A/N: Hoping to be out of the maze in this chapter… maybe if we are really lucky we'll get out of the Shadow Realm too! And I can just barely write on weekends so I'll still be updating! Also for some reason in my head Malik sounds like Duke so that makes writing a bit harder. Please don't kill me if his character really seems off. Please read and enjoy.
Disclaimer: Nothing new to report, all I own is WT, TTH, and the plot… Now someone get these lawyers out of my room!!
Chapter 14
Once Mossnose was in the lobby a white limo pulled up to the front doors and Mokuba ran into the hotel. He looked around for a second before spotting Mossnose and walking over.
"My brother is meeting us at… well you'll see." Mokuba said as they walked to the limo.
Within minutes Mossnose found herself sitting at a booth in a private part of a fancy restaurant waiting for Seto Kaiba.
"What is going on? This is just too weird, I meet Mokuba and Seto Kaiba and then I'm sitting in a booth at one of the fanciest restaurants in Tokyo waiting to talk to Seto Kaiba… something just doesn't add up… I wonder if Wizard-Theif planned this as a prank… No this just isn't her style; she hates loveydovey stuff like this… So what is going on?" Mossnose said as she looked at the menu.
"I'm glad that this is a private booth and not right out in the open, I feel like should be wearing a gown not a T-shirt and jeans… I wonder if the hotel has had to call the fire department yet. Wizard-Theif must have done some sort of damage by now…"
Back in the maze, Mossnose was so into walking down Memory Lane that she failed to notice a sinister shadow walking up to her. The figure reached out and placed its hand on her shoulder. Then an unknown draught extinguished the torches and a piercing scream followed by a grunt of pain was heard.
"Sentai! Calm down! It's me!" Kaiba yelled trying to find Mossnose in the dark.
"Ohmygosh, are you okay?" Mossnose yelled back.
"I'm fine; it's just a small cut and since when do you carry around a knife?" Kaiba asked taking a step in the darkness. Unknown to him, when the lights had gone out Mossnose had transformed and unsheathed her claws. Usually Mossnose aimed to cut her enemy's face to shreds but in the dark she missed and got Kaiba's hand.
"What's going on?" Mossnose asked.
"I'm not sure, keep talking so I can find you." Kaiba said keeping a hand on the wall and walking towards Mossnose's voice.
Since she didn't want to make Kaiba wonder how she could run so far in such a short amount of time, Mossnose started to say random facts while walking back to Kaiba such as how the back of one's knee has no scientific name.
After a few facts Kaiba couldn't hear Mossnose talking anymore but instead a voice that turned his blood to ice.
"Checkmate." The voice said.
"That's impossible!" Kaiba thought, "He's been gone for years!"
Spidey continued walking and saw pictures of her first day in Hell (High School). Spidey was kicking the door to her locker as it hated her and refused to open. Then there was another picture of meeting Torn Twisted.
"Boo!" Torn Twisted said walking up behind Spidey.
"Where did you come from?!" Spidey yelled jumping back.
"There." Torn Twisted said pointing to a wall, "But… There was a path… What the heck is going on!!!?"
"I'm not sure but I think that the sooner we get out of here the better." Spidey said as the two continued walking. Oddly both were silent as they looked at the walls and 'relived' the dreaded first day of grade 9.
After they finished looking at grade 9 they came to grade 10. The first picture was of Spidey and Torn Twisted looking at a poster that advertised a trip to Tokyo, Japan.
"I remember that," Torn Twisted said stopping, "It took like forever to get me to sign up."
"I know and it took even longer to get everything ready to go." Spidey said as they walked on.
"Wasn't it on that trip that you met Wizard-Theif, Mossnose and Malik?"
"No… well not Wizard-Theif and Mossnose. I met them when I moved there."
"Oh yeah… how did you meet Malik anyways?"
Silence
"Spidey… You do remember don't you?" Torn Twisted said giving Spidey a look of disbelief.
"Twisted, you're stealing Kaiba's look." Spidey said turning to the walls hoping that they would remind her what happened.
"Do you remember or don't you?!"
"All I remember is ditching the school's plan and finding a helicopter that lead me to a yacht…"
"You are pathetic."
"So when did you met Atemu?"
Silence and a blushing Torn Twisted
"Burn, so how did you two meet?"
"No comment."
"But I told you!!"
"Not a lot!"
"Come on! I don't even remember anything that happened! It was like a dream!"
"Shh!" Torn Twisted whispered grabbing Spidey's arm and pulling her to the wall.
"What gives?" Spidey asked still talking at a regular volume.
"Shh!" Torn Twisted said motioning for Spidey to look around the corner that they had come to.
Spidey peeked around the corner and then gave Torn Twisted an odd/worried look before saying, "Are you feeling okay? No one is there."
"What?! But I could have sworn that I saw…" Torn Twisted trailed off as she looked around the corner.
"Well, no one is there anymore." Spidey said before looking at the pictures. She and Torn Twisted were on the trip and Spidey had just spotted something in the sky, "Hey isn't this about the time that I ditched?"
"Yeah… well, I guess this is where we split up… See ya." Torn Twisted said going right.
"Good luck." Spidey said as she went left.
As soon as the two girls separated Spidey felt that something was deeply wrong. Ever heard of the saying, "It's quiet… too quiet" and then something really bad happens? Well what happened to Spidey was the opposite. It was loud… too loud, every footstep was amped up to an insane volume and every breath echoed around the maze. Every so often Spidey would stop and looked behind her sure that she was being followed only to see nothing but the pictures on the walls looking across the hallway. Then she heard something that she knew was what she was listening for, laughter; cold, heartless, evil laughter and then the lights went out and a scream was cut off.
Spidey wasn't alone in feeling that something wasn't right. Torn Twisted had the same feeling in her gut but it was just her imagination making things too quiet. She stopped looking at the photos which were just fuelling her fear and started thinking about other stuff like how she got roped into this whole thing in the first place. She met Wizard-Theif and Mossnose when Spidey had come back home for a visit after she (Spidey) had moved to Japan and that was when the randomness had started but it wasn't all that bad. She met Yugi/Atemu and hanging out with the other girls kept things interesting but at first sometimes she felt that Spidey was leaving her out and not telling her everything. She wasn't going to blame Wizard-Theif and Mossnose for not explaining everything because she knew that they didn't trust her all that much as they both had problems with full humans but she expected Spidey to fill her in. Overtime she realized that the other girls weren't hiding anything from her… except for the spider powers… and that they weren't saving the world from evil like most 'special' people in comic books. They were just living a 'regular' life with a bit of chaos like what was happening right now.
Torn Twisted stopped to pick a path at a fork and then the lights went out and she heard a scream that made her want to run but she remained where she was. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and a hand over her mouth.
Yugi stopped walking just in front of a fork that was the meeting of two paths going straight and gave Atemu a look and asked, "You don't know what this maze is, do you?"
"Isn't that Malik?" Atemu said pointing down the path.
"Hey Yugi", Malik said walking over, "any luck?"
"No, you?" Yugi asked still glaring at the air beside him.
"No and I haven't ran into girls at all either." Malik said as the two started walking down the corridor.
"I hope everyone is okay."
They continued on walking in silence till they came to the end of the Battle City tournament and a fork.
"Good luck." Malik said walking down a path.
Yugi hesitated before running after Malik, "Malik wait up."
Malik obeyed and waited for Yugi to catch up, "What is it?" He asked.
"I don't think that we should split up."
"Yugi is right; there is something about this maze that just doesn't seem right." Atemu added.
"Alright, so should we go back and take the other way?" Malik asked.
"Ok." Yugi said turning around and walking right into a wall, he sat down on the ground and looked at the wall in confusion.
"Yugi are you okay?" Malik and Atemu asked.
"I'm fine but where did this wall come from?" Yugi said while getting up, "and why is there rope at the bottom of the wall?"
"I'm not sure." Atemu said, he had finally stopped being in spirit form and was solid.
Malik held up his hand which still had some webbing/rope in it.
"You still have some rope?" Yugi asked, "We ran out way back there."
"This wall has ancient writings on it." Malik said looking at the wall totally dropping the conversation he was in.
"Can you read it?" Yugi asked.
"No it's not written in any Egyptian I know."
"What about you Atemu?" Yugi asked turning to his twin.
"I can't but I think I know what it is." Atemu said looking the wall over.
"What?" Malik and Yugi asked.
Before Atemu could answer a red fog started swirling around the boys' knees. The boys' confusion showed on their faces as the fog climbed up the walls. Slowly the two boys who weren't 5000+ years old started to realize that they couldn't breathe in the fog.
"We've got to get out of here." Malik managed to choke out somehow still able to stand.
Yugi who was on the ground just nodded, Atemu helped him up and they started to follow Malik. Soon they got out of the fog and Yugi and Malik could breathe again.
"What was that?" Yugi asked rubbing his throat.
"I don't know it was almost like a rope was tied around my neck." Malik said looking around and noticing that the pictures were gone, "Where did the pictures go?"
"I'm not sure but if both of you are ready to continue on, we should keep moving." Atemu said.
The other boys nodded and followed. After a few minutes Yugi remembered something but Malik beat him
"Pharaoh Atemu, you said that you may know what language the message back there was written, what was it?" Malik asked.
"It was a code used by thieves." Atemu answered and none of the guys noticed the lights dimming.
"So you mean that Bakura could read it?" Yugi asked.
"Him or Wizard-Theif."
Then they came to another fork with three paths, this time in front of the fork was a slate with more of the code written on it.
"Too bad we don't know what it says." Yugi said as the guys each looked down a different path.
"Oh no." Malik said taking a step over to another path.
"What is it?" Atemu and Yugi asked.
Then Malik grabbed Yugi's and Atemu's collars and pulled them into a path.
"What the heck?" Atemu asked.
Malik peeked around the corner and ducked back.
"Malik, what's wrong?" Yugi asked.
Malik just motioned for the other two to be quiet and pointed around the corner.
Atemu who was second closest to the corner took a peek and gave Malik a mystified looked.
"There is no one there now." Atemu said.
"But I could have sworn that I saw you." Malik said pointing to Atemu.
"What?!" Yugi and Atemu replied.
"But I could have sworn that I saw…" Torn Twisted's voice drifted over to the guys.
"That sounded like Torn Twisted." Malik said.
"It sounded like it came from this direction." Yugi said as he started to walk down the path.
"Be careful Yugi, who knows what kind of traps this maze has in it." Atemu said as he and Malik started to follow.
Then the boys suddenly found themselves in the dark.
"What happened?" Malik asked, arms out stretched trying to not crash into anything.
"I'm not sure but-" Yugi replied only to be cut off by a scream.
"Come on we have to find the girls." Atemu said walking randomly in the wrong direction so he crashed into a wall.
"Atemu are you okay?" Yugi asked.
"I'm fine."
Then another grunt of pain was heard.
"Malik?" Yugi asked.
"Yeah?" Malik replied.
"Could you get off of me?"
"Oh… sorry." Malik said trying to get off Yugi only to crash into Atemu.
"We aren't getting anywhere this way." Atemu said before the corridor started glowing with a golden light.
"Good thinking Atemu." Yugi said noticing that the walls were now covered with the codes Atemu had told them about.
"Uh… I didn't do anything…" Atemu said.
"But if you didn't… where is that glowing coming from?" Malik asked looking around.
"There." Yugi said pointing down the corridor.
A few feet away from the guys was a small sphere glowing, about the size of a baseball.
"You don't stand a ghost of a chance." A voice said.
"Atemu… did you hear that?" Yugi asked looking at his yami.
"Yes but didn't he disappear…" Atemu replied.
Then another voice joined the party, "You'll pay for that Hikaru."
"Didn't we leave Yami Me back there?" Malik asked.
"I thought so." Atemu said.
Then the corridor started to glow once again, this time the fog was such a dark green that it was almost black and Atemu was also affected. The boys felt the lack of breathable air and the glowing stopped.
Bakura opened his eyes but still the memories continued. The girl thief fell to the ground unconscious and the snake slipped away not giving anyone a second glance. One of the guards walked over to the girl's body and after a second said, "It looks like she fainted but the she'll be dead within a few hours." The next thing anyone knew was that the group was surrounded by cloaked figures. For a second everything went black and then the memories continued. The boy thief awoke to find himself on his bed in his hide out and the girl thief walked in.
"You okay?" The girl asked.
The boy sat up and said, "Yeah, but what happened?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Never mind… What about you, are you okay?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"
"Well that snake…"
"It just paralyzed me."
"It made you black out." The boy pointed out.
"Well I can't…" The girl said before trailing off and looking at the ground.
"You can't what?" the boy demanded.
"I wonder what happened to the backstabbing bas-" The girl said walking over to the window.
"Don't change the subject." The boy said walking over, "You can't what?"
"Who made you boss?" The girl teased, a grin on her face.
"Masika." The boy said and her grin disappeared.
"It's not important." The girl said looking down.
"Masika, we both know that you're lying."
"I just can't believe that we got caught, we're going to need better disguises when we go back to get the plans." The girl said looking out the window again.
"Why didn't you just tell me that?"
"It's fun to annoy you." The girl said before making a break for the door.
"Get back here!"
"Sorry can't hear you." The girl said as she and the boy disappeared and Bakura found himself back in the maze which was now dark as night. He pulled out a small light and continued on his way not noticing that the pictures on the wall had disappeared.
After a few moments he came to a sharp corner. Normally the maze just had you walk in a straight line till you came to a fork so you rarely found a corner in it. He thought nothing of it till he saw something ooze down it creating a line of black on the wall. He looked closer and noticed that the ooze itself was a blood red colour and was glowing. Then he heard what sounded like the roar of a water fall coming from the other side of the wall.
Now Wizard-Theif was once again on the ground clutching her side in pain.
"Damn… Him… To… HELL! He better not run into me right now or else I'll rip him limb from limb" Wizard-Theif thought as she struggled to get up. "That bloody bastard! That Bloody-Son-of-A-Gun! That backstabbing, turn coat!! That Bloody Turn Coat of a Bastard!!!!! I'm going to send him to Hell myself when I get my hands on him!!! That moronic lowdown scum, I'm going to kill him for sure this time" On that 'happy' thought Wizard-Theif managed to get up once more and continue walking. She noticed that her shoulder and back had stopped bleeding and that the world was slowly starting to spin. "I probably don't have enough blood to bleed anymore, at least because I'm immortal I won't die right away but I wish the pain would stop… What the Devil was that!?" Wizard-Theif turned back to the way she had come to see an empty corridor.
"I could have sworn that-" Wizard-Theif thought before she heard a noise. It sounded like a hissing of a snake. "Ok, don't panic, on the one hand it could be Diabound or a snake… Oh great, I think I saw something move…" Wizard-Theif thought then she heard footsteps behind her. Once again she spun around to see nothing.
"What is going on?!" Wizard-Theif continued to ask herself and then the pain returned; she fell to the ground in pain and she heard the hissing get louder. She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from screaming.
"Stop it." She told herself sternly, "Just because you hear hissing doesn't mean that it's really there. It's just the poison messing with my head" Then she heard footsteps once more. "The footsteps on the other hand… I've got to keep moving." Wizard-Theif tried to get up and failed. By the time she failed four times she was panting heavily and her head was spinning.
"I want off this ride now! Ugh, stop spinning world; I'm think I'm going to puke." Wizard-Theif thought as she leaned against the wall waiting for the spinning to ease. But it seemed that the world was having fun spinning round and round.
"I wish the damn world would stop spinning already!" Wizard-Theif thought and surprising the world did stop spinning. Wizard-Theif stood up and looked around in amazement.
"Uh… thanks?" Wizard-Theif muttered then the lights went out and Wizard-Theif heard a short lived scream.
"Talking to yourself now are we, Masika?" (A/N:We all know who said it so why bother) a voice said.
Wizard-Theif spun around once again to see once again see only darkness.
"I'm really starting to hate this game." Wizard-Theif muttered.
"What's the matter, Masika, afraid of-?" The voice continued to taunt.
"Show yourself, you coward!" Wizard-Theif yelled turning around again and noticing something on the wall.
Some sort of glowing slime was oozing down the walls slowly turning them black but the odd part was that the slime was a golden colour. "Don't panic, the slime will just flow throughout the maze, there is no way that there is enough of this stuff to fill the whole maze." Wizard-Theif told herself. Then walls appeared to be growing from the floor and Wizard-Theif was imprisoned in a small room that was filling up with the unknown slime. "Ooooooooooh damn." Soon, instead of oozing out of the walls, the stuff was raining from the ceiling, within seconds the golden ooze was swirling around Wizard-Theif's waist. Soon the slime was up to her chest and turning a toxic green but the walls remain black. Wizard-Theif almost fell under the surface of the slime in pain when it came in contact with the scar on her back. Though it was no longer bleeding it was still an open cut and a deep one at that.
The pain was even worst when the stuff found the cut on her shoulder. This time she did go under the surface. The slime was forcing itself into her wounds and when tried to swim to the surface a current dragged her back down. Wizard-Theif was starting to see black spots before her eyes and knew that any moment she was going to gasp for air and swallow this slime instead. The pain from her shoulder and other cuts were starting to dull and she knew that the poison along with this slime were about to claim her life. She closed her eyes and waited for the end; she didn't have to wait very long. Just when she was sure that her time was up something surprising happened.
The lights had come back on and Spidey had come to the pictures when she had met Malik but the photos were sorta scratched out. She looked around for signs of another path or Malik and nothing new appeared to her.
"Where is he? He should be here… I wish he would hurry up-" Spidey's thought were cut apart by a random wall splitting in half without making a noise but that wasn't what surprised Spidey. What surprised her was that on the other side were Malik, Yugi, and Atemu all laying on the ground, knocked out.
"Malik!" Spidey yelled running over to the guys only to be blocked by some 'invisible' force. "Thank goodness that Kaiba isn't here to tell me that this is glass when it is really an aura." Spidey said slapping a sutra on the barrier only to have the sutra be blasted right back at her. "A really strong aura", Spidey muttered, "I guess I'll have to use this." Spidey said pulling out a sutra that would have been used on the strongest of demons (Not the one from Natsuko). "I hope that this works." Spidey said, closing her eyes and crossing her fingers for good luck. A huge explosion followed Spidey activating the sutra and when she looked at the barrier there was only a small scratch. "What the Hell!?!" Spidey yelled looking at the wall in disbelief before kicking it in frustration. Surprisingly the barrier shattered and Spidey ran over to the guys who were slowing awakening.
"Seto?" Mossnose said still trying to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness. "This is no good, my eyes in this form can't see as well in my true form…but I can't transform…" She thought looking down the hall, after a few seconds of indecision she had made up her mind, she transformed. With all her senses back and working at full capacity she was able to hear something. Subconsciously she knew that it was there the whole time and only half heard. The sound was of slow moving paws, stalking their prey and slowly getting closer and closer. Then Mossnose heard it, a voice that sounded shy and meek saying:
"Hello, Mossnose."
"You! Runningriver, show yourself!" Mossnose barked back before she could stop herself.
"Mossnose, I'm sorry about your parents, I was just looking for that…" Runningriver's voice continued.
"I know that you are the one who killed them! Show yourself." Mossnose yelled and then thought, "What am I doing? Runningriver is dead. There is no way that she could be here."
"Oh, the little kit has a bark." Runningriver's voice had changed, it no longer sounded innocent but instead it was mocking and arrogantly sure of itself.
"You're dead!" Mossnose yelled.
"I would say that the shoe is on the other foot. You have just barely any skills in killing." Runningriver's voice continued to taunt.
"Just stop it already! This isn't real!" Mossnose yelled transforming to a human and she started walking back to where she thought Kaiba was.
"If you are looking for your friend you are going the wrong way."
"What are you talking about?" Mossnose demanded.
"You can't back track in this maze, you been moving farther and farther away from your boyfriend."
"Wanna a bet?" Mossnose said turning around and crashing into a wall. "Ok so she was right… Now what?" Mossnose muttered.
"We have our rematch." Runningriver said finally appearing. Runningriver was in her human form that was a small girl with amber, cat-like eyes, a blue T-shirt, black jeans, and anamber cat's-eye pendant, the creepy part was that she was glowing.
"You're on!" Mossnose said transforming to a cat.
Kaiba looked around in the darkness for the source of his stepfather's voice.
"What's the matter, Seto?" Gozaboro Kaiba asked.
"Show yourself." Kaiba demanded then, amazing the torches somehow relit themselves creating a circle of light around Kaiba.
Gozaboro walked into the pool of light and glared at his stepson.
"What do you want, old man?" Kaiba demanded, knowing perfectly well what the answer was doing to be.
"What do you think? A rematch." Gozaboro replied making a chess board that went wall to wall with huge pieces appear.
"What are you talking about? I've already beaten you twice before and now you are challenging me to chess again?" Kaiba yelled.
"No, not chess." Gozaboro corrected
Kaiba stood unmoving for a whole 3 seconds before he burst out laughing, "You want me to play checker with you? Alright, I'll play your game and win." Kaiba said confidently.
"Alright then I'll go first." Gozaboro said.
Malik awoke to find Spidey shaking his shoulder and yelling, "Malik wake up!!"
"I'm up, I'm up." Malik said sitting up, "Hey where did you come from?"
"There." Spidey said pointing behind her.
"There is just is a wall… So you can walk through walls too… Are you are spirit or something?"
"Everyone okay?" Yugi asked looking around
"It appears that this maze has some sort of traps." Atemu said, "And it appears that these traps have the power to affect spirits as well."
"What did happen to you guys?" Spidey asked getting up.
"The lights went out and then we found ourselves in some sort of fog that made the air un-breathable." Yugi explained as the guys also got up.
"Spirits need to breathe?" Spidey asked Atemu.
"No but it drained my energy." Atemu replied.
"Well that explains a lot." Spidey said looking at the ground.
"It does?" The boys asked.
"I think I have this maze figured out now." Spidey continued.
"How could you have figured it out when I haven't yet?" Atemu asked with hurt pride.
Spidey walked up to Atemu, put her face uncomfortably close to his and ignoring the murderous glares that Malik was giving Atemu, said, "You are a spirit I doubt you be able to get it."
"They didn't figure it out either." Atemu said in his defence, uncomfortable because of the looks Malik was giving him.
"Let me rephrase that," Spidey explained, "we humans with bigger brains," the live boys looked at her, "also known as girls." Boys still looking confused, "Women, humans with bigger brains, can figure more stuff then boys with smaller brains." Spidey said getting angry and she started walking down the corridor, the guys followed her.
"So if you have the maze figured out then how does it work?" Atemu asked.
"I don't know how it works but I know what it does." Spidey said. "The pictures on the wall," Spidey said gesturing to the blank walls, "usually show your life and each path you take-"
"We already know that." Atemu cut in.
"Atemu." Yugi said.
"Sorry." Atemu muttered.
"As I was saying," Spidey said, "this maze shows one their life and you can't backtrack."
Yugi said gently, "We also kinda knew that."
"Well I bet that you didn't know that…" Spidey said pausing for effect, "when in the pictures you meet someone you may meet them in the maze… BUT YOU THREE JUST HAD TO GO AND SCREW EVERY THING UP!" Spidey yelled pushing Malik who was the closest one to her into a wall.
"Oh damn, she's mad." Yugi muttered.
Atemu gave his hikaru a look.
"What?" Yugi asked.
"Nothing." Atemu replied looking back to see Spidey to apologizing to Malik.
"Sorry Malik, I guess I don't know my own strength." Spidey said helping Malik up before she started ranting again. "And since you guys when together you screwed up the whole maze. You're probably the reason that the lights went out and you also bought the non-breathable air on yourselves." Spidey continued ranting while walking backwards.
The boys followed her meekly and Malik said, "Elena-" before Spidey cut him off and said:
"You guys are supposed to split up; you're not supposed to keep together! Baka's."
Then Malik said, "Elena you might want to turn around." A note of urgency in his voice
"At the next fork I'm going be smart and leave before you guys screw this maze up anymore." Spidey said.
"Elena, turn around now!" Malik yelled at the same time that Yugi and Atemu said "Turn around."
Spidey then felt a hand on her shoulder and felt the cold sting of metal to her neck.
"It appears that your friend doesn't like to take orders." Marik said.
A/N: Another chapter and we are still in the maze. Oh joy. Please review! Happy Halloween!