13. Darkness Within

Pushing down his own anger, Yugi put his hand on Joey's shoulder to steady his friend as Mai jerked away from Serenity. "What?"

"Something's going on with you, Mai. I can feel a connection to the Shadow Realm."

Joey seemed to have heard all he could take. He vaulted over the back of the couch to land on the other side of Mai from Serenity. Getting right in Mai's face, he took her by the shoulders. "Mai! Snap out of it!"

She started as if she'd been drifting off and a sudden noise had awoken her. "Joey? What's going on?"

Joey relaxed as soon as she said his name, but not completely. "It happened again. You walked right by me like I wasn't even here."

Mai leaned back, her hand to her forehead. "Shit."

"It's gone," Serenity said. "The thread to the shadows. It felt… like it broke when Joey shook her." She looked at Mai. "Do you remember Téa now?"

Mai took her hand away from her head and glared at Serenity. "What kind of question is that?"

Joey shifted closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "You're blanking out on her, too. Serenity just asked you if you'd seen Téa this morning, and you didn't have a clue what she was talking about."

Yugi came around the side of the couch and crouched down in front of her. "When did the nightmares start again?"

She looked at Joey, and he nodded to her. "We can't ignore this, Mai."

Sighing, she turned back to Yugi. "Since the night you four left for Egypt."

"The night after the attack on the tombs?"

She nodded.

"Has it been every night since then?"

"Yeah. They're getting worse, too. And before you suggest it, I don't think Valon had anything to do with it. I thought so at first, but I went through his room pretty thoroughly, and he didn't have any Orichalcos stones. He genuinely seemed to not know anything about Ramesses or about why I keep having the nightmares."

Serenity sat back and tucked her legs up under her. "That, and we know it isn't because of any Orichalcos stones here. Tristan, Joey, and I searched the place yesterday and came up empty."

This took Yugi by surprised. "You searched the penthouse for Orichalcos stones? Why didn't you say anything?"

Joey and Serenity exchanged uneasy looks, and Joey winced. "Not for nothing, pal, but you haven't exactly been yourself, either. Between you barking at everyone all the time and keeping everyone at arm's length, plus Mai's nightmares, it seemed logical to think somehow there might be some Orichalcos stones involved."

"I—" Yugi rocked back on his heels, ashamed of his recent behavior. "You're right, Joey. I've been too self-absorbed the last few days. I'm sorry."

Joey shrugged. "Nah, it's understandable. What happened to the Pharaoh is huge."

"This is, too. My friends are just as important. I'm sure my… my other self would agree and wouldn't approve of me neglecting you all for him. Besides, there must be a connection here." He looked at Mai. "The timing is too coincidental, especially considering the fact that the last time you had nightmares was the last time we were being attacked by something from the outside."

Mai shook her head. "This is different, though. When it started, it was the same old thing with the sand and the hourglass, and no one could hear me. Then it would sort of morph into the end of the Orichalcos duel. The one where I… the one with Joey. But the last two nights, it didn't start with the sand. It was just the Orichalcos duel. And they've been a lot more vivid and, well… disturbing."

"The same two nights I've been back." Joey looked ready to punch something. "I seem to be making it worse. And she's kind of half awake, too. And you almost clocked me with your Duel Disk."

Yugi's brow furrowed. "She's dreaming she's in a duel, so she reaches for her Duel Disk in real life. But something's odd about that. You're specifically dreaming about your duel with Joey, but then when you wake up, he doesn't exist to you. That seems contradictory."

Joey wrinkled his nose. "Hey, that's a good point. When you woke up last night, you knew you'd been dreaming, but you didn't know I was there. What did you think you were dreaming?"

She frowned in concentration. "I don't know. I don't remember what I thought when I first woke up. I don't remember not remembering you. But the nightmares are about something I did, not what was done to me."

Yugi shifted onto his knees. "Mai, this is still about what was done to you, because it all started with your Shadow Game with Marik. He did something to you in that Shadow Game, something that amplified your worst fear, and then when you lost, he cemented you in that moment in the Shadow Realm. And ever since then, that's been an avenue to attack you. Dartz did it, turning that fear into anger with the Orichalcos stone and using you to draw out Joey and me. And Evan did the same thing." He rose to his feet suddenly. "It's time to stop playing defense and attack the root of the problem."

"Uh, Yuge… we're kinda stuck playing defense until we know who Ramesses is."

Yugi shook his head. "Ramesses is just the flavor of the month. I wanna go back to the source. We need to talk to Marik."

Mai raised her eyebrow at him. "Would he even know? It was his darker half that did it."

"I think it's a mistake for us to make them into completely separate individuals in our minds. Marik would be the first one to tell you that he had to own his darker half to learn how to deal with it. Bakura would say the same, even though his darker half was much more legitimately a separate entity. Darkness thrives in hiding. Shine a light on it, own it, and it can't control you. Wouldn't you agree, Mai?"

"Now wait just one second—" Joey was bristling in defense of Mai, but she put a hand on his arm.

"He's right." She met Yugi's gaze. "But, hon, you've got more important things to worry about right now. You don't need to waste your time on this."

An echo of himself—or was it his other self?—played in his mind and he kept his gaze on Mai. "My friends are never a waste of time." And I shouldn't have needed to be reminded of that, he added silently. "I'll call Ishizu and find out how to contact Marik in Greece." He looked at his watch and did some quick calculations. "It's early evening in Luxor right now, and I think Greece is in the same time zone, so I'd better get on that right away."

"Yugi?" Mai looked troubled as she stood up to face him.

"Yes?"

"How hard was it for you to embrace your dark side?"

The question surprised him. His friends viewed Atem as a friend—which was true enough—and not as an actual darker half the way they saw Marik or Bakura. They chose not to see that friend and darker half were not mutually exclusive. As if to prove it, Joey jumped up to defend him. "Now wait a minute, Mai. He wasn't—"

"No, Joey, she's right." Yugi looked at Mai. "Letting the Orichalcos bring out the darkest parts of ourselves is something we share."

She nodded. "Do you ever have nightmares about it?"

"Not since right after it happened, no. Although I do sometimes dream about a related duel that happened because of that. It was sort of a… I don't know… a test of the spirit, I guess. I had to face my other self in the desert. It was… difficult. But I haven't dreamt about anything truly painful and frightening like your nightmares."

"But you don't dream about the actual moment when—" She lowered her head, unable to continue.

"Mai." Joey squeezed her shoulder in comfort. "It's okay. It's over and done with."

She shook her head. "No, it's not okay. It's worse than the other nightmare. It's one thing to relive the most horrible thing that ever happened to me. It's another to relive the most horrible thing I ever did."

Yugi nodded, understanding that more than he cared to.

As soon as Yugi left to call Ishizu, Mai announced that she needed to get out of the penthouse.

Joey groaned. "Why do I foresee a shopping trip in my future?"

Serenity slapped her brother on the back. "Suck it up, Onii-chan. You two have fun. I'm gonna go up and take a shower."

Mai headed toward the staircase after her. "I'm going to get my purse and our coats. You wait right here."

He was still waiting when the elevator opened and Sara Drake stepped into the common room.

"Yo, Sara. You just getting in?"

"You know Nii-sama with the all-nighters." Mokuba Kaiba followed Sara off the elevator, carrying the same box that Joey had brought over to Kaiba Corp two days before. He dropped the box on the floor with a thud, although it sounded to Joey like it was a lot lighter than when he'd had to carry it.

"Mokuba, bro! How are you?" Joey got up from his seat and headed toward them, greeting the teen with a bump of the fists. "Your brother's got you doing his grunt work again, huh?"

"No, I just thought I'd help Sara out. This is the stuff she and Seto got through last night. They're gonna get together and go through more of them tonight. In the meantime, I thought I could help out here, if there's anything that isn't in Egyptian."

"There's some stuff in English and some in Japanese. We've read through most of it, but Yugi would probably appreciate some fresh eyes. The rest of us are getting burned out."

"Okay."

Joey crossed his arms. "So why's Kaiba pulling all-nighters for this anyway? It was like pulling teeth for Téa to even talk him into helping at all."

Mokuba shrugged. "Guess he figured he'd be better off if Téa didn't come back and bug him again."

"Ain't that the truth." Joey chuckled.

Sara coughed. "I'm terribly sorry I didn't call to say I wouldn't be back. I hadn't expected to be so late, and we just fell asleep. But still, it was rather rude of me."

"Nah, no big." Joey waved it off with his hand. "Spending that much time with Kaiba is punishment enough."

"Hey, watch it! That's my big brother you're talking about." Mokuba's protest was more automatic than offended, however; he was used to the potshots his brother and Joey took at each other.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'll go up and change, and then I'll do some more reading in the library." Sara brushed past Joey on her way toward the stairs.

Mokuba called after her. "Hey, tell Téa to come out and say hi." Then, he looked around the room. "Where is everybody anyway? They all sleeping in or something?"

"Nah, everyone's up, except maybe Téa and Duke. Yugi went to go call Ishizu, and Serenity went back to her apartment to shower. She'll be down soon. Tristan, he's on the phone with Paige, that girl from London. Remember her?"

Mokuba raised his eyebrows. "Really? I thought he liked Serenity."

Joey scowled. "He can date someone else's sister, so just shut up."

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "So where's Mai?"

"She and I are taking off. She just went up to get her purse, so naturally we'll be leaving in about five more hours."

"I heard that, Wheeler!"

Joey looked up and saw her coming down the stairs, passing by Sara, who was on her way up. "'Bout time, princess," Joey said with feigned irritation.

"I didn't know you were in such a hurry to go shopping."

"Yeah, on second thought, take your time."

"No dice, Wheeler." She reached the bottom landing and walked towards them, Joey's fleece coat over her arm. "Hi, Mokuba. What brings you here, kiddo?"

"Thought I'd lend a hand with all this reading you guys are doing."

"I'm sure Yugi will appreciate the help. Everyone will." She stopped as she reached them. "Speaking of everyone, where are Tristan, Duke, and Téa? I haven't seen them yet this morning."

Joey was relieved to hear her mention Téa along with the others. "I think Téa and Duke are still sleeping, but Tristan's on the phone with Paige. She called him all the way from England." He flashed a broad smile.

Mai, however, frowned at this news. "Really? How's Serenity taking it?"

"See!" Mokuba crossed his arms, triumphant.

Joey exploded. "Whaddaya mean, how's Serenity taking it? What does she care?"

Mai rolled her eyes and patted him on the shoulder. "You are completely without a clue, you know that, Joseph? Lovable, but clueless."

"Now wait just one second, Mai—" He was cut off when she threw her coat at him.

"Forget it, Wheeler. Let's just get out of here. 'Bye, Mokuba. See you around."

"Yeah, Mai, you too." Mokuba waved back as Mai dragged Joey toward the elevator.

Once the doors closed behind them, Joey rounded on her again. "What was that supposed to mean about Serenity?"

"Never mind." She brushed it off with her hand. "We've got more important things to do."

"Shopping. Oh, yay."

"Forget the shopping. I'm not about to let Yugi Mutou fight my battles for me. He can say what he wants about this going back to Marik, but it's the Orichalcos duel I'm dreaming about now, and I wanna talk to someone who knows something about that."

Joey's eyes widened. "Rafael?"

She smiled. "Last I heard, he's in LA. What say we gas up one of Pegasus's jets and take a hop down the coast?"