door to see if he was in there. Usually Amelda would have shouted at him and told him to either leave him alone or to go to Hell, but not on this day. Surpringly Amelda's bedroom door was unlocked, so Varon peeked inside and found him lying on the bed. He assumed that he was just sleeping, so he quickly closed the door and went off. A few hours later he came back and was surprised to find him still sleeping. He was still in the same spot and his face seemed unusually pale.He then noticed what Amelda had in his hands and it dawned on him. Why did Amelda have his mother's locket and Miruko's toy in his hands? What if he wasn't sleeping? What if he was...Oh God!

"Don't kick the bucket on me mate!" cried Varon hysterically as she shook Amelda as violently as he could "For the love of God wake up already!"

"Huh?" said Amelda as he slowly opened his grey eyes and was surprised to find Varon standing there shaking him like crazy "What are you doing? Stop shaking me already!"

Only then did Amelda realize that Miruko and everything else that he had seen was some sort of dream. A strange dream. Although probably not as strange as waking up and finding a frantic Aussie shaking the daylights out of him.

"You're alright?" exclaimed Varon with noticeable relief in his voice as he quickly let go of his friend and stepped back"What the Hell were you tryin' to do mate? Scare the crap outta me?"

"First of all what the Hell are you talking about?" said Amelda who was extremely annoyed and cranky at that moment "And second of all what the Hell are you doing in my room anyways?"

Varon frowned at him since he had honestly given him one of the biggest scares of his life, and on top of that he had the nerve to be annoyed! Some people are just so ungrateful...

"First of all I'm in here since I honestly thought you'd kicked the bucket!' said Varon as he glared down at him trying to look as mad as possible "Especially after the way you stormed off today!"

"You thought I was dead?" asked Amelda in a tone of complete disbelief and confusion at what Varon had said "Why would you think I'm dead? Are you high or something?"

"No...but why do you have those things out mate?" said Varon as he pointed to the locket and to Miruko's toy robot "You only bring both of those out when you're really depressed...so I just assumed"

Only then did Amelda look down and realize that he was indeed still holding on to the locket and the toy robot. He inwardly cringed a bit since he knew very well that Varon was right...well half right. For many years he had carried around Miruko's toy robot wherever he went as a reminder of what he wanted: Revenge for Miruko's death. It was a constant reminder of what he lost and looking at it constantly filled his heart with feelings of hatred and revenge. Now that the truth had been revealed, those days were behind him and the robot represented one thing: Miruko himself and the undying love he'd had for him. The locket had also filled him with such feelings as well since it constantly reminded him of how Miruko died when the tank he had been on exploded. That very locket saved his life since he had been off retrieving it when it fell off of Miruko's neck and therefore he had survived, while Miruko hadn't. It was a constant source of emotional pain, so he kept it hidden for many years. Now the locket had an entirely different meaning thought: It represented his mother and her undying love for him. He knew that wherever they were that they still loved him, but that didn't ease the loneliness he currently felt.

"So you thought I'd try to kill myself after the incident with that crazy woman?" said Amelda with a slightly amused look on his face "You've gotta give me a little more credit than that Varon"

"Yeah well you've been pretty pissed off ever since you had to start dressing like a bloke!" said Varon with a sudden grin and a twinkle in his sky blue eyes as he casually sat on the foot of the bed "What happened to that pansy tanktop of your anyways? I haven't seen it since-"

Varon didn't get a response from Amelda. Instead he got a firm kick to the butt that sent him flying off of the bed and right onto the floor. Amelda had a very satisfied grin on his face since he'd actually had the nerve to kick Varon in the butt for once. Varon just frowned at him and defiantly jumped back up on the bed...much to Amelda's dismay.

"My clothes are none of your concern" said Amelda in an annoyed tone of voice as he turned away and glanced over at a clock on his nightstand "Besides isn't it time for you to go do something else besides annoy me?"

"You're right, after all I wanna get up bright an early tomorrow!" said Varon as he rubbed the sore(and probably bruised) spot where Amelda had kicked him "Heheh there's no way I'm missing the show!"

"Show?" said Amelda as he raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Varon "What show are you talking about?"

"Raph's gonna yell at Constantina for what she did to you!" said Varon with a naughty grin on his face as he seemed to forget the pain and rubbed his hands together gleefully "I don't wanna miss it for the world!"

"Constantina?" thought Amelda to himself since he remembered the name but he wasn't sure.Who the Hell was Constantina? He was certain that he had heard the name at the fashion show, but he honestly hadn't been paying much attention. He was about to ask, but Varon beat him to the punch.

"Oh yeah I forgot...you didn't stick around long enough" said Varon with a sudden impish grin as he remembered the whole incident "The crazy woman that was sitting next to you is some designer named Constantina and she made that ugly trashbag dress you insulted"

"That crazy woman next to me was Constantina?" said Amelda who suddenly understood why the woman had reacted in such a way "I guess she can't handle a little criticism can she?"

"Serves her right for selling stuff that looks like garbage!" said Varon as he pulled himself up and began to walk towards the door "Well g'night mate and don't ever scare me like that again!"

As soon as Varon closed the door, Amelda just gave a slight laugh and shook his head. Amelda had always secretly wondered about whether Raphael and Varon actually cared about what happened to him. For the longest time he just assumed that they were completely apathetic towards any aspect of his life. With each passing day though he slowly began to suspect otherwise. Now on this particular day though his suspicions had been confirmed: they did care about him. He was honestly thankful for it since he in turn also cared for them. Although he would never admit it to them...

"Finally! All of these months of hard work have paid off!" exclaimed the brown haired, blue eyed young man as he held up a beaker filled with a pale blue liquid "With this serum I should be able to cure all sorts of neural disorders!". He was so excited that he completely failed to notice that a grey haired man was also in the lab and had heard every single word. "Madam it's finally happened" said the grey haired man in a white lab coat "The serum you wanted was successfully created". The man, along with four other men also clad in lab coats, stood in front of their boss. She was dressed completely in black and she was seated on a black leather desk chair so big, it almost seemed like a throne. She seemed like any ordinary woman, but the men feared her very prescence. "What? Where is it?" said the woman as her green eyes opened wide and she jumped up from the chair "Don't tell me you fools forgot to bring it?". Actually madam...none of us created it" said the grey haired man as he glanced at her "It was created by another chemist". "WHAT?" screeched the woman as her eyes filled with rage "Who is it? Tell me now!". "Don't worry madam" suddenly said a blonde haired man as he came forward "The chemist works right here...his name is Odysseus". "Odysseus?" said the woman as she immediately realized who it was "You mean a novice like him was able to do what you five imbeciles haven't been able to do for years?". The men quickly lowered their heads since they knew nothing good could come of this. "All of you are absolutely worthless..." hissed the woman in a dangerous tone of voice as she suddenly walked over and put on a black fur stole "Now get out of my sight!". The men quickly retreated into the shadows and left her all alone. Odysseus..." mused the woman as she adjusted her fur stole "With your serum my plan shall be complete!".The woman had a plan...a dark plan...a plan that had been missing the final piece. But now...she had found it.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Unnnh..." groaned Tea as she slowly opened her eyes, stretched out her arm, and quickly turned off the alarm clock "Is it morning already?"

She quickly sat up, rubbed her eyes, and stretched her arms since she honestly hadn't really had a good night's sleep. She kept tossing, turning, and waking up every few minutes.Each time she closed her eyes she kept having visions of her mom having the time of her life on a cruise ship, so that completely disrupted her sleep. At some point though she eventually did manage to fall asleep, and that's when she began to have the strange dream. A dream that featured the same people as the other one, but from a different point of view.

"Why am I having these dreams?" groaned Tea as she slowly pulled herself up out of her bed and staggered over to the dresser "Who are those people anyways? I swear I really need to lay off the soap operas..."

She then began to dig around in the dresser in hopes of finding somethingnice to wear. It was a new day after all, a day that would hopefully be better than the previous one.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Thank you so much for all of the kind reviews! Wahh I'm sorry if this chapter seems kinda pointless but I promise(I really do) that it leads up to something! Anyways midterms are coming up(Boo!) but I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. Hugs and kisses!