"Come on. You can get up now."

Tim stared down at me, a hand outstretched for me to take, but I just stayed lying against the floor of the boat, looking up at the redheaded man in bewilderment.

I couldn't even describe the feeling of traveling through dimensions. I'd been to the Spirit World, Hell, but that was nothing like this. Those trips in comparison to this one had been rather comfortable, or at least painless. This time, I felt everything, and it was like I'd had my soul ripped from my body and then forced back in. I didn't know what to make of it.

Tim shook his head, staring down at me before pulling me to my feet. "Ow…" I cringed, his grip on my arm rather strong.

Tim smiled, "Ah, good. You're already starting to get feeling back." Tim's smile widened. "You've also got good restraint. Most people I meet can't resist getting a look at my-"

I felt my face heat up just a little as I forced myself to avoid looking at his crotch. "I-I'm not… I'm not that way inclined…" I told him.

"Suit yourself, you're missin' out." Tim shrugged. "Now, we'd better get you some new clothes. Your body needs to recover, and right now it's in a very vulnerable state. If you get pneumonia, that's it."

I looked down at myself, my drenched work clothes clinging to my body like a second skin. "Wh-where would we get clothes from?"

"From the shops here… or rather shop. You got a Kmart where you're from?" Tim asked. I shook my head. "Ah, well, you're in for a…" Tim paused, almost as though he was trying to find the right words to say, "It's an experience, this place."

I looked around. Gone was the Satellite Sector and New Domino City, orange sky and clear water. Instead, the sky was a deep red, and the land stretched on across both sides. I could see red and white blimps flying across the sky, screens with messages on them. Tim retrieved the crystal ball from its holder on the boat and looked down at it for a moment before turning to me.

"Are you coming?" Tim asked. As though he could sense my hesitance, Tim sighed. "I told you, I'm not going to hurt you. Now, we got to get you out of those clothes. Are you coming, or what?"

I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. Thanks to my newfound stutter or stammer or block – whatever the Hell it was called, my words were literally trapped inside my body. I felt so powerless, to have myself now be denied what I thought to be a basic human function. It might have been the wrong way of thinking, it probably was, but I saw myself now as someone less than human.

I sighed in defeat, leaving the relative safety of the boat and stepping out into a foreign world.

I had never really traveled in my life. Being only eighteen years old – an age I considered young – I didn't really have much opportunity to spend time traveling, what with living in the Satellite and combating Mesoamerican demons. Yes, I had gone to the Spirit World, and yes, I had gone to Hell, and I'd even read books about other places, other countries, but I had never seen or experienced anything like I had here with Tim.

As we walked through the clustered city of this strange, almost alien place, I was greeted only with the colors of red and white. The buildings, the roads, the people, they all seemed to blend together, a unifying mesh of red and white. There was a distinct lack of any other color. Trusting in my, for lack of a better word, captor, I followed Tim closely, hoping that he would protect me from any unsavory individuals we might encounter. He said he was taking me, us, to a shop, and so I assumed that he'd obviously visited this place at some point before in his life.

Tim stopped outside a rather small outlet, with a sign on the outside that just read 'Clothes' and nothing else. Tim walked in through the doors and I followed him, the two of us catching the eye of the receptionist. My eyes, however, were immediately drawn to the walls and furniture of the store, all varying shades of red.

My eyes were eventually brought back to meet the eyes of the receptionist. The person, whose gender I couldn't determine (not that it mattered) had their head shaved completely, and wore informal unisex attire consisting of a red suit with red pants, a white shirt underneath. They would have blended right in with the walls and the desk had it not been for their white shirt and dark skin.

The receptionist didn't seem at all perturbed by my zombie-like appearance, or Tim's full-frontal nudity, which was comforting in a way. I didn't want any attention drawn to myself unnecessarily.

"Hello, welcome to Clothing, how can I help you?" the receptionist asked. I was almost taken aback. Not even their voice denoted their gender.

Tim turned back to me. "Have you got a preference for anything?"

"N…n-no, not r-really." I answered like a stuttering sheep. I wanted to slap myself across the face. I hated myself.

"Alright," Tim looked around at the assortment of clothing the store had on display. I used the word 'assortment' loosely. It was literally all red and white clothing. No brand names or anything from what I could tell. Tim turned back to me, as if sizing me up. "We'll need to get you something bigger around the front."

My face heated up, Tim's words further destroying what little self-worth I had left. I wasn't obese or anything, but I'd obviously been treating my body poorly the last few months. Anyone could have seen that without commenting on it. "Yeah, th-thanks. That… d-doesn't hurt my feelings at all. Just 'cause you're really well-built and… got abs, and… not fat…"

Tim walked over and pulled a few pairs of shirts, pants and undies down from their hangers, tossing me some clothes and then pointing to the back of the store. "Come with me."

Clutching the clothes in my hands, I followed Tim to the back of the store where the changing rooms were. "Wh-what are-"

"Come on. In. That one." Tim pushed on the door to one of the cubicles and opened it, before getting into the one adjacent to mine.

I sighed, getting into the empty cubicle, closing the door and locking it before setting the clothes down and stripping off. The waterlogged clothes I'd been wearing fell to the floor with a thud. I sighed.

It was actually quite freeing to be naked, honestly. Or I guess rather to be free of those constricting clothes. There were no restrictions on my body anymore. But of course, Tim was right: I did need to put those other clothes on before my body worsened.

"So," I heard Tim say, "While we're in here, why don't you tell me why you decided to kill yourself?"

"I… I…" I stammered. "C-can we just get changed and get out of here? I-it's a… long story, and I don't want to go into it." I eventually settled on. "Especially since I… c-can't even really… talk…!" I breathed heavily, trying to force the words out and almost suffocating in the process.

"I can't fix you if I don't know why you're broken."

"I don't want to be fixed; I want to die." I reiterated. "Besides, you probably w-w-w-wouldn't understand if I told you." I told him. I heard Tim laugh and my nostrils flared, curling my swollen hands into fists. "Is that funny to you?" I asked.

"You sure you're eighteen? And male?" Tim sighed. "Listen, Skylar, I won't understand if you don't tell me."

"It's…" I stammered, my mouth hanging on the word, "Tyler. My name's T-Tyler…"

"Right, well, what's wrong with you? Obviously, there's a reason that you felt the need to kill yourself. So, tell me what it is."

"I… no…" I said firmly. "I don't want to… I-it's too much…"

"Too much what?"

"I've only told o-one other person, and even then, I didn't tell them the whole s-story, and since I don't really know you, I'd rather not tell you any p-personal things about m-me."

"You don't know me, huh? Then let's get to know each other. My name is Tim Ihansha. My younger sister was murdered by a psychopath and exacting revenge on the person that killed her became the only reason I had to live. I spent every day of my life training in solitude, waiting for the opportunity for my sister's killer to show his face again. And eventually he did, and then I killed him. In the meantime, I'd been offered a job at the magic school I told you about as a cover, and while I didn't enjoy teaching at first, I eventually warmed up to it." Tim's tone was very rough, as though what he'd told me seemed difficult for him to even say. "There. Now you know about me. What about you?"

I stayed silent for a while, unsure of what to say. "I-I'm sorry to hear that… about your sister. Were you close?" I asked.

"Yes." Tim's voice was still quite low. "Now, tell me about you?"

"As I said, it's a long story-"

Tim chuckled. "There's much more to me than what I just told you, but we're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about you. So, talk about you."

I swallowed and my body started to shake. "I mean, um… i-it's not going to make much sense if I tell you bits and pieces."

"Tell me whatever you need to." Tim said kindly. "And take your time too. If you try and force yourself to speak, you'll be less likely to actually get the words out. Just take a few deep breaths and tell me whatever you want."

I curled my hands into fists once again, willing myself to talk, if only just to get it all out of my system. But I wasn't sure if I could. I hadn't told anyone everything. Not Seria, not Yusei.

Not Luna…

What's complicated about it?! He was trying to destroy the city!

Her words rang in my head, hurting me just as they had the first time she'd said them. I didn't blame her, I couldn't. But it just hurt to hear the girl I loved… no, love… want no more to do with me.

I closed my eyes, breathing in and out several times. I tried to focus everything on my speech, reminding myself that there was no pressure. Yes, Tim was a stranger, but I didn't really care what he thought about me or my past.

And Luna didn't even want to listen. I didn't get the opportunity to tell her. Maybe that would have softened her hatred towards me. It was hatred, wasn't it? I mean, how do you go from telling someone you love them and spending all your time with them, to telling that same person to stay away and then not contacting you at all for six months?

It had to be hatred, and whether or not I'd ever get the chance in life or death to redeem myself in Luna's eyes remained to be seen. But I couldn't keep this in. I had to tell someone.

"I… lived a pretty cushy life as a kid. I didn't know it at the time, but when you're a kid you never really do, do you? My mom and dad both had high paying jobs and bought me pretty much whatever I wanted. I was happy. Then," I sighed, verbalizing "and I remember this so vividly, one day after school, my mom picked me up. She never used to pick me up. My dad had been killed in a car accident." I shut my eyes even tighter. "How the Hell are you supposed to react to something like that, when you're eight years old?"

"How did you react?" Tim asked.

"I didn't. I just… kept going with life. I was so young, I guess I was… just trying to deny it and keep hold of any happiness or… semblance of normality I had. It didn't really sink in until the funeral a couple weeks later, when I saw my mom, who I'd never seen cry before, burst into tears. That's when it hit me. At the reading of his Will, I was given a Duel Monsters card, along with a letter from my father that told me how proud he was of me, and that if I ever felt alone, he'd be with me, and I'd be protected. I cried so much that night. I missed my dad so much, and then…" I trailed off, my voice starting to get a little croaky.

"Then what?" Tim pressed.

"The card my dad gave me… it… started glowing, and then… my room lit up with this light, and this guy with yellow eyes dressed in red armor stood at the f-foot of my bed. I was frightened. A stranger in my room? I didn't know what to do. I asked with, I think fear evident in my voice, what did he want with me. But he said that he didn't want anything with me. He just… wanted me not to be frightened. He said that I didn't have to be frightened anymore, that he'd protect me. It was then that I recognized that he was the man from the card, only he wasn't a man, or at least a human. He was a Duel Spirit. Of course, I didn't know that at the time. He took me to this place, this forest, where all of my anger and frustration and sadness just… melted away. I felt safe with him, like I could trust him." I paused for a very long time. "I was wrong. Less than a year after my dad's passing, my mom remarried a man named Kobi Banzu. He had a very high paying job with the Public Maintenance Bureau, and I have to imagine that's why she got involved with him in the first place. My mom wanted to continue giving me the high standards of life that she'd always given me, and I was still a kid, and didn't really have an understanding of how money worked. It was hard for her on her own, having a selfish child like me as a son. What she didn't know at the time, and something I'd only learn about later, was that Kobi was an alcoholic. His relationship with my mom blossomed, but him and I… didn't get along so well. Thinking about it now, and… what happened later on, I probably could have handled myself a little better. I… I blamed Kobi for what had happened almost, I hated him for trying to replace my dad. It wasn't his fault, but I was nine at the time, and didn't really understand anything. Nevertheless, my… attitude towards Kobi caused him to lash out at me. It started with arguments, screaming matches between the two of us, but… eventually it escalated to… ph-physical harm. He'd come home late at night, completely intoxicated and beat me in my bed. Any scars, cuts or bruises I got, I'd just have to make up an excuse for the next day. Kobi threatened that if I ever did tell anyone… that he'd go after my mom."

"There had to have been someone you could've talked to?"

"There was… sort of. I had a friend, Taze, who I had told about what was going on with me, and he believed me, b-b-but the thing was, there wasn't much that either of us could do. See, Kobi had a son. Joel. He was older than me and didn't like me very much. He thought, like I did in a way, that my mom was with Kobi for some financial stability. That she was just using him for his money. But… there had to have been more to it than that, right? A reason why they fell in love?" I asked. It wasn't really a question I wanted answered, but Tim seemed to hum knowingly.

"I made a mistake a few years ago. At the school I taught at, there was this incredible woman. A teacher like me. She was absolutely insatiable. A little older than the others, but I didn't care. I wanted her, so I went for her. You can call it love or whatever, but there was something there between us. I'd like to think there still is…" Tim mused, almost seeming lost in his own head. "Oh, sorry, what were you saying?"

"Well, Joel, as I said, didn't like me very much. At all, really. He was always teasing me, insulting me. My mom thought it was just a brotherly thing but… there was one night when Kobi was…" I paused, grimacing, "giving me quite a spirited beating, and I guess I made a little too much noise, because Joel heard. I thought he'd help me – I begged him to help me – but he just watched and urged me just to suck it up and take it."

"Well…" Tim muttered. "That's… not good…"

The understatement of the fucking year.

"Eventually, I had enough of being beaten, so I left. I ran away from home, abandoning my life of 'luxury' in New Domino City for a life of poverty in the Old Satellite District. But it was there that I met some truly amazing and incredible people, people that helped me, stood by me, treated me like family and put everything into perspective for me. Of course, life in the Satellite was tough. We hardly ever had enough food to eat, and we had rival gangs to worry about. Not only that, but I started having these weird dreams, flashes of someone calling out to me, wanting me, asking me for something. Eventually, after a lot of heartache, my friends – Yusei, Jack, Crow, Kalin, and I, we liberated the Satellite. But that came at a cost. Kalin, who was the leader of our Duel Gang, was arrested for murdering a Sector Security officer."

"Sector Security?" Tim asked.

I shook my head. "S-sorry, I've been speaking as though you know what I'm talking about, even though I'm probably not making much sense to you. N-New Domino City and the Satellite used to be one united city, but prior to that, there was an event called Zero Reverse, which basically split the city in two – New Domino City, where all the lower-to-upper class people live, and the Satellite Sector, where criminals and those in poverty lived. Sector Security was basically a police force, but with Duel Monsters instead of guns, that allegedly upheld the peace and kept Satellite and New Domino separate."

"You mentioned Duel Monsters before. What is that? Or they? Or whatever it is…"

"Well, to put it simply, it's a card game, but… there are times that I've wished it was just a game." I muttered.

"Right, I'm not sure I follow. Your law enforcement is decided on the outcome of a game?"

"Not just law enforcement," I found myself smiling, "but pretty much everything. I know it probably sounds strange to you, but that's all I, and probably everyone else in New Domino, knows. I don't know how you do things where you come from, but for me and a lot of other people, Duel Monsters is ingrained in our way of life, it's our culture… for better or worse. We have schools for it, people from all over come to participate in tournaments and watch others play. It's the foundation of New Domino's society. Its inspiration is tied to the fabric of existence… at least in my dimension it is…"

Tim sighed. "I'm not judging. I'm just trying to understand. What happened after your friend was arrested?"

"W-well I would've been happy with nothing, honestly. I'd have been perfectly content living day-to-day in the Satellite, but destiny wasn't done fucking with me. I had another weird dream, where this voice told me that an evil force was threatening to destroy the world, and that I, together with this young girl who I knew nothing about, had to protect the Spirit World. When I woke up, that Duel Spirit I spoke about before, he led me to an alley in the dead of night, where I was abducted by this man, Sayer." I started breathing heavier just at the mere thought of him. "S-Sayer was a manipulative cunt. He possessed the ability to…" I sighed, "this is gonna sound really strange, but he had the ability to make Duel Monster cards real. Like, the Spells, the Monsters. He used a card called Brain Control and manifested its power, literally putting me under his control. He made me follow him onto a boat which took us back to the mainland of New Domino City, and from there, to this place called the Arcadia Movement. He used this weird machine to brainwash me and erase most of my memories, only leaving me with seemingly essential things – my name, how to talk, how to Duel, but nothing else."

"Amnesia, huh…?" Tim said aloud.

"I was g-given a Deck and made to bunk with two other Arcadia Movement members, who unlike me weren't brainwashed and didn't have amnesia. They, like Sayer, had Psychic powers, but not to the same level as Sayer. There was only one other person who rivaled Sayer in mastery of Psychic powers – Akiza. She was absolutely amazing. Beautiful, powerful, but she seemed to hang on Sayer's every word. Anyway, I started to get trained up right away, assisting with Akiza's training and being put through Duel Runner training." I paused, realizing that, again, I was speaking as though Tim already knew exactly what I was talking about. "That's a motorcycle that you play Duel Monsters on." I explained. "But, on my way back from training, who should I run into but Yusei?"

"Yusei's the guy from your gang, right?"

"Yeah…" I confirmed, "he was… I think very surprised to see me, and I think, you know, if I had have been in my right mind, I would have probably been surprised to see him as well. I mean, I was surprised to see him. In spite of what Sayer had done or tried to do to me, there was this niggle in the back of my-"

"I don't think you can use that word." Tim interrupted.

"What?" I asked, my train of thought broken. My eyes widened as I realized the word I used and what word Tim had thought I used. "Not that word." I sighed. "Alright, fine, there was this thought in the back of my head that I knew Yusei from somewhere, but I couldn't place any of it. I was quickly taken back into the Arcadia Movement and assessed. I was told to my face but not to my face, if that makes sense, that the brainwashing they'd done was wearing off, and that my body was in such a state from seeing Yusei that any alterations made to my brain would have killed me. At some point, I passed out and woke up in another world where I met this magician named Torunka. He asked me to help rescue a girl named Luna, who had been taken prisoner by a Duel Spirit named Zeman. I realized that the place I'd found myself in – the Spirit World – was a place that I had recognized, so of course, I opted to help rescue Luna, and I did, and after that, the three of us set off to find a Duel Spirit named Regulus. Anyway, we find Regulus, we do all that stuff, and Luna and I go back to the 'Human World'. It turned out that Luna was being held prisoner in the Arcadia Movement, and that she and I were special in the sense that we had ties to the Spirit World, which is why Sayer wanted me under his control so badly. He wanted to use Luna and me to access the Spirit World, I guess." I shook my head. "It didn't matter. By this point, I knew that Sayer was evil. After all, what kind of person would uproot someone from their home and then brainwash them and make them forget everything they ever knew? I rescued Luna along with her brother Leo, who was also being held there, and ran into Yusei, Jack, and Akiza. Here's where things get a little complicated. Yusei, Jack, Akiza, and Luna were, and I guess still are, Signers, these people chosen by the Crimson Dragon, a God of Creation, to fight against the Dark Signers, people chosen by the King of the Underworld – a God of Destruction. So I get all involved in that, not obviously to the point of the others, but I didn't think it was fair on Luna, who was eleven years old at the time, to put her life on the line and fight against these guys that wanted her dead."

"Right."

"So I get my Deck back from Yusei, who'd been keeping it for me, and right before all that stuff with the Dark Signers happens, I meet up with Joel, who, now that I think about it, was basically telling me straight up about everything that had happened. He was angry at me for some reason as well, like it was my fault that I couldn't handle being physically abused and that I should have been able to… even thinking about it now, I just want to know what the Hell he was thinking. How he could blame me for what happened. What kind of person does that?" my voice was starting to crack, so I stopped.

"You okay?" I heard Tim ask.

I nodded, and when I realized he couldn't see me, I said "Yes." I took a deep breath and continued. "He said all this shit about how he missed me… yeah, missed me being a punching bag for his dad. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, and I'm sure that Joel was fucking relieved that I had amnesia, but in spite of that, he continued to egg me on. Anyway, we had a Duel to settle our bonds, and parted on what I thought were really good terms, and they were. But of course, if I had have known what happened, I wouldn't have wanted anything to do with him. He spouted off some crap about how my mom missed me, and that I should give her a call, so after all that stuff with the Dark Signers was over, that's what I did. I don't know what I was thinking, giving her a call. I wasn't thinking. I was trusting, trusting the words of my Duel Spirit partner, who said that once things with the Dark Signers had been taken care of, things would go back to normal. But of course, they didn't. My mom pretty much just disowned me. She basically said that she didn't want anything to do with me, and I just felt so alone and empty. I… tried to take my own life, but Luna stopped me." I shook my head, exhaling sharply. "I put that poor girl through so much… but she continued to stand by me." I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. "I pushed her away. I pushed everyone away. I wanted to get myself sorted out, I wanted to find some semblance of normality, but I couldn't. Eventually, we all crossed paths again, and I tried to hide it, because what did I have to be upset about? Yusei and the others had the world on their shoulders, and I was crying 'cause my mommy didn't want me. Grow up, right?"

"Did your mother know about what happened?"

"I don't know. I don't know if she ever found out. Joel probably kept it all a secret from her after we met up again for the first time in years." I spoke softly. "Anyway, I deliberately avoided my friends for as long as I could, until I was eventually reunited with them – not by choice, really." I sighed, "I sound like such a jerk, don't I?"

"Honestly? Yeah, a little."

"I wouldn't have blamed them if they hated me, but they didn't. In fact, Luna, she… she was even more supportive. She continued to stand by me and support me, even though I put her through all that crap. I don't know what I would have done without her. Eventually, Luna and I became… more than friends… s-she kissed me, and… told me that she loved me."

"She's the one that was eleven, right?"

"Well, by then, she'd turned twelve."

"And how old were you?"

"Th-the same age I am now. Eighteen…" I muttered.

"Oh…"

"It's not like that. I never did anything to her, or tried to hurt her… at least not intentionally…" I mumbled. Tim let out this disgusted tick and my nostrils flared. "Do you honestly think that someone in my position would rape or abuse her?"

"Hey, I told you, I'm not judging you. For all I know, the age of consent in your Dimension is fetus."

"Then what was that tick sound before?"

"I'm just trying to process everything. When I saw you floating out in the water before, I didn't know what to think of you. It's obvious you've been through some hard times, but it's how you pick yourself up after that show's how strong you are. Take me for instance. I could have given up after my sister died, but I didn't. I continued to push myself, strive to become better. That's what you need to do."

"I can't come back from what I did." I admitted solemnly. "I… I-I eventually did regain my memories, obviously, but not gradually over time, where I probably would have been able to process things a little better. Basically, I was involved in a covert operation that went awry, and I was 'rescued' by a God of Destruction called Zone, who gave my memories back to me, all at once. I didn't really have much time to process anything. Zone wanted my help to destroy New Domino City, but all I wanted was to kill Joel. I wanted Joel to pay for all the suffering I'd been through at the hands of his father, rationalizing that it was fair that I try and take Joel's life, when his father had abused me and ruined mine. But… I put that desire so far ahead of everything that I wasn't able to save the relationships I had with my friends. When my attempt on Joel's life failed, I begged Luna for forgiveness, but she wouldn't forgive me. I don't blame her. It's a wonder she even put up with me in the first place." I started to tear up again, and I sighed. "That's why I decided to kill myself…"

It was honestly kind of good to get everything out, or at least hear me say it out loud. It helped me make some sense of it.

I waited for Tim to say something, anything. It could have been supportive or degrading and it wouldn't have mattered, just something. But Tim stayed silent. I looked down at the clothes, picking the largest sets of clothes I had and putting them on. I didn't much care how I looked. I already looked like a fucking zombie, after all.

I heard the door to Tim's changing room open, the sound of footsteps quickly receding and then returning. He reached over the top of my door, lowering in a pair of red shoes and white socks. "Here. You need something for your feet."

"Thanks…" I said, taking the shoes from him. The shoes were probably the most difficult thing for me to put on, considering how swollen my feet were, but as I turned to look at myself in the changing room mirror, I could have even fooled myself.

Aside from the red everything, I almost looked normal.

Unlocking and pushing open the changing room door, I was surprised to see what Tim was wearing. A red blazer covering his chest but no shirt underneath, and a pair of loose-fitting red jeans, but no shoes or socks on his feet. I waited for Tim to say something else, but he didn't. Tim just walked out of the changing rooms. I sighed dejectedly and followed him back to the desk.

"We'll take these." Tim said.

"That's one-hundred K. How will you be paying?"

Tim flicked some hair away from his eye. "Do a look-up for Dimension E-199999, then Gringotts Bank, Vault W22. Name's Tim Ihansha. There should be more than enough in there to cover it."

The person nodded, typing away at their keyboard. I tapped Tim on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, did they just say this all costs a hundred thousand?" I whispered.

"Nah, K is the currency that this Dimension uses. Like how the UK uses pound sterling, the US uses dollars, and Australia uses dollarydoos." Tim explained. "It just seems like a lot, but it's actually not."

"Ah, right," I nodded, though I wasn't quite sure I really understood.

"Okay, that's all taken care of," the receptionist (and I guess check-out person) said. "Thank you for shopping with us. Have a great day."

"Thanks." Tim smiled, and I bowed as we left through the sliding doors. I assumed that Tim hadn't wanted to say much about what I'd told him while we were in the store, and now that we were outside, he'd actually, you know, talk about what I'd told him. Tim stayed at the curb however, looking across at a skyscraper in silence.

I sighed. Tim obviously wasn't going to talk, so I decided I'd have to take the initiative. "You didn't say anything before. I… t-told you things I've never told anyone and you haven't said anything. You said you wanted to know why I killed myself, and I told you… i-is that not enough for you? What else do you want from me…?"

I kept my eyes on Tim, who kept his eyes on the skyscraper ahead. Tim licked his lips. "Follow me." Tim said simply, his eyes veering from the skyscraper as he turned and began to walk down the path.

I was starting to get angry. I didn't spill my guts to a stranger for them to just ignore me. "Hey!" I snapped, but Tim kept walking.

"Just follow me." Tim repeated. I sighed, smacking a hand against my thigh in frustration, but nevertheless picking up the pace to catch up with him. I really didn't have a choice, after all. I was in a strange world with no money and no way of contacting anyone who might have been able to help me. Of course, given the choice, no one probably would have wanted to help me.

No one probably even cared.

I followed Tim, once again taking in the sights of the strange world I'd found myself in. The city was clearly über-industrialized, rivaling and possibly even surpassing New Domino City. Another red blimp came into view, this one with the message 'Attention Kmart citizens: please remember not to play on your parents' trolleys. Have a nice day.' across it.

"What the Hell?" I said angrily.

"Tell me: did you ever used to go shopping with your parents?" Tim asked. "You'd pop up to IGA or Trader Joe's or whatever to get groceries?"

I nodded. "Yeah, a couple times. What's your point?"

"Well, this is like that, except this whole Dimension is basically a store – Kmart. In my Dimension, Kmart is a failing retail store chain, but in this Dimension, history took a slightly different course, and, well… Kmart basically took over the world. They started offering home and car insurance, and the company behind it, the Sears Holdings Corporation, started to buy out other companies, franchises and businesses and brought everything under the Kmart banner." Tim explained, turning back to me. "You notice how the girl didn't bat an eye to us as we came into the store, or when I wanted to pay with money from another Dimension?"

"Wait, that check-out person was a girl?"

"People come from all over the multiverse to shop here, 'cause that's what this place is. This whole version of Earth is just one giant Kmart store, and they've started to set up Kmart stores on other planets in this Dimension too. They get a lot of good money from interdimensional tourists." Tim pointed to a projected image on the side of a skyscraper. It was a mugshot of a bald man in his mid-fifties. "See that man there? That's Sebastian Kresge, the man behind Kmart."

"R-right…" I mumbled. It was all a little bit over my head, to be honest. And truthfully, I didn't really care, but it did at least confirm what I'd thought. "S-so you've been here before then?"

"Not just here, mate. When I was a wee lad, I traveled all over the multiverse with a crazy alcoholic scientist." Tim sighed. "We had some good times…" he reminisced. "Anyway," Tim nudged, "what I wanted to show you was this way."

I continued to follow Tim down the street, until we reached a large factory which seemed to be the centerpiece of the city. There were many people coming and going through the doors, all wearing the same clothing. The building itself reminded me of Team Non-Securities' old hideout in the Satellite, but much more well-kept (and, of course, red). Out the front of the building however was a towering statue carved from ruby in the likeness of that man from those projected images, Sebastian Kresge.

"This is unreal…" I muttered, following Tim inside the factory.

The interior of the building, or at least the entrance, was white. Literally just white. There was a single chair, and behind it, a desk, both white, where a receptionist sat typing away on their keyboard. I felt very uneasy.

The receptionist looked up from their monitor and over at Tim and I as the two of us approached.

"Hello, welcome to our facility. How may we be of service?" they asked.

Tim cleared his throat. "I'd like to show my friend around the factory, if that's okay."

The receptionist nodded. "Yes, of course. Feel free to look around our fine establishment on your own. Or, if you'd like, we have a factory tour currently in progress that you can join. It's possible it's almost finished, but you're free to join the next one afterwards as well, if you'd like."

"Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks." Tim smiled.

The receptionist smiled back, getting up out of their seat. "Then if you two would like to follow me." They motioned for Tim and I to follow them through a set of white doors, and of course I followed behind Tim. The three of us walked down a long stretch of hallway and I almost found myself losing my sense of place. Everything looked as though it just stretched on forever, everything blending together in a white, almost otherworldly haze.

The receptionist stopped, turning at another door, and opening it for us, as we found another group of people staring through a glass pane at what looked to be an assembly line of some kind. The receptionist motioned for us to enter and we did.

My eyes widened as I got a look at what was being pushed down the conveyor belt.

Babies.

Behind them were various contraptions, and five elders stood dressed in white and red garb. The middle one wore a headdress of a capital k flipped so that its legs were facing up. A branding furnace was situated at a dip in the conveyor belt, before what looked like a garbage chute.

"Ah, two more?" the tour guide asked, their eyes looking to Tim and me. I soon found other varying members of the tour group turning around to glance at Tim and me. The receptionist nodded and the tour guide smiled. "Fantastic, welcome. Thank you for your interest in Kmart." The tour guide turned back to the conveyor belt. "So as you can see here," the tour guide spoke, "once the birthing process is complete, and the babies are at a suitable stage of development, the Special K Priests will examine the young, and decide on the role they will have as members of the Kmart family."

"Special K Priests?" a tour-goer asked.

The tour guide nodded. "The exalted ones, chosen by our lord and savior Sebastian Kresge to carry on the Will of Kmart."

I watched one of the priests gently take one of the infants into their hands, and observe them for a moment, as if staring into their soul. Retrieving a piece of iron, the end of it bold and red, the priest pressed it against the baby's chest, who howled a bloodcurdling scream. When the priest removed the iron, I saw the word 'cashier' branded onto the infant's chest. The priest then set the head of the iron back in the furnace and retrieved a knife, cutting the baby's testicles off.

I felt myself start to get weak in the knees. "Oh my God…" I wheezed as though I was suffocating.

"This one has been deemed fit for the role of cashier, and so has had their breeding privileges revoked. Once they are older, they will be educated at one of our care facilities and trained in whatever their occupation has been deemed to be. These roles are not negotiable, and any deviation from them will result in… penalties." The tour guide explained.

More and more babies were getting branded. I was seeing words like 'trolley operative', 'shelf stocker', 'door greeter' and 'breeder' getting branded onto these babies' chests, and no one seemed at all upset or horrified or just… anything normal. Everyone was just looking like this was just something that happened. "I don't believe this…" I whispered, only for a tour-goer to shush me.

The head priest picked up a baby who looked, for lack of a better word, deformed, and threw the baby into the garbage chute.

"Now, as you saw with that one, they were deemed unfit for a role within the Kmart family, and so, they have been disposed of. But once they have passed on, their essence will be used as sustenance for those chosen to enter the Kmart family."

I threw up in my mouth, gagging into my right hand. Warm sick started to move down my hand as I backed away, not wanting to look at the atrocities these fucking monsters were committing.

I ran back out the door as fast as my creaking joints and swollen feet could carry me, finding my way out of the factory and throwing up on the sidewalk.

I coughed, spluttered and heaved, my eyes watering, my gag reflex going absolutely insane. By the time I felt a hand grip my shoulder, I had pretty much emptied my entire body out.

"Hey, you alright?" Tim asked from behind me.

I wiped at my mouth before turning to Tim in a fit of rage. "No! What the fuck was that?! This place is killing babies and shit, and no one seems to care! That's pretty fucked up!"

"Listen, I've seen a lot of crazy stuff in my day, and believe me, what's going on in there," Tim pointed to the factory, "that ain't even in my top ten."

"Well excuse me for not being conditioned to think that that's normal or that that's acceptable, 'cause it's fucking not!"

Tim sighed. "It might not be normal or acceptable where you come from. That's fine. In my Dimension, if we did what these people were doing, we'd be locked up too. But in this Dimension, it's just what they do. It's like how you were saying your whole Dimension revolves around a card game-"

"Okay, playing Duel Monsters is nothing like killing babies and then having other babies eat the dead babies!"

"They don't kill the babies. They wait for them to die from starvation, and then once they've died, they ground them down into nutrients for the other babies."

I shook my head quickly. "That's not better!" I snapped.

Tim put a hand to his hip. "Alright, look, you're being difficult. All I was trying to show you is that there are people that don't have any control over their lives from the minute they are born, and it's disrespectful for you to take your life when they would appreciate living so much more."

"It's disrespectful of me, is it?" I asked incredulously. "You can say that, full of confidence, even after I told you everything I went through?" My breathing suddenly slowed, and my eyes veered away from Tim's as I came to a realization. "Oh, I get it… y-you're a control whore. You can't stand someone else doing something that you don't like, even if it's got nothing to do with you, even if it doesn't affect you in any way." I licked my lips. Tim tensed one of his hands into a fist, and I instinctively edged back. "What? You gonna hit me? Is that what you do when you don't get your way? You resort to violence?"

"Don't push me."

I glanced at Tim's rippling muscles, his massive biceps. "Go on. Hit me. With arms like yours, you could probably kill me with one punch."

"That's what you want though." Tim verbalized.

"So instead, you're just going to make me suffer, and live. Is that right?" I asked. "You want to control me? Like Kobi? Like Sayer?"

Tim furrowed his brows. "Alright, you want control, I'll show you control. Follow me."

I shook my head. "N-no, I'm not going anywhere with you. This bullshit ends now."

"Fine. Stay here." Tim retrieved the crystal ball from the pocket of his pants. "I can get back to my Dimension from here easy. I'll just leave you here."

"Well I'll just find someone else who has come here from another Dimension and get them to take me home."

"Alright," Tim shrugged. "You can do that, but I suggest you figure out what Dimension you're actually from first. The multiverse is infinite and playing Russian Roulette to try and get back home is not a good idea." Tim put the crystal ball back in his pocket. "Or," he emphasized, "you can stick with me, and if you act your age and behave yourself, I'll take you home."

I sighed, once again, defeated. Tim was right. I had no idea where I was, how to get back, who I could trust, and those people in there at the tour seemed oddly okay with infantile genital mutilation. Stealing the crystal ball from Tim wouldn't do me any good either, as he'd probably catch me and beat the shit out of me, and even if I was able to outrun him (a big was), I had no idea how to operate the boat. My best course of action, I realized, was just to stick with Tim for the time being, hoping that he'd make good on his word and take me home.

"Alright, I'll… you're right… I'll do whatever you want…" I muttered dejectedly.

Tim clasped his hands together, his joviality immediately returning. "Fantastic. It's this way."

Tim once again started walking, and I once again followed.

I shouldn't complain. It was actually quite a short walk, even though my feet were killing me by the end of it.

From the alleys and passages out of the city, I could see these small weird white constructs neatly arranged and evenly spaced on a vast concrete block. I frowned, unable to discern what they were. "What are they?" I decided to ask Tim.

"Hmm?" Tim turned as we reached a road leading out of the city. "Those? Those are residential pods. Here, people don't have houses. They're not needed. Since everyone here is a Kmart employee, they simply go home to eat and sleep. That's it."

"Well wh-what about all the interdimensional tourists?"

"There's a hotel somewhere over there." Tim pointed in a vague direction. "But that's not important. This is important." Tim turned me around to look through the window of a building. In it sat thirty kids of varying ages, all of them bald, and all of them hooked up to headsets.

I started to feel sick once again, memories of me lying down in that examining chair at the Arcadia Movement, staring blankly at the vizor that surrounded me bubbling to the surface. "No…" I whispered. "No, no, this can't…"

It was only then that I noticed the person at the front of the room. They were the only one without a headset on and seemed to be silently observing the kids. Tim walked a little closer to the window and then crept down. Like an idiot, I did the same.

I heard a synthesized bell ring from inside the room and watched as each of the kids' headsets were removed from their faces.

"Alright, kids, it's pill time!" The observer beamed, with an almost sickeningly sweet demeanor. Once again, my mind drifted to my time in the Arcadia Movement, and how kind Seria and Kawasaki had been.

I'll go and inform Sayer of your terrific progress!

If you can keep that up, you'll be in excellent shape, buddy!

"No…" I whined. "What's she giving to them?" I asked, watching as the observer made their way around the room, handing various pills to each of the kids.

"Well they're all different. Basically, just a bunch of pills to kill off any emotions, sexual desires, or anything at all unrelated to what their chosen field is." Tim explained.

The observer went to hand some pills to a pale kid, but the pale kid smacked them out of their hands. "I don't want to take my pills!" they snapped.

"Is that rebellion I hear, number twenty-three?" The observer asked, all of the kindness gone from their voice. "That's not the Kmart way. I think I'll need to see you out in the hall for a moment."

I watched in horror as the child was forcibly removed from their seat, and escorted into the next room, out of my sight. My body shook and I tensed myself in fright as the sound of a gunshot came from inside the room. "Holy shit…"

The observer returned to the room, once again smiling happily. "Alright, back to work everyone." The observer said. I flinched as Tim tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to face him, but Tim simply pointed to another part of the facility, where a worker in white was dragging the child's bloody dead body away.

"You see that?" Tim asked softly. "That's what happens to these kids when they try to make their own choices. You may not have had a choice in your life growing up, but you have one now. These kids, these people, they never had a choice, and they will never have a choice – they're forever trapped in their role. You get a chance to decide what you want your role to be, so tell me: what do you want your role to be?"

I started vacantly at the trail of blood left by the child. "I don't know…"

"You don't know? That's fine. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I devoted my entire life to something that was over in an instant. But through that, I found something I really enjoyed. I don't know if it's something I want to do for the rest of my life, but that doesn't matter. I'm enjoying it now, even with those damn Hufflepuffs. You must have something you enjoy, something that gives you a reason to get out of bed. Something that makes you smile. A purpose, an object, a person."

My eyes veered away from the blood.

You're more than a friend to me, Tyler! You're… you're my hero…

Please, don't ever leave me… Because I need you…

I think you're great just the way you are, no matter what he says…!

You've been so good to me, and it makes me so upset to know that you don't know what I see in you, and how much I… how much I… love you… I love you, Tyler…

"I had one of those, but not anymore…" I mumbled.

"Well that's a great opportunity to find a new one. It could be anything you want. Just because you lost your happiness once doesn't mean you can't get it back. And as for your stepdad and that cult guy, if you kill yourself, they win. It means that they had such a profound impact on your life that that's all you are. But you're not. You're more than your past and your present. You have to keep living to show those people that you're not going to let them define you as a person." Tim paused, "It's hard, I know. Trust me. You're not just going to wake up one day and be better. It takes time, but you need to want to be better. You need to think of something to live for."

My eyes readjusted, and I found myself once again staring at the blood on the ground.

And if you fucking tell anyone about this shit, your mom's gonna get it…

It's not just her that I'm after, Tyler. It's you as well. You two hold the keys to the Spirit World. There is no way I'd let you slip through my fingers!

It seems you're more trouble than you're worth. Such a shame too. After all, you've got the uniform on and everything… but I don't need people I can't use…

"I can't…" I said breathily.

"Well if you can't think of what to live for, can you think of what to die for?" Tim asked softly. I turned to him, not sure what he meant, only for him to place a pistol in my hand.

My eyes widened. "Wh-wh-what are-"

"Go on. If you're one hundred percent certain that you have nothing to live for, do it." Tim said simply. I looked down at the pistol and back to Tim. "Oh, and don't worry. I won't be able to bring you back to life if you've got a hole in your head."

I felt my heart beating rigorously in my chest, the pistol sitting loosely in my hand. He'd given it to me. An out. All I'd have to do was put the gun to my head and pull the trigger. It would probably be over in an instant. I could finally die and leave this world forever.

So why then was I looking down at this gun absolutely horrified of it? I'd never dealt with pain well, obviously. I just wanted it to all be over. Not just my life, but… the sadness, the anger… that's what I wanted gone. I thought that by trying to kill Joel that that would just absolve me of everything, that his death would mean that everything would just magically work itself out.

But it wouldn't.

Even if I had have succeeded in killing Joel on the Ark Cradle, that wouldn't have fixed anything. As Yusei had said, what Kobi and Joel had done couldn't be fixed. But by that same notion, what Tim had said was true as well: just because I'd been abused, that didn't mean that that had to be the only thing that defined me.

Akiza had supposedly been ridiculed her whole life because of her Psychic powers, and if she wanted, she could have always just been the Black Rose Witch. She didn't have to open up to Yusei or reconnect with her parents if she didn't want to, but she did. I could see it when she Dueled me, throwing me back against the wall with her powers. She didn't want to cause me pain, and she didn't want her Psychic powers to be the only thing that defined her. They were a part of her, yes, but she was more than the Black Rose Witch.

She just wanted to be happy, to be loved.

It was all I wanted too…

"I-I-I…" I stammered. "No, I can't…" I whimpered, forcing the pistol back into Tim's hand.

"Come on, you said you wanted to die, didn't you?"

"I just want to be happy…" I blubbered, tears filling my eyes. "Luna made me happy and I threw that all away…"

"That's good enough for me," Tim shrugged, "but back there at the clothing place, you said you didn't have any friends. You're wrong."

"What do you mean?"

Tim blushed. "N-not that you and I are friends, dumb-dumb."

My face broke a smile. "Sorry I called you a control whore before." I apologized.

"That's alright," Tim smiled. "You were staring at the gun for a while. Part of me actually thought you were gonna try and shoot yourself, but the gun isn't even loaded anyway."

I exhaled. "What?"

"You turkey," Tim chuckled, turning to point the pistol at the observer. "See?" Tim pulled the trigger and I covered my ears, a bullet flying through the window and nailing the observer right between the eyes, dropping to the ground dead. "Oh, shit. It actually was. Well, there you go."

Suddenly, sirens started to blare all around us. Searchlights and lazer pointers came down from the airborne blimps and zeroed in on Tim and I. "Wh-what's happening?!" I asked.

"My bad. Shouldn't have killed that teacher." Tim said almost nonchalantly. "This place doesn't take kindly to murder."

I flinched at the sound of another gunshot. I looked around quickly to see a police officer, or whatever the dimensional equivalent was, standing across from us, having seemingly come out of nowhere, holding a rifle in their hands.

The officer fired once more, and Tim hugged me to his chest, protecting me.

I heard more and more gunfire, which meant that there were more officers converging to fire at Tim and I. Tim took me into his arms and I blushed. I had to remind myself that we were being shot at as Tim made a run for it, covering me and protecting me from getting shot at as he ran.

With my head against Tim's chest, I couldn't really see much of what was going on around me. I clung to Tim like my life depended on it, the sounds of the sirens getting louder and louder.

I heard Tim grunt, his movement slowing as I felt his body jerk. "A-are you alright?!" I shouted to him.

"I'm fine." He told me, picking up the pace once more. I gripped Tim tighter and forced my eyes shut, desperately trying to block out the sounds of the sirens and gunfire, my heartbeat thumping with every shot, my body shaking uncontrollably.

My eyes widened, and my heart leapt into my throat as I felt Tim suddenly release his hold on me. I tumbled back into the boat, hitting my head against the side.

I grunted, recoiling and sitting up.

"Sorry, need both hands for this." Tim apologized, a bullet ricocheting off of his shoulder.

"T-Tim…!" I struggled to get to my feet.

"Stay down!" Tim ordered as a searing pain shot through my abdomen, forcing me down. I dropped to the floor of the boat, a throbbing, burning pain underneath me. My heart was beating faster than it ever had. I was sweating like crazy and I could feel a warm liquid start to pool underneath me. Part of me thought I might have pissed myself in fear, but the liquid was red. It was blood, my blood. I'd been shot. "Damn it!" Tim shouted, "Doesn't matter where we go." He said quickly, moving the boat's cylinders about randomly. Tim then placed the crystal ball back in its holder.

The familiar whirring sound began to drown out the sound of gunfire. I groaned involuntarily, more of my blood leaving me as I felt myself start to slip away.

This isn't how I wanted to die.