A/N: Spidey has been helping me with suggests and editing.I'm aware that some things in this chapter mess up that was done before but it's a Fanfic! Also if any of this document's font (Bold, underlining, etc.) is messed up or if some of the spaces are missing, it's not my fault as sometimes Fanfiction has trouble uploading my document and causes changes to the document that I don't see. Thank you. Also I'm not going into a lot of detail about what Yugi, Atemu, and Malik saw as if you really want to know you could just go watch Yu-Gi-Oh. I'm sorry but I would really just like to skip to the good parts and I'm sure that you readers are getting bored with all the filling in I'm doing and just want to get to the action. So that is why I didn't really write what happened to the other guys and I'm leaving it up to you readers to make up whatever happens to the guys. Alright, I'm done for now.
Disclaimer: I hope you know what I'm going to say. I own Wizard-Theif, Torn Twisted and the plot; that's all.
Chapter 13
"It's a maze." Spidey repeated.
"Just because the road splits into 6 different paths and is lit by torches doesn't means it's a maze." Kaiba said.
"Are you going to keep criticizing everything I say?!"
"I'm just pointing out the obvious."
"Well, excuse me for being right!"
At this point Malik and Mossnose were holding back Spidey and Kaiba for fear of a fight breaking out.
"So now which way should we go?" Torn Twisted asked looking at the fork.
"Let's split up" Atemu said.
"Huh?" everyone asked.
"Let's split up, we'll be able to cover more ground that way."
"Atemu do you know a guy named Fred Jones?" Spidey asked.
"No, why?"
"Fred Jones? Isn't that the guy from Scooby Doo?" Kaiba asked.
Everyone's jaw dropped.
"Little brother." Kaiba explained quickly.
"Well if we split we are going to need some way to be sure that we don't get lost." Mossnose said.
"I'm got it!" Spidey exclaimed. She pointed her hand to the ground and brought in her middle and ring finger. Something can out of her wrist and landed on the floor where the paths divided.
Everyone but Mossnose jumped back, "What the?" they all asked.
"I have spider powers… didn't everyone know that?" Spidey said uncomfortably, putting some more webbing in her hands, rolling it into a ball.
"Since when can you do that?" Malik asked slowly coming out of shock.
"We'll explain later." Mossnose said.
"What are the webs for? This place looks old enough as it is." Kaiba said.
Spidey unravelled the ball and attached one end to the webbing in the middle of the path. Everyone stared at her oddly.
"What?! It's a rope so that you don't get lost." Spidey exclaimed, uncomfortably.
After Spidey finished making 5 more ropes the gang split up.
Mossnose walked down the path she had chosen and noticed the pictures lining the walls; instead of being carved these were painted. The symbols that separated the scenes looked just like scratch marks. The first picture that she really looked at closely was the one of a small kitten with sparking green eyes play fighting with another kitten who had white fur with a black tail tip, a black belly, and blue eyes. Off to the side were two other cats watching the two kittens play fight. They appeared to be the kittens' parents. The mother was pure white with green eyes and the father was pure black with blue eyes.
"Mother, father, Bramblefang…" Mossnose said, the pain that she was feeling showed in her voice. "I know what this maze does, it shows you what your life is like and the decisions you made." Mossnose said and her answer echoed back at her as she walked down the corridor.
The next scene was of the two kittens trying to awake their parents whose eyes were closed, there was blood on the ground under them.
"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help, if I had just ran a little faster maybe I could have… gotten help." Mossnose said running her hand over the picture.
She continued on her way, then she came to a fork in the road, she could go left, or straight. She took left and saw the scenes of the times she had while tracking down the traitor who killed her parents. As she looked at these scenes she was visited by the same hate and anger she had felt when she was first tracking down the traitor.
"I should have stayed and looked after Bramblefang but my thirst for revenge clouded my reason." Mossnose muttered looking at the ground but soon she felt the need to look up once again. She had almost reached a fork. Then the picture before another fork showed the kitten with green eyes, which had grown to a teenager cat, finding the traitor, a she-cat withamber eyes and blue-grey fur.
Mossnose put her hand to the picture and said, "The fool, Runningriver should have never messed with me and I showed her that when I beat and killed her." She came to the fork and took left. Sure enough the pictures of the battle lined the walls. Then a new figure appeared; it was another cat, this one bigger and more deadly than Mossnose had been able to take on. His eyes were yellow and his coat was red from the blood of his victims and Mossnose was going to be his next. The bigger cat played with Mossnose like she was a mouse before a human looking girl walked in.
Mossnose fell into memories remembering just how the girl looked and what happened next. The girl had black hair with red bangs and black eyes. She was wearing a tunic that looked from another time, like from Ancient Egypt; she also had a bag over her shoulder and on her back were wings that resembled bat wings. She looked once at Mossnose and then turned to the cat and said:
"Bit big to be picking on a kit aren't you?"
"Stay out of this you abomination of a two legs." The cat replied.
"You should watch your tongue, just because I'm not from these parts is no reason to be haughty." The girl replied pulling out a knife in a sort of silent threat.
It was too much for the cat; he turned on his heels and ran for it.
"Meh, coward… so you're Mossnose right?" The girl said turning to Mossnose and sitting down by the cat.
"Yes, thanks what's your name?" Mossnose replied.
The girl stiffened for a second before softening and saying, "Just call me Wizard-Theif." And putting out a hand to Mossnose who transformed into a human teenager with elfy ears, long, dark brown hair and cat like green eyes wearing a green kimono and shook it.
"You hungry? I was just about to get myself something to eat." Wizard-Theif said getting up.
"Uh… sure." Mossnose said.
They walked for a bit before human form Mossnose asked:
"How did you know what my name was?"
"I have my ways." Wizard-Theif said.
The flashback ended when they came to a place full of birds and Mossnose learned that Wizard-Theif could transform as well.
Mossnose found herself back in the maze looking at the picture of her and Wizard-Theif hunting; so far no scenes of her life were missing. At once she remembered why she was in the maze and that her friend could be in danger. Shaking her head to clear it she walked on determined to find her friend or some answers.
Spidey was beginning to wish that they hadn't split up. Walking in a maze alone is creepy because you never know what's around the corner and it's so easy to get lost. Slowly Spidey noticed the pictures on the wall. They were just like photographs taped to the wall, each showing a scene of her life. The symbols separating the photos were hand prints like the kind that kindergartens make while finger painting. The first picture she really noticed was taken at one of her figure skating competitions. She had won third place and was crying because she didn't win first. There were pictures of birthdays, old friends, trips to visit cousins and many choices and decisions. You know, they were pictures of an average life and since Spidey was an only child there were no pictures of any siblings but there were pictures of Spidey asking for one. Once again so far no pictures were missing.
As soon as Spidey saw the first picture she, like Mossnose, knew what the maze did. She just hoped that she would cross paths with someone soon.
Torn Twisted walked down the path that she random had chosen to go down and she too, was greeted by photos of her life separated by the same hand prints that Spidey had but were as Spidey's were all primary colours; Torn Twisted's were secondary as she had a younger sister. Torn Twisted had no idea what the maze did but she tried to figure it out. Her theories varied from her blacking out and imaging the maze to the maze being a walk way to the end of the world as she knew it. Not once did she think about the maze really showing her, her life or decisions. Slowly after many forks it clicked and she knew the power of the maze. Only problem now was that the maze was really starting to creep her out. Like Spidey, she hoped to meet up with someone soon.
Wizard-Theif lay on the ground slowly losing what little power she had left, she was completely unconscious. As she lay there half finished thoughts and memories chased each other around in her head.
"Torn Twisted and Mossnose used to deny all knowledge of Atemu, Yugi and Kaiba-boy… Why would we try to kill you? …Hope you enjoy… But now they seem to have given up… Enjoy Hell! … You can't die… That's the problem…"Wizard-Theif awoke a little bit, "Ow my head. I can just barely move." She thought as she sat up a little bit. She looked at the walls and noticed that carvings no longer covered the walls and that she was no longer at a dead end but at a fork, straight, a 90 degrees right or 45 degrees left.
"I could have sworn that the walls had carvings on them and that I was at a dead end… it must be part of the poison… best to keep moving, by now Bakura-boy must likely has entered the maze." Wizard-Theif thought as she tried to get up. She fell to the ground in pain and nausea. "This seems familiar for some reason… At the hotel! I couldn't get up and every time I tried I'd fall to the ground and feel sick! Was that some sort of warning?" Wizard-Theif thought as she put a hand to the wall to steady herself as she tried to get up once more. "If it was… it's kinda late to be thinking about it… I've got to keep moving and get out of this maze." She thought as she ignored the pain as she continued deeper into the maze, no longer with any signs to guide her.
Kaiba just walked ignoring the walls and the fact that magic was real. The scenes of his life were photos but separated by Egyptian hieroglyphs. Once again if Kaiba had been paying attention to the walls he would have seen that no scenes were missing.
This is virtually what was going through Kaiba's head as he was walking:
"Walking… walking… walking… fork…This is a weird rope and dream… walking… walking… more walking… bored… walking… walking…I wonder when this dream will end… walking…walking… fork… Why am I looking for Wizard-Theif again? … Walking…walking… oh yeah because she is Sentai's friend… walking… walking…then why am I looking? …Walking… walking… more walking…another fork… walking… walking… I think I'm lost… walking… walking… fork… Never mind… walking… walking…more forks… I think I'm getting a blister…fork… walking… walking… stopping… Just great, I have a blister, I guess I should stop wearing platform shoes… walking… walking…I wish those pictures weren't there, they're giving me the creeps… walking… walking…This is such a waste of time… walking… walking…" Well… you get the idea. Kaiba was basically repeating his train of thought the whole time till:
"Walking… walking… at fork… stop for a short rest… huh"
Malik's scenes of life were half carvings and half photos being separated by the ancient scriptures, the same ancient scriptures that were carved onto his back, no pictures were missing. Malik walked down the corridors and looked at the pictures every once in a while. He didn't need the maze to remind him of how his dark side was born and how it grew. Then he came to the scenes of 'Kaiba's' Battle City tournament where he met Yugi and brainwashed Joey into almost killing his best friend. Malik came to many forks and took many turns most of them leading him into the darkness but he was warned before he made his choices. Shadi had appeared and warned Malik but he had not understood the warning till it was too late. Soon Malik came to a fork and noticed a figure standing there, a figure with very… peculiar hair.
Yugi's and Atemu's path first showed Atemu's life, no pictures missing. The pictures were carvings separated by the ancient scriptures.
"Hard to believe that you only just remembered your name these memories a little while ago." Yugi said as he looked at the carvings, he was in spirit form and Atemu was controlling Yugi's body.
"Yes it is… odd that this maze should just happen to appear now…" Atemu replied.
"Is it possible that we aren't in the Shadow Realm anymore?"
"It is possible." Atemu said as they came to another fork, Atemu randomly walked down a path.
"This place kinda reminds me of the Millennium Puzzle before you got all your memories back." Yugi said.
"… You're right; this place is like the Millennium Puzzle but everything seems to point you in one direction, the direction that you took throughout your life."
Yugi looked at his alter ego will a perplexed look on his face when he asked, "Are you saying that this maze shows a person their life and the forks point out what paths you take or took"
"Possibly, but whatever this place is we have to keep on our guard, if this place does show us our life then we are bound to cross paths with someone soon and there is no telling whether that person will be happy to see us." Atemu said as he stopped walking. They had come to Yugi's life's scenes that were photos, like Atemu's section, Yugi's life scenes were separated by the ancient scriptures, no pictures were missing.
"You mean Bakura?" Yugi asked taking control and looking at the walls noticing a littler Yugi looking right back at him.
"Yes." Atemu said appearing in spirit form and they fell silent for a few forks.
"Maybe this maze is really a mind." Yugi suggested after a little while.
"I don't think so, I doubt that one mind could make so many paths and be able to know everything about whoever enters the maze."
"Your's had more then enough paths to out maze this maze a hundred times over."
"Could you explain what you just said?" Atemu asked with an amused look on his face.
Yugi sighed and said, "I'm just saying that your mind was really confusing before."
"It was and that's why I'm even surer that this maze isn't a mind."
"How can you be so sure?"
"One, this maze points you in one direction as I already pointed out where as in my mind everything was a mystery to anyone who entered my soul room, even me. Two, this maze can show whatever has happened to whoever enters it to themselves. If it was a mind I doubt that anyone or anything could do that."
"So what is this maze?" Yugi asked.
"Aren't these pictures from Battle City?" Atemu said looking at the pictures on the wall.
Yugi stopped walking just in front of a fork that was the meeting of two paths going straight.
Bakura continued walking and within minutes heard more voices. He had reached the beginning of the present time… ish (Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters). He didn't notice that a scene was missing from the past. This time when Bakura closed his eyes he saw what was happening.
Both thieves' hands were bound and they were being lead by at least 4 guards. The boy looked like Theif King Bakura but younger, like 13 in just a ragged tunic and without the scar.
"Damn them." The boy swore under his breath as he walked beside the girl thief.
The girl looked up and the moon light played over her face showing her eyes that were an odd mix of black and red. Her hair was hidden under a hood but a strand of black hair blew over her face; she also appeared 13ish.
"Don't worry; we'll get out of this." The girl muttered
"Quiet thief." One of the guards said before striking the girl on the face.
After the girl was sure that the guards weren't listening she muttered, "Any ideas?"
"Can you use your 'powers'?" the boy muttered back keeping his eyes on the guards.
"No, too weak but we could try to distract them."
"Good idea, on my signal-" the boy said but he was cut off by another hissing sound, "Damn not another one." he said looking around for the snake.
"Where is that snake?" The guard in charge asked turning back to look at the other guards.
"There it is on the girl's ankle." Another guard said, "It looks like she has been bitten once before as well, that would explain the yelp we heard that lead us to these two."
"What is with these snakes?" The girl thief asked quietly looking at the snake and trying not to move but because the poison from the first bite was still in her blood, she was swaging a bit.
"Don't move." The boy thief replied only to be drowned out by one of the guards saying:
"The protector of the tombs must be taking its revenge."
"Who are we to stop it?" Another guard said pushing the girl to the ground.
The snake hissed in annoyance as when the girl had fallen it had to remove itself from her ankle but now it was wrapped around her bound wrists. The girl seemed to be unable to move now. The cobra crawled up her wrist to her shoulder where it bit her twice.
Mossnose continued through the maze looking at the pictures and soon she came to one of her trips with Wizard-Theif to Japan. Mossnose looked up at the pictures and remembered exactly what had happened that day. Wizard-Theif had wandered off saying that she had to go and do something, leaving Mossnose alone for a few minutes. In that time she had crashed into a very lost Mokuba Kaiba and talked to him for a bit thus in turn meeting Seto Kaiba. Every time Mossnose thought about meeting her 'dream' boy she still couldn't believe that it actually happened. Soon she was back on Memory Lane. Kaiba had passed by her a few minutes before Mokuba came running carrying a heavy briefcase. Because so many people were on the sidewalk it was hard not to hit anyone.
"Are you okay?" Mossnose said helping the poor boy that looked like a girl, up.
"I'm fine." Mokuba said looking around for his brother, "Where did he go?"
"Who?"
"Seto."
"Seto who?"
"I have to find him." Mokuba said randomly running off.
Within seconds Mossnose had caught up to Mokuba and said, "Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help."
"Ok, I'm looking for a guy with white trench coat and black turtle neck."
"You mean that guy?" Mossnose asked pointing to a guy named Kaiba who was yelling:
"Mokuba? Where the Hell are you?"
"Seto!" Mokuba said running over sorta forgetting about the briefcase.
Mossnose sighed, picked up the briefcase and walked over.
"Who is this?" Kaiba demanded.
"She helped me find you." Mokuba explained.
"My name is Sentai Yamaneko." Mossnose said. When passports had been invented she had made up the name for her human form.
"Whatever, come on Mokuba." Kaiba said taking the briefcase from Mossnose and walking away followed by Mokuba.
"There you are!" Wizard-Theif said walking over to Mossnose.
"What?" Mossnose asked.
"Why were you talking to Kaiba-boy? The guy is a complete snob." Wizard-Theif said.
"That guy was Seto Kaiba?" Mossnose asked as she and Wizard-Theif walked down the crowded street.
"You are slow." Wizard-Theif said, "Yes that was Seto Kaiba-boy, who else would dress like that and have his little brother follow him around?"
"You never know." Mossnose said looking back the way they had come.
"You ok?" Wizard-Theif said waving a hand in front of Mossnose's face.
"Yeah… why?"
"You just seem…"
"Out of it?"
"No… I try to avoid saying this normally but…"
"What, I seem soulless?"
"No… In… in… lo… ve." Wizard-Theif said having a hard time saying it but after a few tries she managed it, "Inlove, you seem inlove and don't make me say it again." Wizard-Theif said in disgust.
"What are you talking about?" Mossnose asked unsure that she had heard Wizard-Theif right.
"Damn you, here." Wizard-Theif said putting out a piece of paper and writing down 'You love Kaiba-boy', before handing it to Mossnose.
"What, you can't seriously think?!" Mossnose said.
"I don't, I just wanted to see your reaction if I said that you liked him and judging by the reaction… I say that you do… YOU TRAITOR!!!" Wizard-Theif yelled running back to the hotel.
Mossnose got back to the hotel and found a bolted door which she unlocked and walked in. Just as she walked in the phone rang, Wizard-Theif was too busy trying out her new invention on a pillow, a new experimental dagger/poison injector/cell phone, to notice the phone so Mossnose answered it.
"Hello?" She asked.
"A Mr. Kaiba is at the front desk asking to see Ms. Yamaneko." A brisk female voice answered.
"I'll be right down." Mossnose replied before hanging up and turning to Wizard-Theif saying, "I'm going downstairs for a bit."
"You're going to see a 'Mr. Kaiba', right?" Wizard-Theif asked.
"How did you know?!" Mossnose asked as she walked to the door.
"I have my ways." Wizard-Theif said as she adjusted something on the dagger.
"Your phone had a mistake in it and is really a microphone?"
"Yeah... I wonder if I could do that on a radio…"
"Well… be good and don't destroy the room."
"You really believe that I'll listen?" Wizard-Theif asked in disbelief.
"No, bye." Mossnose said as she closed the door, through it she heard Wizard-Theif said:
"You're damn right that I won't listen." being followed by a small explosion.
"She is probably playing around with different chemicals, trying to make a new and faster killing poison." Mossnose thought as she waited for an elevator.
The 'Mr. Kaiba' that Mossnose met in the lobby was Mokuba Kaiba who said that he had a message from his brother. Then he left and Mossnose walked back up to the room. It wasn't till she was almost at the door to her to room that she read the message that Mokuba had given her.
It read:
Meet me at 10:00pm at the front of the hotel.
"Who's that from?" a voice asked.
Mossnose subconsciously covered the note and turned around to find Wizard-Theif leaning through the wall.
"How can you do that?!" Mossnose asked.
"I'm special, I merge with the shadows at I can appear out of another one." Wizard-Theif explained with a shrugged, "So who is the note from… a Seto Kaiba-boy?"
"Can you read my mind or something!!!??" Mossnose demanded, walking through the door.
Wizard-Theif appeared in the shadow from her chair and she didn't answer till she was sitting down again, "No, I didn't have to. Logically if you went to go see a 'Mr. Kaiba'-boy and came back with a note it should be from him. Your reaction once more clued me in and then there is always the fact that it says at the top of the note 'from the desk of Seto Kaiba'."
"I'm going to kill you later." Mossnose said looking at the clock it was 9:25.
"Later?" Wizard-Theif asked surprised, "Why later, what am I not special enough to be 'killed' right here and now!?"
"I never thought that I would meet someone who would want to be killed." Mossnose said walking over to the bathroom.
"You couldn't kill me if you tried… so are you going?"
Mossnose closed the door as a reply.
30 minutes later, Mossnose walked out of the washroom to find Wizard-Theif throwing darts at a darts board.
"Where did you get that from?" Mossnose asked.
"Bought it." Wizard-Theif said throwing another dart that missed the board and hit a pillow, poor pillow was having a bad day.
"When?"
"When I ditched you and you met Kaiba-boy and aren't you late for your 'date'?"
"Did you know that your aim is pathetic?"
"Who said I was aiming at the darts board?"
"You're paying for that." Mossnose said as she walked out the door, "Be good."
Wizard-Theif just shrugged and threw another dart this time at the door.
The dart hit the closed door and she heard Wizard-Theif said, "Damn it, a second off."
"You're paying for that too." Mossnose said as she ran down the hallway.
A/N: See ya! Happy Halloween!