I don't own Yu-gi-oh GX

Salt and Eggs are best when they are fresh

"So what's the deal with Zane, Sy? I mean why would talking about your dad upset him so badly?" Jaden asked as he sipped his hot coco. After last nights events everyone had been a little on edge, so they had agreed that they would all meet and have breakfast together at the Bean Scene. The charming little café had grown on the group, and it felt like the perfect place to discuss the 'Zane issue,' as it had come to be called. Also, it seemed that this was a likely place to run into the underground duelist, and the whole group, Syrus especial, wanted to make sure that he was okay.

Syrus's eyes seemed to gloss over with tears as they rolled down and stared at his cup of steaming peppermint tea. Hot mist brushed up against his face, causing his glasses to fog over, but the youngest Truesdale didn't seem to mind. The steam seemed to lure the younger Truesdale into some sort of fictitious comfort, and for a while, he just seemed to fixate on it. An uncomfortable silence seemed to fall over the group as they waited for their littlest member to respond.

"I never really met my father," Syrus's voice suddenly quivered, "I was only a few days old when he was killed in a car crash."

A silent sorrow and sweep of grief seemed to fall over the group as they listened to Syrus's words. Bastion and Chazz's faces seemed to fall into a sort of grim state, and Hassalberry and to wipe a few tears from his eyes. Alexis had her hand clasped over her mouth, and even goofy, talkative Atticus and grown quite. As Zane's closet friend he had known that Zane's father had died, but he had no idea that it had been such a violent death, or that it had happened when Zane was so young, he couldn't have been more than two!

"He was on his way to see me at the hospital when a drunk driver hit him and over turned the car," Syrus snuffled as a steady flow of tears started to fall from his eyes. "Dad didn't die right way. He was suspended in the air by his seat belt, and decided to wait for the rescue team to come and save him, but they didn't arrive in time. He ended up dieing of internal bleeding while waiting."

"Oh my gosh, Syrus I'm so sorry," Jaden said as he pulled Syrus into a comforting embrace, "that's so horrible."

"I…I..I never really got to know him," Syrus whimpered as tears poured down his eyes and dripped on to the floor, "and Zane really hates to talk about him. See grandpa was taking Zane back home after seeing me, and they….they…they passed the over turned car. Zane saw them take away dad's body."

The whole group seemed to gasp as the impact of Syrus words hit them with full force. Atticus felt as though a part of his heart had been crushed, as he learned about the terrible incident that his best friend had gone though. Suddenly the reason Zane had always been so distant was explained. To lose a parent at any age is an unspeakable and traumatic event, but to actual see it, is simple inexpressible. The pain, the loss, is something that no one should have to experience. Zane must have been so afraid to get close to anybody after that. It must have hurt him so deeply. Atticus thought as he tried to keep himself from crying. Why didn't he ever tell me about his dad? I could have helped him. I could have been there for him. Damn it Zane, why don't you ever tell anybody when you need help?

"That's why he never wanted to get close to me," Syrus voice cut though everyone's thoughts, "if dad hadn't been coming to see me, he never would have been in that crash."

"That isn't true," Jaden stated in a strong, firm voice as he pulled Syrus into an even deeper hug. "What happened to your dad wasn't your fault, and Zane doesn't blame you, Syrus. It was not your fault."

"I just worry that Zane became too withdrawn after what happened to dad to love me," Syrus sobbed into Jaden's shoulder. "When he told me, he loved me during his duel with Camilla, I was so relived, but then he was taken away. When we got him back, I was so glad, I thought that finial things would start to get better between us, and they were! But now his gone again; I have to get him back Jaden, I have to, I need my older brother!"

"Don't worry Syrus," Jaden said as he hugged Syrus even tighter, "we will, I promise we will."

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An eerie, ghostlike shadow had fallen over the world and Zane found himself standing in the middle of what looked like a giant white room. He looked around this white world and found that he was standing in the middle of a black and white highway road.

"Hello," Zane called out into the empty stillness, "is anybody here?"

"Is anybody here? Is anybody here? Is anybody here?" The words echoed off the nothingness and bounded back to Zane.

"Okay, I guess that means I'm on my own, not like that's anything new," Zane said to himself. 'I guess I'm supposed to follow this road,' Zane thought as he sauntered down the highway, 'not like there's anything else to do in this stupid white world.' He walked and walked for what seemed like hours, and nothing seemed to change. The road stayed the same, the white room stayed the same, and nothing crossed in front of Zane's path. 'Gosh, when is this path going to end,' Zane growled to himself.

All of a sudden, a blinding, bright light washed over Zane and caused his eyes to flicker. When he opened them, he found himself standing on a hillside, and as Zane turned around, he saw that he was standing in front of a tombstone, with a bunch of grass covering the name.

"So let me guess, now I'm supposed to pull back the grass and see my father's name, and realize that I have issues with his death. You now for an 'all knowing dream' you're a little behind. But hey, you know what I'll play along!" Zane shouted up into the emptiness, as he bent down and brushed the grass out of the way. But the name on the tombstone wasn't his fathers, nor was it his grandfather, nor was it any other departed person that Zane had known. The name Zane read on the tombstone was his own.

End of Dream

"Knock, knock, knock" the sound of banging on the door jerked Zane out of his sleep and caused any memory of his dream to evaporate from his mind. He turned and looked at the clock and saw that it read 9:00am. 9:00am, that must be Jo, Zane thought as he pulled on a t-shirt and pair of pajama pants and went to answer the door; she said she was going to come over for breakfast. I wonder what's going to happen to the eggs this time. Zane smiled as he thought about the last time he and Jo made breakfast. I'm still not sure, how she turned them purple last time.

"Morning Jo," Zane greeted as he pulled open the door and stared at his female dueling companion. His eyes did a quick scan of her. She was clad in her usually black clothing, but today instead of the usual skirt, she was wearing black cargo pants and a black t-shirt with the words I don't have a license to kill. I have a learner's permit printed in red across the chest, and her long black hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. She was also, Zane noticed, carrying a brown paper bag. Probable full of groceries, Zane though as he let her though the door.

"Nice P.J.'s Truesdale," Jo smirked as she eyed her male partner, and placed the groceries on the kitchen table. "How about you get dressed, and I'll start breakfast?"

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Zane garbled as he crossed his arms and leaned against the refrigerator.

"What the getting dressed thing?" Jo asked as she eyed him curiously.

"No the leaving you alone in the kitchen thing."

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny Zane; don't you worry I'll be fine."

"It's not you I'm worried about, it's my kitchen. I've seen what happens when you and food get together. It isn't pretty. I mean seriously purple eggs."

Jo eyes narrowed into tiny little slits and with her acid green eyes she looked very much like a snake. "That was one time Truesdale, and I've been practicing since then, I'm way better now. So why don't you just go get dressed and have a little faith in me."

"Fine," He said but instead of turning around and heading back to his bedroom, Zane strolled over to the cabinet under the kitchen sink and pulled out…

"A fire extinguisher!" Jo hissed indigently.

"Just in case," Zane smirked as he dropped the extinguisher in her arms and head off towards his room to change.

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"Well, I have to admit these omelets are really good Jo," Zane said as he cut into his Spanish omelet.

"Well, I tried my best," Jo said with a smug little smile.

The table was decked out with all sorts of yummy breakfast foods. There was buttery grits, and crispy bacon. Two tall glass of freshly squeezed orange juice stood next to a plate of steam-warm blueberry muffins. In the middle of both duelist plates, placed ever so elegantly was two yellow, not purple in anyway at all, omelets. It was perfect, too perfect.

"You picked all this up from Denney's on the way over here didn't you?" Zane asked with a sneer.

"Zane, when you turn eggs purple it's time to stop kidding yourself."

"I still what to know how you did that," Zane said with a laugh as he continued to eat his breakfast.

"I not sure how it happened, and I'm not sure I want to know," Jo snickered as she sipped her orange juice. "So," Jo said her voice suddenly going serious, "are we going to talk about last night at all?"

"No," Zane growled his eye narrowing as he slipped into defensive mood.

"You know I think I'm entitled to at least know the reason why my phone bill is going to be so high this month."

"My dad came up when I was talking to Syrus," Zane snapped knowing that that would shut her up. He watched with satisfaction as Jo's eyes dropped and her fire temper cooled, but also at the same time was comforted and thankful that the reason she was letting the subject drop was because she understood. Jo had lost her mother too and knew first hand what it was like to deal with the pain, loss and anger that can only be brought on by losing a parent. Once again, Zane felt the type of comfort that he had only ever felt with Jo. The contentment of knowing that with her he could be alone without every really being alone.

"Don't you just hate it when that happens?! Your life is going a long just fine, when all of a sudden Bam!, memories of stupid dead parents came along to ruin it."

"I know and then everyone is like you need to deal with it."

"Then it's like 'Well, I don't want to deal with it.' God, why can't dead parents just stay dead," Jo shrieked.

"As if ruining our lives when they were alive weren't enough, now they have to do it from beyond the grave too," Zane growled.

"Yeah," Jo agreed as her eyes stared down at her eggs.

An unease, awkward silence had fallen over both duelists as memories of each of their parents came flooding back. Jo started picking at her eggs with her fork, the yellowy breakfast food suddenly making her sick to her stomach. Jo looked up and saw that Zane too had a revolted look on his face, and had pushed his egg to the back of his plate. A mutual understanding went between the duelist, and Jo stood, picked up the plates and started washing them in the sink. Zane soon followed her over to the sink and started to dry the plates as she finished washing them.

"So, I'll meet you at the dueling dome at noon. That is if you think you can get enough points to qualify for the finals by then?" Zane challenged, trying to change the subject.

"I'm a big girl, Zane, I can handle my self," Jo said as she finished washing the last plate and passed it, rather roughly, to Zane, before turning and walking out of the apartment.

"I'm very aware of that Jo, I'm very aware of that," Zane smiled as he finished drying the last plate and placed it in the cabinet. He then went to the coat closet to grab his signature black trench coat and duel disk before heading out the door.

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Well here is chapter 8. It's not my best work, but this was kind of a transition chapter, and it helped me write in a bit more of the Zane/father background. Big thanks to Kaiseress and Anime 300 for the reviews, I hope I can get a few more. I also enabled my anonymous reviews (didn't realize I hadn't enabled it ), so if you don't have an account and want to leave a review you can now. I hope you enjoyed chapter 8 and I hope to have chapter 9 out soon (reviews really help with up-dates). Thanks for reading.