Disclaimer: You get the point.

They had waited for me. After falling unconscious to visit her Signer Dragon's mind, Ruka had called the gang and rounded them up in the twins' flat and they had been waiting ever since.

It was no shocker to me, that was how the gang worked. They made it clear to me time after time that anything we did would somehow become a team effort. Why would this be different?

Despite expecting they'd be here if my spirit experiment went haywire, I'm still heartened that they remained here after the sun set. What had they been doing before this? Did I interfere with the guys' work on the engine? Akiza's studying? Rua's free time, most likely bugging his school friends about the upcoming WRGP?

Have I been a bother by doing this? By seeking answers, had I unintentionally sent out a cry for their help and drew them away from where they wanted to be rather than here?

"Maria."

I tear my gaze away from the floor-to-ceiling windows listlessly, now looking directly across from my position on the couch at Yusei. My watch hovers over everywhere except his eyes. In the few minutes it took for everyone to readjust on the living room couches it seems the ability to stare Yusei in the eye has fled me.

I return to staring at the pitch-black clouds thinly veiling the moon outside.

"Maria." My ears twitch at the sound of my name but I don't turn around. "We get that this is probably…well, is hard for you to deal with, but we're here, remember? Can you tell us what's going on?"

It seemed like the routine for our group confessions was that Jack was the one to get it out of me, so I'm unnerved when I hear Crow's voice tenderly calling me back to everyone. Back to myself and the truth revolving around my mark.

I had gotten it out once, and now all I want to do is cease from talking about it. Distractions, I want distractions. Sleeping, gazing at the moon, eating Martha's cooking. I want to be distracted.

"How long have you all been here?" I meekly squeeze out.

"Almost as long as you've been unconscious," Akiza clarifies. "It's been about four and a half hours since."

"Time works differently in the Spirit World. You can spend days in there and only think it's minutes," Ruka informs from my side. She and her brother take up one couch with me, while the other four fit themselves accordingly to the other across the coffee table.

No wonder I was out for nearly three days the last time. "Oh. I see." No matter how hard I wish, I won't be able to run. I'd have to relive it until the group's worries are assuaged. "But I wasn't in the Spirit World."

Ruka's eyes widen. "Where were you?"

I chuckle just from the thought of how funny the answer sounds. "Ancient Fairy Dragon's mind-world. I'm not quite sure what it is, but apparently both of ours are connected to duel monster spirits."

"That's why you were able to go to the Spirit World," she murmurs back.

Judging from the lack of surprise, I'm guessing she must have already explained my accidental trip to everyone. Good, one less thing on the to-do list.

"What did Ancient Fairy Dragon say?" Ruka asks next.

I sigh involuntarily, "She didn't really want to tell me anything."

"But you're a good guy!" shouts Rua, earning everyone's attention with ease. "How could she not want to tell you if what she knows can help you and all of us?"

I'm taken aback but it soon dwindles into a smile. I send Ruka a glance and catch the anticipation rimming her eyes. I'm relieved I don't have any news to badmouth Ancient Fairy Dragon with. I'm certain it would indirectly hurt Ruka if I did.

"No, it isn't like that. She just didn't feel it was her right to. She thinks that she doesn't have the answers to all of my questions."

"That still doesn't answer why she wouldn't tell you." The dismay on Ruka's expression intensifies, unfitting of her childish features. "You're good."

With the two siblings always at opposite ends of the personality spectrum, it's easy to forget just how alike they are at their core. I raise a hand to her shoulder. "She wouldn't have spoken to me at all if she thought I was bad. And she did tell me some things, remember?"

Ruka nods, and I give her a small smile just in case my words aren't enough to appease her doubts. Then, to everyone in the room, I explain: "If I'm to take a stab at it, I'd say the reason Ancient Fairy Dragon didn't say much is because I'm not her responsibility. She's Ruka's Signer Dragon, not mine. She believes I'll have better luck talking to Zephyrus."

"Zephyrus?" the group repeats.

"He's the voice that's been warning me, and also who gave me my birthmark."

A collective trade of glances arise. Then it's Jack who states the obvious, "So you've been speaking with a duel spirit this entire time?"

"Seems so."

"If you've already talked to him, why don't you do it again?"

I sigh again. "He comes to me, not the other way around."

He grumbles, "So find his mind-world."

I don't know if he's aware of how irritating his blunt tone is. Or perhaps he's doing it purposely, just because he dislikes me that much. "It isn't that easy. I didn't even know mind-worlds existed a few hours ago. I didn't know if I could see spirits, let alone touch them. And now it turns out I'm some…some…"

The room falls silent. But it doesn't last as long as I would've liked it to.

"Star Child." The words come from the last person I would've expected. Although his folded hands are covering his mouth and chin, the name clearly sprouts from Yusei's lips.

"Yeah," is all I say in response. My gaze lowers to my hands; I half-expect them to be radiating light into the barely lamp-lit room.

"How does that work?" Akiza ponders. Her head snaps down from eyeing the open air and to my direction immediately after, an apologetic frown on her face. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that aloud."

I do the only thing I can: shrug. It's not like I'm not curious as well. It was slightly vague, but Ancient Fairy Dragon didn't mean it as a person who has a soul. She meant that I, a human being, am also a spirit. A duel spirit in a human body. How exactly does a human-duel spirit hybrid come into existence?

I may not remember much of my father, but I'm certain he is a human man.

"I don't know," I mumble, looking back out into New Domino's night sky.

"It's getting late," announces Crow, evidently getting the message. Akiza, Jack and Yusei get up along with him.

I turn to the twins. "Would it be okay if I slept here tonight?" For being unconscious for over four hours, I find myself pretty pooped. The last thing I want is to sit on a bus or taxi and fall asleep while waiting to arrive at Martha's house.

"Yeah! Sleepover!" yells Rua, hopping up from his cushion.

"You can borrow some of our mother's pajamas if you want," offers his sister. I nod, albeit not sure I want to take her up on the offer. What does a rich woman wear to bed?

I stay seated on the couch as the twins move to the door to see the rest of the group off.

"Maria," says Yusei. I look in the direction of his call and see that when he had stood, it was only to round the table and come up on my right.

I stand up, finding my footing in a speedy panic. He glances down at me, to which I avert my eyes. "Come with me."

My eyebrows shoot up, and I'm confused about what he means while he passes me to go by the windows. Yusei peers over his shoulder at me, must see the bewilderment across my face, and slides the window open.

"What are you doing?" I ask, rushing up to him, my panic rising ten fold. That is, until I realize the these large windows lead onto a railed terrace stationed amidst other city skyscrapers. "Oh. I forgot this was here."

He gives me a questioning, if not amused, expression and ultimately decides to ignore my fretting by walking out onto it. The cool breeze of the night seeps through the holes in my knitted sweater, tickling my arms just as I remember the grass of Ancient Fairy Dragon's mind-world doing.

Yusei stops in his tracks and turns to me. For a moment I'm able to make eye contact, only long enough to see that whatever emotion is driving this excursion isn't malicious or pushing. I stare up at the sky and wait for him to start.

"Can you look at me?"

I suck in a breath and whip my head toward him. "Sorry." It's the first thing that comes to mind, seeing as the question was both unexpected and lacking of any tell-tale emotion. "Did you want to talk about something?"

Did he want to ask some follow up question that everyone was too afraid to utter? Did he not trust that I was telling the gang everything? The thought of him taking back his words sends a cringe over me. That's the last thing I want; Yusei had kick-started my confession about the white spirits with saying he and everyone trusted me. What would I do if he took it back all because of the newest revelation?

I breathe my overactive emotions in like the brisk, night air around us and shove them deep within so that Yusei doesn't get the chance to sneak a peek. Don't jump to conclusions until he actually says what he wants.

"Did you say something?" I ask, hoping I hadn't missed his point under all my wondering.

"No."

"Oh." My hands fumble over each other. "So what is it?"

Yusei doesn't do anything other than stare at me. Was this some kind of test? An intimidation tactic? It's working on me, no doubt, but I don't know what he's trying to dig out of me by doing so.

I spy a swaying thread on my sweater.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay."

That's one answer I hadn't expected, meaning I'd have to scrounge up a response I haven't already thought of. I yank the string to buy some time and decide I'll need a pair of scissors for the job later on. "It's a work in progress."

I see him nod out the corner of my eye. He goes into another stint of silence after. Was he stalling for something? Dramatic pauses seem more like Jack's style, so why is he making the effort to drag this along?

"How's your shoulder?"

"It's fine. It's fully healed now."

A dash of relief reveals itself in his voice as he replies, "That's good."

Seriously, what's going on here? Did he really just ask me to come out here and make small talk with him? Yusei seemed like he was a straight and to the point fellow. What's causing the sudden passiveness? Is he sick? Or did all of the things I told the group make him lose his edge? Either way, he seems off.

I finally gain the courage to stare him in the eye and realize that he's not even looking at me anymore, but instead my hand—the one that was previously bruised purple. I put that hand behind my back and mutter, "That's better too."

"Let me see it."

"Why?" There's not much in his voice but it springs a red flag in my mind. I understand why he's worried about my shoulder, but this was none of his business. Before I can stop the aggravation from reaching my throat I reply, "Don't you trust me?"

That throws him off. It shows very little on his face but the fact it shows at all is enough to tell me it surprises him.

"Now can you tell me what you're trying to get out of me? I told you guys everything, if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not that," he corrects with a small sigh. "Like I said, I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

"And I already told you. So if that's all you want, why are we still out here?"

Now his silence doesn't seem so voluntary. He actually looks unsure of the answer himself, only causing another spike in irritation.

My responses didn't seem to meet his expectations so what did he want me to say? Or maybe he doesn't want me to speak at all. Does he want me to burst into tears again, only for him to be my shoulder? Did he want me to lay on the ground and feign unconsciousness so he could whisk me to safety in his arms?

He may have been asking, "Are you okay?" but what he really meant is, "Do you need me to pick up your pieces again?" He wanted me to admit I'm not handling this as well as I could be just so he could slip on his armor and fight the dragon outside my tower.

"Hey Yusei," comes Akiza from the terrace door, "Crow and Jack want to know how much longer you'll be."

He glances at her, then back at me. "Another minute."

"Actually, Akiza, we're done," I say as I turn away from him. Akiza and I trade spots, her now standing on the terrace. "He's all yours."

From the moment after she woke up Yusei sensed something was out of place. Maria wasn't a person who'd ignore her friends, and when he turned her to himself, he saw his intuition held true.

Maria was petrified. Even if she hadn't spun toward him, gaze directly on his, he could feel it running from her skin and into his fingertips. His first instinct led him to believe that perhaps it was him she feared, but it was quickly shot down when he noticed her initial state was taking its departure from her eyes.

With the slightest urging came the real shocker: "Born of man and star, a being of both human and spirit. You are a Star Child."

He and his friends were confused by the phrasing, but it hit them like a sucker punch to the gut what Maria meant. She was addressing herself, she was this Star Child…half-human, half-duel spirit?

She scrambled away from him after, finding refuge on the thick-cushioned couch in the living room. Everyone else simply followed suit, the tense air Yusei tried so arduously to waft away returning. Maria was still in somewhat of a daze, but at least the fear had worn off.

The conversation crept along, Maria slowly returning enough to relay all that she'd discovered, most notably that she had personally visited the mind-world of Ancient Fairy Dragon and that the voice she was dreaming of belonged to a duel spirit named Zephyrus.

Yusei listened to his friends enough to catch those two details. But his mind wandered without his consent on a different subject.

If not for fear of him or her friends, what was it that scared her? She seemed understanding of Ancient Fairy Dragon's stance; the mention of Zephyrus roused curiosity in those golden eyes of hers. He could taste the answer on the tip of his tongue, and it wasn't until Maria had to stumble over admitting what she was did he swallow the answer whole.

She was afraid of herself.

As a Star Child, she was equally as human as she was spirit. So far most of Maria's spiritual encounters resulted in distressing circumstances, if not life-endangering. Those experiences were weighing their toll on her perspective right this instant.

The look in her eyes was still with him, even after understanding what caused it. Awed and horrified at the same time—like she had witnessed the face of God only to be told she was damned. Glazed over and not fully aware of what was occurring, inside herself or around her. It reminded him of finding Maria nearly unconscious on the forest's floor, and when he mistakenly made her cry.

That look in her eye caused Yusei his own kind of pain. Whether for his own state of mind or Maria's, he never wanted to see that look on his friend's face again.

A horn blares repeatedly and I jolt awake. "Ah!"

At first I guess it's some sick prank by one of the boys but I quickly observe that I'm not even at Martha's house. That's right. I slept at the twins'…and evidently out on the balcony looking overhead the northern New Domino streets. I was having trouble falling asleep so I came out here to waste some time. By the amount of light pouring down on me, I'd say it's late morning.

Next time I see Carly, I'll be sure to tell her about this riveting change in events!

I unfurl myself from the burrito-like shell of sheets I'd manage to wrap myself in last night and pull them back into the guest room the twins let me use. After folding them and placing them at the bed's edge, I open my door and peek into the hall. Empty.

I close the door behind me as gently as possible. I pinch the edge of my pajama top without thinking and find myself in a trance for toying with it.

If you must know, a rich woman only sleeps in silk pajamas, or at least the mother of the twins only does. I'm happy I took the twins up on their offer because this stuff is probably the slickest, comfiest fabric I've ever touched. Ever.

I descend the flight of stairs and walk the hall that leads into the living room. Some show is playing quietly on the TV. The twins sit side by side on the couch, wearing similar pairs of pajamas but with different colors—pink for Ruka, and blue for Rua.

"Why aren't you guys at school?" I ask, startling them into whiplash. The siblings calm down simultaneously after spotting me.

"Geez, don't sneak up on us like that," laughs Rua. "And no good morning? You wake up and automatically nag us about school?"

Ruka rolls her eyes at him, but the both of us laugh. "It's Sunday, Maria."

"Really?" They nod. "My internal calendar must be way off its game. And excuse me for believing education is something that should be cherished, not wasted."

"Yeah, Rua," his sister teases, to which he grumbles some words under his breath. They both hop off the couch and lead me to the kitchen. "We made breakfast if you're hungry."

Rua hands me a plate and Ruka puts a slice of toast, some scrambled eggs, and sausage links on it. The three of us take seats at the table.

I glance between the two. "You guys aren't going to have any?"

"We just finished," Ruka smiles. "Oh! Want some orange juice, or milk?"

I return her smile. "Orange juice would be good, thank you." She stands and I hear her open a cabinet behind us. "So what do you guys usually do on your Sundays?"

"Depends," Rua mulls it over. "We don't usually plan anything but somehow we tend to end up at the guys' apartment."

"If we're not hanging with some of our classmates," Ruka jumps in, setting my glass of orange juice next to my plate, "but even then, we can still end up there."

I gnaw off a piece of sausage. "I see. You guys really like it over there, huh?"

"Don't you?" Ruka questions instantly. It dumbfounds me while perplexing her brother.

"Um. Yeah. It's nice." I don't feel as if that's enough to act as a suitable answer so I add: "Being around all of you is really nice. I'm glad we're friends."

The twins brighten up and a comfortable silence comes along soon after.

I've noticed I always feel the most at ease with the twins. After what they've been through with the Dark Signers war, they still have a tight grip on their innocence and, much like Carly, their outlook on things is relatively positive. My usually negative thoughts lessen when either are around, which is probably why I enjoy their company as much as I do.

Telling the twins I like being a friend to them and the others was no lie. I appreciate all of them and what they've brought into my lonely world.

Although we've been clashing heads recently, I'm not sure I'd ever dislike Jack. Being around him can be trying, and aside from that he could put a strain on my composure with a flick of his wrist. It seems like a drawback, and I'm sure it has the potential to be, but right now I value that ability. Jack is more honest than I'd be in a million years—I can't fault him for wrangling the truth from me when I can't do it myself.

Crow could probably make Ebenezer Scrooge laugh. He's got a knack for lightening any dark moment with his humor. He also has a presence that you can't ignore (partially due to his wild, orange hair) and a compassionate heart that has a never-ending amount of room. The group is lucky to have such a person shine over us like our own personal sun.

I wish I talked to Akiza as much as I would like to. She's nice and often shows a lot of sympathy towards me; I wonder if that's how she's always been, or if there was something that occurred in her life to urge it out of her. I'm sure there's more to her than just the Signer and psychic duelist parts. I want to ask her the questions I so blindly refused to before.

And then there's Yusei. The thought of him confuses me.

I can't deny having a bit of a crush on him; I mean, it's kind of hard not to. He's attractive and dedicated and considerate and he looks out for everyone, but that's just it—most likely, I'm "everyone" to him. Not "someone". He looks out for me because we're friends and that's what friends do. Nothing more, nothing less.

There's also the issue that I always find myself angry when talking to him, and I know that's not a side effect of my schoolgirl crush. I'm envious of him—of the way everyone views him and how he has enough strength not only to take care of himself, but everyone. I've never heard a word about Yusei not being able to handle this or cry over that. There isn't a leader among the Signers, but I bet no one would argue that he's up on that pedestal.

Despite my crush, I think I want to be like him more than I want to be with him.

And now, I wonder who I am to all of these people. More specifically than a friend, what do they think of me? What do they like most about me?

Who was I to Mom? Who am I to Martha? To the kids? To Carly? Nayla?

Who am I to me?

Who am I at all?

That pesky question from last chapter has returned! Identity crisis much?

This chapter is written as a kind of conclusion to last chapter, which is what I've been doing a lot when chapters have major plot-points like this (i.e. the forest and the vision of the past). But I also feel like this is an ending to a verrrrrry long volume or act. Many things have been set up and now it's going to transition from the "Questioning every single thing!" phase to "Let's figure shit out!" phase.

Maria is a character who is in CONSTANT denial, but very slowly has she come around to all of these changes in her life. That transition from denial to acceptance is what drives the direction of events.

Again I want to thank everyone for their support. I especially hope readers who were around when this story first started are still reading. Most of you are very silent BUT I KNOW YOU'RE THERE so feel free to voice your opinions anytime…I'll be waiting.

P.S. School has started up again and I'm sobbing internally! I have a few Honors/AP classes that require a lot of focus and effort on assignments and such so I'll try to update when I can, but I can't make you any promises time-wise.

TTFN