Wow, reader numbers jumped [58 to 103 overnight o_O]. Thanks to all who are reading! Again, cards may not/probably don't exist, those that do don't do what I say they do, so please don't yell at me if you have the card and I'm wrong!

Hope nobody was too offended by the last chapter. Ch9, coming soon!

Helpless to intervene, the companions could only watch in horror as Valon was attacked time and time again. His life points dropped steadily under the assault, and soon he was down to his last hundred points.

Raven still hadn't moved.

'I play Roulette Soldier in defence mode,' Valon said. His monster appeared on the field. His Dark Mechanical Monstrosity had been destroyed two turns ago, and he was now barely hanging on.

He glanced once more at Raven. 'Come on, girl!'

Jonno laughed. 'Guess she's gone for good. Better say goodbye to her now, losers.'

'Sorry to have to end this, Valon,' Chaz finally said. 'It's been fun.'

'Raven, wake up!' Yugi yelled.

She didn't respond.

At that point in time, all Seto wanted to do was to yell out, wake her up, tell her she'd be alright.

'Care to do the honours, Chaz?'

Chaz smiled. 'I'll freeze him, you kill him.'

'Gotcha.'

He drew a card. 'I activate my trap card, Lockdown. Sorry Valon, but neither you nor any of your monsters can move now. Did I mention they're all moved to attack mode?'

Dark smoke wrapped itself around Valon's wrists and ankles, before chaining his Roulette Soldier in the same way.

'You're all out of luck,' Jonno said. 'Fire Mage, destroy his soldier and his life points!' A ball of red light formed in the Mage's hands.

Valon's head drooped.

'Nice knowing you, loser,' Chaz said.

'No!' Ryou yelled.

The fireball screamed towards the Soldier.

Suddenly, a voice screamed, 'Mirror Wall!' and Chaz and Jonno yelled as a shimmering wall appeared around the Soldier. The ball of flames ricocheted into the Orichalcos and vanished.

'No fucking way!' Jonno yelled. 'He couldn't do anything!'

'No, but I could,' the voice rasped. The Mirror Wall disappeared.

'Raven!' Seto called.

She wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth. 'Yeah, me.'

Chaz's jaw dropped. 'But you—you were—'

'Thanks, Raven,' Valon grinned. The smoky manacles disappeared and he rose to his feet.

'But—how—'

'No more Memories Chain,' she snarled.

'You remembered.' Valon said.

She nodded. The centre of the area shimmered again, revealing a black portal.

Slowly it lightened. Fucking hell… where am I? Raven's thoughts echoed through the space.

The black faded, replaced by an image of Raven lying on the bottom mattress of a two-stack bunk bed. She groaned and put a hand to her head. I thought I killed myself.

She opened her eyes. Her duel disk was still on her left arm, deck intact. At least nothing's gone. Running her hand over it she discovered a thick bandage underneath the strapping. What—

'Good to see you awake,' a voice said. 'You've been asleep for two days.'

Instantly awake, she spun around. 'Who's there?'

The door clinked shut and Valon moved into view. He walked past her, stopping to stand about half a metre away from her bed. 'Just me.'

'What the fuck—' She made to get up, but the second she tried to use her left arm she collapsed, groaning.

'I wouldn't put weight on that arm. There's twenty-eight stitches in it.'

She swore under her breath. 'How the fuck would you know?'

Valon sighed. 'You don't remember what happened?'

'I remember slicing my arm open. I would have thought the message I left would have been a pretty clear indication not to do anything to help me,' she spat.

'Can I sit down?'

'What?'

'I said, can I sit down?' he indicated the empty space at the foot of her bed.

Raven hesitated.

'It's alright. I'm not gonna do anything. You want some food?' He pulled a crumbling bread roll out of his pocket. 'Sorry it's a bit squished, but it's all I could sneak from the mess hall.'

She snatched it from his hand and thoroughly inspected it before cramming it into her mouth. 'What do you want?'

'What do you mean?'

Raven wiped crumbs from the corner of her mouth. 'You wouldn't have saved me unless you wanted something from me. What is it you want? You're not getting any favours. I didn't want to be saved.'

'I didn't save you to get anything in return,' he snarled.

'Then why'd you do it?'

He sat down on the edge of her bed, and she withdrew to the far end. Valon noticed, and smiled. 'Don't worry, I'm not about to try anything.'

'Like I haven't heard that before.'

'I'm not.'

'Bullshit.'

'I don't fucking want anything from you,' he growled. 'If I did, don't you think I would have just taken it while you were unconscious?'

Raven looked down. That's true.

'Look, here's the deal,' he said. 'I saved you because you needed saving. You'd obviously had something pretty shit done to you. I don't know what happened; I don't want to know what happened. You don't need to tell me. All I know is I saw you running down the corridor covered in jizz and puking, and when I got back to the room you were under a running shower with your arm split open and blood fucking everywhere. What was I supposed to do, leave you to die?'

'That was the general idea,' she said softly.

He shrugged. 'Sorry for ruining your plans. I called the med officer down here and you got patched up.'

'No way. They would have just let me die.'

'They were going to until I pointed out that they'd have to report it if you did,' Valon said. 'The warden decided it would be easier to patch you up. You got twenty-eight stitches in your arm, a nice bandage to go on top, and then you got dumped back in here.'

She glanced at her disk. 'So why's my disk back on? Why's my deck not gone?'

'I figured you'd prefer it cover the bandage,' he said. He raised his own left arm and tapped his disk, smiling. 'And I got my own deck. I wouldn't steal yours.'

Raven looked up. 'I'm in clean clothes?'

He blushed slightly. 'I didn't see anything. You already had a clean singlet and shorts on, I just added the shirt and pants. I guessed you'd be a bit warmer and a bit more comfy in them.'

'Thanks, I guess,' she muttered.

Valon shrugged. 'Not necessary.'

'You still haven't explained why you saved me.'

Sighing, he sat back. 'In places like this, unless you got friends to keep an eye out for you, you're fucked whether you survive or not. When I first arrived I got on the wrong side of Jonno and Chaz. They soon made sure everyone knew I wasn't allowed to associate with anyone. If I even looked at someone I'd get the shit beaten out of me.'

'Your point is?'

'The day you arrived in the centre, I knew straight away that you'd be on your own. After what happened to me I figured you'd get the same but worse. When I saw you running down the corridor like that…' his sentence trailed off. 'I don't know, I guess I felt sorry for you. I was lying when I said I didn't save you for a favour.'

'So what do you want?' she spat, folding her arms.

'Friendship,' Valon said softly.

Raven's eyes widened. 'What?'

'Your friendship. That's what I wanted.'

She furrowed her brow. 'What do you mean, friendship? I'm not about to be your girlfriend.'

'No, not like that,' he sighed. 'All I want is for us to be friends. No girlfriend, no boyfriend, no sexual favours—no nothing. Just friends. You know, watch each other's backs, help each other out if they're getting beaten up. That kind of thing. Looking out for each other.'

Raven looked at him. 'You mean you saved my life just to, what, hang out with me?'

He smiled sheepishly. 'In a way. The way I see it, we could both use a friend. You'll have someone to watch your back and lend a hand when you need it, and I'll have someone I can talk to and not get beaten up.'

'You're serious, that's all you want?' She looked sceptical.

Valon shrugged. 'I don't want anything from you Raven, honestly. It may seem strange to you but not everyone in here is a sex-crazed maniac. I don't expect anything more than someone to talk to, duel with, hang with. I don't want anything more.' He put out his hand. 'Friends?'

Tears began to form in Raven's eyes, and she lowered her head.

'I guess your arm's hurting,' Valon said.

She glanced up, saw he was smiling a little. She smiled back. 'Yeah.'

His smile widened into a true smile. 'I'd offer you painkillers but the doc refused to give me any.'

'No trust.'

He laughed. 'No, just a good look at my record.'

Raven laughed too, then stopped, looking surprised.

'What?'

She shrugged, smiling. 'First time I've laughed in here.'

'You mean the maths teacher's lame jokes didn't make you crack up?'

'Oddly enough, jokes about triangles don't really tickle my funny bone.'

'They don't really tickle anyone's funny bone if they have taste,' Valon said.

She laughed. 'True.'

He put out his hand again. 'Friends?'

This time, she took his hand and shook. 'Friends.'

The area faded to black.

'You waking up doesn't change anything,' Chaz spat. 'Mirror Wall only reduces damage by half. He still lost, and you with him.'

'Guess again,' Raven said. 'It was my trap card. I take the damage. And luckily enough, since you two were too stupid to bother attacking me while I was out, I have life points to spare.' She winced as her points dropped, the Orichalcos magic making itself felt. 'We're still in the duel. You, on the other hand, are not.'

'What?'

'You heard me, Jonno. Take a look at your life points. Did you forget that Mirror Wall also reflects half the damage back at you?'

The Orichalcos arena vanished as two glowing green circles surrounded the feet of Jonno and Chaz.

'You're the ones losing your souls,' she spat.

Jonno howled as the Orichalcos tore his soul from his body. His eyes glazed over and he dropped to the ground. Chaz howled as well, but when the circle had gone he remained standing.

'What?' Valon said.

'Soulstone,' Chaz panted, tapping the green gem around his neck. It no longer glowed. 'Master Dartz was generous enough to spare me one. Instead of my soul being taken, the soul in the stone was removed instead.' He dropped to his knees, panting loudly.

'That changes nothing,' Raven said. She began walking towards him. 'You're going to wish that you had lost your soul instead.'

'Raven, what are you—'

'Shut up, mutt,' she snarled. 'He's going to pay.'

She reached behind her back and snapped out her switchblade.

That's not good, Seto thought.

Valon looked away.

Raven grabbed Chaz's shirtfront and picked him up. She leant close to his face. 'This is for everything you did to me,' she whispered. Face contorting in a snarl of rage, she stabbed the blade into his chest.

Ryou gasped.

She let got of his shirt and let him drop to the ground, pulling her knife out. Turning around, she wiped the blade on her jeans. 'Burn in hell, fucker.'

As the companions watched, Chaz took a few rasping breaths, then stopped breathing.

'You—'

'Killed him. Yes.' she spat. Ignoring both Valon and the companions, she strode to her bike and mounted it. 'If you want me, I'll be back at the house. I'm not up for finding Dartz today.'

With a roar, she tore off down the road.

Yugi sat down heavily. 'She just… she just killed him.'

Valon shrugged. 'Fucker deserved it.'

'How can you—'

'You saw that memory,' he said. 'You saw what happened to her. You think that was the only time those two bastards tried something like that?' He ran his hand through his hair. 'She never did tell me what happened that day.'

'I can see why,' Seto said.

Valon chuckled darkly. 'Yeah. Alright; plan change. Forget the warehouse idea, we'll follow that up tomorrow. We'll return home for now.'

'Is she going to—'

'No, she's not going to hurt herself,' Valon said. 'She'll just drink herself into a stupor. We need to get back to the house to stop her doing anything stupid… but we'll leave her on her own for a little while first.'

'Raven drinks?' Yugi asked.

'Yeah, she drinks,' Valon said. 'Now come on.' He started walking to the limo, and the companions had little choice but to follow.

'Aren't we going to do something with the bodies?' Tea asked.

He shrugged. 'They'll be fine. If not, so much the better.'

They drove back to the house in silence. The limo had taken a bit of damage from the crash against the blocks, so Valon drove a little more carefully. Since it was a good hour past noon, he took them to get lunch. Over coffee, tea and a few other drinks, lunch turned into an early dinner. By the time Valon got them back to the house it was seven at night.

He shut off the engine and turned to the companions. 'Just a warning: Raven's a strange drunk. She'll try to kill you one minute and be dancing around the next. She doesn't mean anything she says, so take no offense.'

'…Alright.' Yugi said, glancing sideways at Joey. Joey shrugged.

'Raven, we're back,' Valon called, striding into the house.

'Valon!' a voice slurred.

'Where are you?'

'I mished you!'

He sighed. 'She's plastered.'

Seto picked up an empty bottle from the kitchen table. Not surprising. It's absinthe. And not the legal kind.

Valon walked into the living room, flanked by the companions. 'How much have you had to drink?'

Raven lay on her back on the couch, smiling crookedly. She rolled off the couch and stumbled to her feet. 'I shaid, I mished you!'

'Yeah, yeah, I missed you too,' he said, hooking an arm under hers. 'How much have you drunk?'

'I'm not drunk!' She squinted at the couch. 'Hey, when'd we get four couchesh?'

'Two are magical couches only the drunk can see,' Valon muttered. 'Sit down. Now how much have you had to drink?'

She collapsed onto the couch. 'Only a few… lemme think… 'bout four?'

'Four shots?'

'No, four roundsh of shotsh,' she slurred, waving her hand at the table. Six shot glasses surrounded a half-empty bottle of absinthe.

'Twenty-four?'

Kaiba was impressed. Twenty-four shots would have knocked out a lesser person already. Then again, she was wearing the Millennium Sword; if it could allow her to bench press insane amounts of weight, it probably gave her the alcohol tolerance of ten strong men.

She put a finger to her mouth and thought. 'Yeah, that shoundsh about right. Where've you all been?'

'Driving back here.'

'Where were you? Why didn't you take me?' Tears began welling up in her eyes. 'Why did you leave me here on my own?'

'Christ,' Valon groaned. 'We didn't leave you; you were with us. You rode your bike back before us and started drinking.'

'No, no, you left me here on my own!'

'I promise you we didn't,' Valon said. 'Look, ask Kaiba! He can tell you what happened.'

'Sheto? He'sh here?'

Kaiba stepped forwards, eyes narrowing. She wasn't sticking to their agreement. Then again, he supposed, she was drunk. He could let it slide. 'I'm here, Raven.'

'Sheto!' She climbed unsteadily to her feet and stumbled a few steps before collapsing into his arms. 'My liddle Sheto…'

Tea giggled.

He stumbled backwards under her weight, turning bright red. Her little Seto? 'Raven… can you please—'

'Come here, alcoholic,' Valon said, frowning at Seto. He pulled her back to her feet and steered her to the couch. 'How about we forget about where we've been for now, hey?'

'Why are we forgetting?'

'Never mind,' he groaned. 'Can somebody grab a water-bottle from the fridge?'

'Are you thirshty?'

'No, it's for you,' he said.

'But I have my absh—ab—green fuzzy drink! I don't need water.' She reached for the bottle, knocking over two shot glasses in the process.

Ryou began giggling behind his hand. Raven turned to face him, bottle in hand. 'Whatchu laughing at?'

'Nothing,' Ryou choked, turning his back. 'I'll grab the water.'

'But I don't need no water,' Raven slurred.

'You do, or you'll be in a worse temper next morning,' Valon said.

She took a swig from the bottle. 'Why will I be in a worshe temper?'

He pulled the bottle from her and handed it to Seto. 'Go hide that, will you? As for you, Raven, you'll be in a temper because you'll have the mother of all hangovers.'

Seto shoved the absinthe into his briefcase.

'Here's the water,' Ryou said, passing the plastic bottle to Valon. He was still half-laughing behind his hand. Valon gave the bottle to Raven, who tried to push it back.

'I don't want to drink the water,' she said. 'I want my green fuzziesh.'

He pushed it back into her hands. 'Drink the water.'

'Why do I have to drink the water?'

'Because it's fucking magical water that will kill all the puppies if you don't drink it,' he exploded. 'Do you want the puppies to die? Drink it already!'

Ryou burst out laughing, and Raven spun to face him. 'I ashked you already, what the fuck are you laughing at? Tell me!'

'Raven, it's okay,' Tea said, smiling slightly. 'He's only laughing at joke he heard earlier.'

'Oh.' Raven relaxed again. 'That'sh alright then.'

'Magical—water—puppies—' Ryou choked.

Luckily, Raven had already started gulping down the water and didn't appear to have the concentration to both drink and listen at the same time.

'That's the way,' Valon sighed. 'Tell you what, how about you go off to bed now, alright?'

'I'm not shleepy,' she said, yawning even as she talked.

'Yeah, I know,' he replied. 'You don't have to sleep, just lie down.'

'But I'm not—'

'I know you're not—' he composed himself. 'Sleepy. All you have to do is lie down in there, alright? You don't have to go to sleep.'

'Oh. Alright, then.' She yawned again, dropping the now-empty bottle. 'Where'sh my green fuzziesh?'

'You can have your green fuzzies tomorrow,' Valon said. 'Right now, you need to go lie down. Not sleep,' he added, noticing her about to start protesting again. 'Just lie down.'

'Not til I get my green fuzziesh,' she said firmly.

'But—'

'Green fuzziesh,' she said, her voice growing angry. 'I want my green fuzziesh, and I want them fucking—'

'Raven, that is enough,' Seto said firmly. 'You are not going to have any of your "green fuzzies", and you are going to go lie down right now.'

She folded her arms haughtily. 'Jusht you try and make me.'

Seto sighed. Then, to everyone's surprise—including his own—he marched over to her and picked her up, wedding-style, before turning to hallway.

'I'll put her to bed. Don't wait up,' he said crisply, before carrying his protesting charge down to her room. Behind him, he could hear Valon begin to discuss plans for tomorrow with the others.

'Put me down, Sheto!' Raven said.

'Look, I'll put you down in here, alright?' he said. 'You don't have to go to sleep. Just lie down.'

'I want my green fuzziesh! I'm not gonna lie down without my green fuzziesh!'

He sighed heavily as he entered her room. It was very spartan in its furnishings; there was a thin mattress on the ground covered by a holey quilt, a small box with a tightly closed lid, and a door on the far side of the room, beyond which he could just make out a bathroom.

He gently set her down on the mattress.

'I want my—'

'Here's your green fuzzies,' he said, pulling the bottle from his briefcase.

Her face lit up. 'You're nice!'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm lovely,' he sighed. 'Just don't tell the others.' They'd never let him hear the end of it.

'You want shome?' she asked, holding up the bottle.

Why not. He nodded and took a quick swig. Things began to blur as soon as he'd swallowed. Definitely not the legal kind of absinthe.

Oddly enough, he didn't care.

'You probably think I'm a wreck,' she slurred, tears coming to her eyes. 'I'm shorry I shcreamed lasht night… I guesh you know why now, though.'

Despite himself, he reached over and hugged her. 'It's okay, Raven.'

'It'sh not okay. It'll never be okay.'

'It will be.' Jesus, how soppy did he sound?

'But look how I turned out,' she sobbed. 'I'll only get worshe.'

'You won't,' he assured her. He swallowed. 'Look, when I was little, my stepfather Gozaburo abused the living daylights out of me. For a while I was just as bad as he was; I hurt people and myself.'

He found his eyes were tearing up at some of the memories. Nightly beatings, starvation, whippings and… and…

'You never got what I got,' she said.

'Not exactly the same,' he whispered. 'But if I can turn out okay, you can too.'

She rested her head on his lap. 'Maybe,' she said softly.

He shook his head, not really for any reason. This was the first time in a long time he'd felt concerned for someone other than his little brother. Could it be…? No. He just sympathised with her, that was all. She'd been abused, he'd been abused, that kind of thing.

His phone buzzed, and he took it out of his pocket, sighing. Mokuba again. 'Hello.'

'We found her, Seto,' Mokuba said, voice urgent.

'That's great,' he said, idly playing with a strand of Raven's hair. She seemed to like it, and it kept her from getting up.

'No, it's not.'

'Why not?'

Mokuba sighed. 'She's Ravana.'

He straightened, heart suddenly racing. 'Don't joke with me.'

'I'm not joking!' Mokuba sounded close to tears; he'd adored Ravana too. 'Ravana had a hidden record, Seto. That year she came over here—she escaped. She wasn't here because of their parents or any of that crap, she was here to escape the law. She didn't die, big brother. Raven is Ravana.'

No. He refused to believe him. It was impossible. The drugs or the drink were responsible; this wasn't happening. 'She can't be Ravana, Mokie.'

'She is. Just ask the Egyptian government,' he said. 'Ravana is Raven, Raven is Ravana. They're one and the same. I'm sending you her record now. I'm sorry, Seto.'

Seto hung up, short of breath. No. Ravana was dead. She wasn't—she couldn't—

'Nother drink, Sheto?' Raven slurred.

He took the bottle and gladly swallowed another four mouthfuls. It stung on the way down and it made his vision even hazier—he briefly wondered exactly what drugs were in it, then decided he didn't care—but he kept drinking.

His laptop was still on, so he quickly opened his email; sure enough, Mokuba had sent the record.

The question was, did he want to see it?

Either way he looked at it, things would be hard. If he confronted Raven, Yugi and the rest about it, their whole group could fall over. If he didn't, the knowledge that Raven was Ravana would eat him from the inside out.

Close to tears—he blamed the drink—he opened the file.

Just a quick note; Absinthe is a legal drink in many countries. The illegal kind generally has some form of drug in there [hence why it's sometimes known as a 'green fuzzy', cos that's what you see and feel]. It's also very strong [up to 80% alcohol - enough to give you a fair amount of liquor poisoning!]. The "water that will kill all the puppies if you don't drink it" comes from an episode in looking after a friend of mine... it was the only way to get her to drink the water ^_^"

Reviews are loved!