This is where things get settled. Of course, there's also that duel with Panik. Though, for now, things are going to be settled. By the way, there are things I'm revealing ahead of time to turn important events into one night. Like Seto revealing about the duel with Bandit Keith. I also told one of you guys that the duel with Seto and Joey never happened, it actually did, sorry. I just never realized how much happens in one night. I'm not gonna have Seto and Joey duel for several reasons. I mean Joey would probably duel Seto, if he had the chance, but in this one he doesn't. Besides, that duel was pretty pointless. It only showed that Seto was still an ass and in this one, we already showed that, so no dueling for Joey. Review please!
Everyone walked deep into the forest, following Mai who had offered to help them set up camp. It was a long trip, but the gang finally made it to where Mai had set up camp. Her tent was there and everything. Though, the campfire needed to be rekindled. Still, it was a good place to settle down after the duels taking place.
Hanaski dug out Atem's sleeping bag and laid it next to where the campfire was to be located. Seto gently laid his friend on the sleeping bag. Atem sighed in relief since he was no longer being carried around, especially like a doll. Mai crossed her arms and held a smirk.
"I bet you boys are hungry," Mai smirked before her expression changed to a bossy one. "Joey and Tristan, you both can fetch the water. White-Head and Rich boy can gather the firewood."
"This has got to be a joke!" Seto complained with narrowed eyes. "Are we supposed to take orders from a slut that can't even win a f***ing duel?"
"It's that or starve to death," Atem smirked.
"Besides, if Atem doesn't get food, he'll get sick. I can imagine he lost alot of blood," Mai smirked with her arms crossed. "And I bet you passed out after that incident didn't ya?"
"Actually, I ate some chips, but you prove a good point, and yes, I did pass out." Atem sighed as everyone got to work. Tea and Mai set up the tents, Joey and Tristan fetched for water, and Seto and Ryan gathered firewood. After the firewood was gathered, Atem and the gang got out hot dogs to cook over the campfire.
When Tristan and Joey got out the water, Mai filled it in her shower bag where the water was to come out over her personal shower head. Some of the water, of course, was for drinking. Mai sat by Tea, who was eating her half eaten hot dog.
"You know Tea, you can use my shower head if you want to. Just because you're with these guys doesn't mean you have to smell like one," Mai offered.
"Excuse me!" Seto glared offensively while Atem rolled his eyes with a slight smile.
"Relax, you can have one too," Mai glared as Seto shot one back.
"Let's just hope the bitch don't look," Ryan smirked as Mai's head boiled red hot.
"OF COURSE NOT!" Mai yelled as the others laughed.
"Who says you wouldn't? You were staring at my abs when we were waiting for the boat," Atem smirked as Seto gave a slight chuckle.
"Horny huh? No surprise there," Seto said as Mai grinned glaringly.
Tea and Mai had their showers before Seto took his turn. Eventually, Joey, Tristan, and Ryan gave in, in getting a shower. Seto got out a small bucket of clean water and a sponge before walking toward the girls. They eyed the CEO President, who seemed very serious.
"I hope you don't mind, but I'd like you bitches to leave while I get asshole here a sponge bath," Seto demanded with seriousness.
"Hey, who gives you the right to..." Mai glared, hating to be bossed around like a dog.
"Sure, we'll give you guys space," Tea agreed as she took Mai by the hand and walked inside the tent they were to sleep at.
"Who the hell does that Rich Boy think he is?"
"That's Kaiba for ya," Tea smirked while rolling her eyes. "Though, he seems to be more caring than the last I saw him."
"He sure has a funny way of showing it!" Mai glared while folding her arms with a grump look.
"He does," Tea said. "Like for instance, he was rude to us, but he was still willing to be the one to sponge bathe Atem. It's strange to see, but I think Kaiba has a good heart. Maybe that's why Atem likes him."
"Wait, Atem likes the mother f***er?" Mai asked baffled.
"Atem claims that Kaiba's one of his closest friends," Tea explained, watching a blinking Mai.
"But... they're always fighting and insulting each other. How can they be friends?"
"I guess they have a different way of showing they care," Tea shrugged before letting out a small chuckle. "If they were enemies, Kaiba wouldn't be putting up with carrying Atem around like that."
"I suppose, but I thought friends were like BFF's, you know, always getting along."
"I guess it's different with Kaiba and Atem," Tea shrugged. She brought out a smile. "Atem and I used to be enemies, you know."
"Really?"
"I hated him! He was always such an ass and being a bitch. Though, I started seeing a soft side to him. I guess true friendships happen when you start finding something you like about them. Like for you, I see that you're helpful and nice when the stakes aren't high."
"Thanks," Mai thanked before sighing. "I wonder how long we'll have to be imprisoned here."
"You ladies can come out now!" Seto called as Mai and Tea exited from the tent.
Atem was standing up and limping, trying to walk with his gunshot wound still in the process of healing. Finally, he was able to walk normally, since the gunshot only hurt him from the side and not the hip. The wound was finally healed enough to where he could walk normally. Though, the bandage was required to stay on. Everyone was glad that Atem was healing up from his wound.
Atem walked next to the edge of a cliff with his two fingers on the dressing of the gunshot wound. A sigh escaped him before hearing Mai walking toward him. Atem rose two eyebrows as Mai sat down next to him.
"Mind if I sit? I promise I won't do anything horny," Mai asked as Atem rolled his eyes.
"Whatev," Atem replied before giving out a deep sigh and looking at the stars. He looked at Mai. "Thanks for your hospitality."
"We are duelists right? We have to relax once and a while," Mai said with a soft smile before giving out a sigh. "Though, this is the first time I've been invited to any gathering. I've always been on my own."
"You seem to be a different person from last time."
"Well, it ain't gonna last long. By sunrise, we'll be enemies again. Once the stakes are high, there's no room for friendships."
Atem chuckled while rolling his eyes before saying, "that sounds like Seto. I swear, you two could be related."
"Well, I'm glad to be compared to your friend," Mai glared, taking that as an insult.
"Actually, that was a compliment. Seto's a good man. A bitchass, but I like him that way."
"Tea says that you two are friends, but yet you both fight and insult each other. Why would you consider someone like him a friend?"
"Because he's the type I can be an asshole to and he won't think anything differently of me," Atem replied as Mai blinked. "More like you and Joey."
"Joey?" Mai glared shockingly.
"Yeah, it's not that hard to see that you like him alot. At the same time, you're always onto him like gravy on rice. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you're crushing on him," Atem smirked before stretching his arms.
"He's my rival!" Mai glared baffled. "How can rivalry bring out romance, let alone friendship?"
"Rivalry brings out alot of things, Mai," Atem replied as Mai widened her eyes. "All rivalry is, is two opponents wanting to beat the other. Don't you think it's possible for rivals to enjoy playing with each other? I know Seto and I became friends because we loved playing games against each other. In fact, Seto would come over to my place just to play games with me."
"I never thought of it that way. I did enjoy that duel... until I lost," Mai admitted before a blush rose her cheeks. "Maybe I am crushing on him." She sighed while the wind blew in her hair. "Strange, most guys I've dated I've always been horny and wanting to lick their abs, but I don't feel that way to Joey."
"That's because lust and love are two different words," Atem chuckled while rolling his eyes. "Like you feel lust over f***ing with me, but you can't truly love me. Same goes with me. You have a fine body and breasts, but I can't truly love you." He then dug on the back of his pocket and got out his wallet. He opened it and slid out a picture and showed it to Mai. She looked at it and saw a young girl with dark blond hair, glowing brown eyes, and showed many childish features. She was in a hospital gown, from what the blond woman can tell. "That girl is the one I truly love."
"She's gorgeous!" Mai said in amazement. "What's her name?"
"Serenity Wheeler, Joey's sister."
"Damn!" Mai said with a slight smile and a chuckle. "So that's who Joey was talking about! I thought she was his girlfriend or something."
Atem and Mai gawked up laughing before Atem continued, "That's one of the reasons I came here. Her eyesight's bad and if she doesn't get the money in a year, she'll go blind."
"If you wanna know the truth, I actually came here, because I wanted to find somewhere to belong. I never belonged anywhere. I was abandoned by my family and sent to foster care. Nobody ever wanted me in any clique or group. I've been alone almost all my life and liked it that way... or so I would say," Mai admitted while looking at the ground. "Nobody deserves to be alone or even likes it."
"Then you can be our friend. Can't we be both rivals and friends too?" Atem asked with a soft smile.
"I suppose I could try it. If you and Seto became friends by rivalry, maybe we can too. I've never had friends before," Mai agreed as Atem gave a nod. "Anyways, it's time for me to get some shuteye, and you should too."
"I'll catch up," Atem promised as he watched Mai leave. He smiled before giving off a sigh. Yugi leaned his head on Atem's shoulder.
"She seems nice. I also think she's starting to understand now," Yugi said.
"I agree."
Atem changed to Yugi, who started feeling the gunshot pain his brother had been feeling throughout most of the afternoon. The night looked beautiful from where Yugi was and a soft smile appeared on his lips. As the wind blew in his hair, he heard a soft ruffling of the grass coming from Tea. She noticed Yugi was out again and sat by his side. They stared at each other deeply.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Tea asked while gazing at the stars.
"Not as beautiful as you, Tea," Yugi said with half-closed eyes.
"You know, Mai isn't as bad as I thought. She seems different from this morning. I'm starting to wonder if every single person I meet has a double personality."
"Tea," Yugi smirked while rolling his eyes. "Brother and I are our own person. We're not double personality and you know that!"
"You two are both in one body right, have your own name, and have your own personality. That sounds like double personality to me."
"Stop it!" Yugi smirked as Tea chuckled before laying her hand on Yugi's.
"I love you, Yugi," Tea said dreamily.
"I love you too, Tea."
Yugi and Tea scooted closer with one arm around their backs. Tea gently slid her free hand across the dressing, added to cover the gunshot wound. Yugi smiled winced a little as he noticed a pitied look on Tea's face. Tea didn't like the fact Yugi had to go through this kind of pain. A gunshot, very scary to think about. Yet, Yugi gave out a small smile. Tea finally had to smile, she couldn't help, but like the fact Yugi puts a smile on the worst of things.
Yugi reached up and pressed his lips against Tea's for once small kiss. Tea slowly placed her arms around Yugi's neck and deepened the kiss. There was no letting go of this moment. It was one that would last a lifetime. Tea and Yugi wanted this kiss to last forever. While kissing, Seto happened to walk toward the cliff. A smirk appeared on his lips as the two lovers finished their kiss and jumped by Seto's sight.
"Sorry for interrupting your... moment, but I need to speak with Atem," Seto said, with a slight smirk when he said the word 'moment.' Yugi nodded, stood up, and then changed to Atem before him and Seto walked at a distance to talk alone. "I'm going to rescue Mokuba from that faggot. I don't want you to try and stop me, and I especially don't want you to bring up your mumbo jumbo about owing me anything!"
"I'm not gonna stop you Seto," Atem said before showing a slight smirk. "Like I even have the strength to anyways."
"That's why I'm telling you ahead of time," Seto glared in a serious tone. He sighed deeply before staring back at the castle. "I know what you're trying to do. Beat Pegasus right? He's inhuman Atem! I've seen him play his tournaments. He plays all these players like pawns and you are one of them."
"I know that!" Atem replied with a deepened glare. "Seto, he's using that millennium eye. He can read peoples' minds, though not one at a time. I can duel him with Yugi's help and I think it can prevent Pegasus from reading my mind."
"He'll find some other way. He's a smart man. He's not gonna just duel you without preparing for the worst," Seto warned with angry eyes. "HE WILL CRUSH YOU AND TAKE YOUR LOVED ONES! HE ALREADY TOOK MOKUBA!"
"He took my Grandpa too!"
Seto and Atem gave glares. They knew the dangers they were going to face, even Seto. He still remembered when Pegasus dueled against Bandit Keith. Seto knew what Pegasus used was inhuman and it seemed Atem was aware of this inhuman power. Both of them were willing to take down Pegasus and Seto couldn't just say 'NO!' to someone with his key.
Seto sighed and finally said, "Give me a chance to take him down!"
"As I said, I'm not gonna stop you," Atem promised. He sighed deeply while looking up at the castle. "Tell me what you saw."
"Pegasus was holding a tournament in America and was dueling against Bandit Keith. I stood as a Special Guest, watching the whole thing. Pegasus won by picking some random kid from the audience and writing on a piece of paper on how to win. I knew he cheated," Seto explained as Atem nodded, not being surprised by this. Pegasus seemed like a cruel man. "That's why I invented a Duel Disk, though it's still a testable type and needs more work, but this is enough. You say Pegasus can read my mind, but it'll be harder. The cards won't be on the table, but in this, you have to zoom it back into your arm just to see what it is. You'd have to have a photographic memory to be able to memorize it like the table top version of Duel Monsters."
"I see," Atem nodded. He looked up at his friend. "I promise when we get to Duelist Kingdom, I will let you take a whack at him. I won't promise you anything, but there's a chance you... might win."
"And after I get Mokuba, I'd like you to give back my key."
"I will."
"I will also like to duel you again after this shithole is over."
"I accept. After Duelist Kingdom, we'll have our duel and this time, no more making us enemies."
"I've already made it official that we cannot possibly be enemies," Seto said while looking at the back of his left hand with Atem's name. Atem took that hand with both of his own hands and stared at Seto with glaring eyes.
"Unless you retrieve the pieces to your heart, you will never be satisfied," Atem warned as Seto snatched his hand away. "Be careful, Seto."
"You don't need to tell me that!" Seto glared pridefully and before any warning was made, Atem ran up and hugged Seto, arms around the neck despite being 4'5 and him being 6'2. He flinched and just as he was about to punch the living daylight out of Atem he noticed tears in his rivals eyes.
"Don't you dare go back in that f***ing hospital bed! YOU HEAR ME!" Atem yelled, his hands clamped on Seto's shoulders. "I'M NOT GOING TO ANOTHER TRIP IN HELL!"
"I'LL BEAT PEGASUS WITH MY OWN BARE HANDS AND CARDS!" Seto shouted boldy as he took Atem's hands and pushed him away to where he almost slipped on the ground. "Thanks for taking care of my brother, by the way." Atem replied to that with a soft smile as he wiped his tears. Seto kept his glare and said, "if I don't beat Pegasus, then you can use your so called magic to do so. I know we are after the same thing and until our time comes, I'll use you as my second choice if I lose, but don't bet I'm planning on it!"
"And know that I will win, Seto!" Atem promised boldly. "If anything happens to you. I will get you back! Pegasus sealed Grandpa's soul in my computer, he might do worse to you."
"I'll count on that," Seto smirked before taking off with his suit case.
"Oh, and one more thing," Atem said, remembering something. Seto stopped as Atem continued his warning. "Pegasus has a card called Dragon Capture Jar. It can be used to trap Blue-Eyes and used it on his side of the field. He might use that against you."
Seto smirked with a nod before heading back toward Duelist Kingdom. He decided he would deal with Atem's name on his left hand after he was done with rescuing Mokuba. Right now, he was the only thing on the CEO President's mind and Atem knew it. All Atem could do was wish his friend the best of luck. Mokuba meant almost as much to Atem as he did to Seto. Yugi appeared by his brother and shared the same longing eyes.
Seto was still not willing to accept the fact that him and Atem were good friends. He always believed friends would interfere with his business work. Though, he seemed to be okay with Mokuba more than last time. On the other hand, Mokuba was vice president, while Atem had nothing with Kaiba Corp. except guarding the key Seto had until he was comatose. Atem let out a sigh while watching Seto disappear into the forest.
All of a sudden, Atem heard a scream and gasped. Tea, who was still on the side of the cliff waiting for Yugi to come out, jumped since she had heard the scream too. It sounded like Mai! Atem and Tea ran down toward the location of the sound. The wound still hurt like a bitch, but a friend's life was too important for Atem to worry about the pain. Tea noticed Atem running a little faster than usual and was starting to slip from the pain. She ran to his side and stopped Atem.
"Careful, I don't want to see another friend in trouble!" Tea warned Atem as she took his arm and ran to Mai's direction, except slowly.
Everyone made it to the location of the sound and saw Mai inside a Duel Box with a mysterious figure, who was even uglier than the Ventriloquist. He showed an evil smirk as some mysterious darkness destroyed Mai's Harpy Ladies and her life points stooped down to 0. Mai seemed more defeated than when she lost to Joey. Atem gasped at this sight as he ran to the Duel Box with his friends right behind.
"Mai, what's going on?" Atem asked worriedly.
"We heard a scream!" Hanaski said aloud.
"The bitch just lost a duel and now is disqualified," The figure replied in a dark tone. He grabbed Mai by the arm and yanked her. "GIVE ME YOUR STAR CHIPS!"
"Hold just one minute, you f***ing clown! Tell us who the hell you are and why you're f***ing with Mai?" Ryan demanded angrily.
"I'm Panik, a player killer. I duel duelists on the island and if they lose, they're forced to give me all their star chips," Panik replied in a smirk.
"He's right," Mai warned her friends. "Atem, don't duel this guy! He and other player killers go around the island to steal star chips from others."
"I'll eliminate you just like I did this woman!" Panik smirked widely as Atem felt anger rise in his own body. "Now she is disqualified from the tournament!"
"I'm sorry, Atem. I guess we can't have that duel," Mai said sadly with a soft sigh.
"NO!" Atem refused as his millennium puzzle gave a tent glow and since it was dark, it was easier to notice the glow. Mai gasped as Atem's figure changed to one of a young child, but a child who seemed very angry.
"Panik, I accept your duel. You're a meanie and I'm gonna beat your butt and give you a timeout!" Yugi shouted triumphantly.
"This is rich! Pegasus told me you had another person inside you from that millennium trash around your neck, but I didn't know it was a child!" Panik mocked as Mai stood baffled. "What's your name by the way?"
"Yugi and I'm ready to, as Brother puts it, kick your ass," Yugi glared before pointing his index finger at Panik. "You're nothing, but a bully and I'm gonna teach you a lesson!"
"Very well. We'll use the same Duel Box I used to beat that woman. I'll eliminate you in a flash!"
"Be careful, Yugi," Atem warned beside his brother. "Something tells me this guy won't be easy to beat."
'I'll beat him Brother,' Yugi promised. 'I'll beat him!'