Hallloooo! I'd like to give a big thank you to HermioneSakuraGardner07 and Aya El maghrabi for their sweet reviews! Thank you guys so much for taking the time to comment; it's super nice of you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Gi Oh. If I did, there would have been at least ONE season with a main female character. I mean come on!
Tea sat in front of her computer and smacked herself in the face, twice for good measure. The answers to her internet search glowed on the screen before her.
'Frankenstein Lives Again!'
'Concerns about Recent Literature-should Vampires be Role Models?'
'How to Tame Monster Hair'
What had she expected, typing in such a generic search as 'monsters?' The girl sighed. She had riffled through a list of homicides in the area, but none of the victims showed any of the injuries or poison she had. All the girl had accomplished was losing her appetite.
Wielding her crutches awkwardly, Tea hefted herself out of her chair, wobbling her way over to her bed. Her parents were already asleep, and she ought to be too, since she was going back to school tomorrow.
Biting her lip, the girl took a small handheld mirror off of her bedside table, examining the changes in her physical appearance. She had a long cut going down her jaw line that was probably going to scar, and plenty more that littered her the rest of her body. Still, at least her uniform would hide those. Her mother had trimmed her uneven hair, crying as she did(Tea loved her mother dearly but the woman had tear ducts like faucets), and now the brown hair hung in a cute pixie cut around her thinned cheeks. Tea grimaced at the hollows in her face-weight loss had been inevitable, and she knew her uniform was going to sag unflatteringly on her form now.
She wasn't terribly vain, but she hated the thought of being stared at. And more than that, who was ever going to hire a dancer with so many scars? It had always been an uphill battle, trying to become a good enough dancer to get into a performing arts university. Thousands of other girls had the same dream, and of them, at least hundreds had taken actual dance classes, or had tutors or family connections.
Now, with her disfigurements, her chances of being a professional dancer had grown slimmer than ever. She knew her parents wished she would choose another career path, something more stable, more easily within her reach. Tea had worked hard in school; she had good enough grades to attend an academic university-go on to pursue a more traditional job. Whatever it was that people who didn't play magical card games did.
Thoughts of her friends invaded her head then, and Tea cast a rueful glance at her cellphone, sitting on her desk in the same place she had left it all that time ago when she was hurrying out the door with her cake. Yugi had left her several messages, all of them kind and gentle and so completely him. Her anger at her friends had mostly fizzled out, being replaced by her worry for them. She had watched the televised portion of the tournament, but while it did her heart good to see her friend's faces, it told her little of how they were actually faring. Just a week more, and then they would come home.
To her shame, Tea wasn't looking forward to it as much as she wished she were(they had gone without her, had an adventure without her, probably had new inside jokes and experiences and it hurt to be on the outside, hurt to be excluded.)
Turning back to the mirror, she pulled a few funny faces to cheer herself up, and she forced her thoughts into proper order as she did. It didn't matter what she looked like. She wouldn't let it matter. You were who you made yourself, and Tea intended to be happy, healthy, and strong inside and out. Even if the other students stared at school, she would not care.
As for being left behind, yes, that did hurt, and she was definitely going to need to discuss that with her friends, because all of them deserved a chance to explain their side of things. And also she was going to need to tell them that she had almost been murdered in an alley(yeah, that was not going to go down well, and Tea was most nervous about that). Hopefully Yami would be able to shed some light on the monster attack, and the pink stone embedded in her skin.
Oh, and she needed to find a way to make sure Seto Kaiba didn't stop her from hanging out with Mokuba, because Mokuba was undoubtedly the most amazing kid ever, and she refused to stop being friends with him just because his brother had issues the size of Russia.
And…
And….
Tea fell asleep, sprawled on top of her sheets, breathing quietly as the world turned oh so slowly towards another day.
Miles away, her friends were not experiencing the same peace.
"Set her here," Yami ordered, and Tristan and Joey quickly obeyed, placing the unconscious Mai down on the ground next to their campfire.
"Another one bites the dust," commented Seto snidely, and Joey reared up in anger.
"Not now, man," Tristan muttered, and the blonde boy deflated, crouching back down beside Mai's still form.
Yami shoved his bangs back, focusing on the traces of spiritual energy he could sense flying off the woman. "She is the same as the others," he announced grimly. "Half of her soul is gone. The dark half of her spirit has been stolen, leaving only the light."
"Shit!" Joey bit his lower lip, punching the ground. "This is going too far!"
"Raptor, Weevil, Mako, Rishid, and now Mai. Everyone who has faced the host of the tournament so far has lost and ended up with only half of their soul. What does this guy even want with halves of souls anyways?"
"I wish I knew," Yami stated grimly, rocking back on his heels. "She will wake in a day or so, but, like the others, she will not seem herself."
"I don't mean to interrupt," said Ryou quietly. "But have you thought about what this might mean for us? People who harbor two souls."
Yami sucked in a deep breath, brow furrowing as he considered the implications.
"Oh please," scoffed Seto. "Not more of your magic nonsense."
"Shut up, Kaiba!" snarled Joey.
"Sorry, mutt, I don't speak dog," sneered the millionaire.
"This is not the time for squabbling!" ordered a smooth voice. Ishizu stepped into the clearing they were camped in, her dress mussed and a bruise blooming on the side of her face.
"What happened?" gasped Ryou, quickly guiding the shaken woman to a seat by the fire. Everyone present leaned in to hear her story, even Kaiba.
The priestess composed herself as best she could, though her hands trembled in her lap. "My brother is still plagued with guilt, you know," she began. "For what happened in Battle City."
"Aw, but that was ages ago," Joey comforted her awkwardly. "We know it weren't all his fault."
"I know," the woman replied, sparing him a small smile. "And I have ever been grateful for your forgiveness. But Malik has ached to redeem himself, and so, he sought out our host after Mai was struck down."
A sigh of understanding went around the group.
"I'm so sorry, Ishizu," Yami said. "Where is he now? We will try and make him comfortable while he sleeps, and I swear to you, we will get the other half of his soul back."
"That's just it, though," Ishizu rubbed a hand over her face in an uncharacteristic show of weakness. "Malik's soul is intact."
Yami stared at her, confused, while Tristan and Joey shrugged at each other in bafflement. It was Ryou who understood first, and he flinched away from Ishizu.
"Marik's back, then," he stated, resigned, and when Ishizu nodded, he felt the Ring around his neck drawing tighter, like a noose.
A week passed quickly for Tea. Between catching up to work at school(and yes, she was stared at, but she was better than whispers, better than gossip, so she held her head high), researching monsters(with depressing results no matter how hard she tried), and spending time with Mokuba(who was quickly becoming one of her favorite people in the whole wide world), the days slid by without much notice.
Before she knew it, the anticipated day had come. The ending of the tournament had not been televised, due to what announcers referred to as unforeseen technical glitches but what Tea was sure more likely had to do with Shadow Magic. Still, Yugi had been proclaimed the winner, so everything must have turned out fine.
Her absence really hadn't made any difference at all. The girl shook her head at the thought, reprimanding herself for being so selfish when the important thing was that her friends were all right. Using a cane, she made her way from her room to the living room, greeting her parents cheerfully.
"Oh sweetie, are you sure you're going to be okay without your crutches?" Tea's mother fretted over her. "I know the doctors said you were healing….quickly, but still."
That actually wasn't what the doctors had said, and all of them knew it. The physical therapist who had worked with Tea in the hospital had used words like miraculous, amazing, unheard of. Doctors in white coats had looked at each other and used words like bizarre, irregular, alarming. Needless to say, her parents had withdrawn her from physical therapy and from unnecessary scrutiny as soon as possible.
"I'll be fine, Mom," Tea laughed it off. "Hey, what stands on four legs in the morning, three at noon, and two in the evening? The answer's this girl!"
"That's not how the riddle went," rumbled her father, but he cast a fond look at her over his newspaper.
Their morning routine was always rushed; her father flying off to work, her mother off to her college classes, and Tea to her own school. She doubted she would have been able to make it to Domino High without the help of her own personal hero.
And on that note, it looked like he was here. "Mokuba's outside waiting for me!" she waved to her parents. "Gotta run! Oh, by the way, I might be home a little late. Yugi and the rest are coming home today!"
Her parents exchanged looks.
"Hold on a second, dear," Mrs. Gardner said quietly.
"What is it, mom? I don't want to make Mokuba wait; gosh knows how much the gas for that limo costs."
Tea's mother dithered for a bit, and so her father took point in the conversation. "Your mother and I don't think you should spend as much time around those boys," he stated bluntly. "All you've done is follow them around for the last few years."
Anger flared in Tea's chest. Her father's words sounded too much like her own doubts, and it made her react defensively. "They're my friends!" she snapped.
"Some friends," Mr. Gardner said dismissively, and Tea hissed in indignation(they might have their faults, but they were her friends, and even if no one else knew it, they had all risked everything for each other, and how dare anyone, even her own father say otherwise).
"We just worry," Mrs. Gardner broke in quickly, seeing the stormclouds on her stubborn daughter's face. "Tea, honey. Your father is just worried. It's hard to make a living today. The economy isn't good, and we know you can get into college, it's just that employers nowadays are looking for more than good grades or class ranking, and you've spent so much time following those boys around that you haven't built up much for yourself."
"We won't be here forever, Tea," her father picked up seamlessly, looking up at her through tired eyes. "We just want to know, that, when we're gone, you'll be able to take care of yourself."
Tea's anger collapsed inside of her, and she stumbled over to fling her arms around both of her parents. Her mother promptly began bawling.
"I'll focus more on my future," the girl whispered to them, to her parents who loved her but couldn't understand that the last years had been more than just dogging her friend's steps in silly card games(couldn't understand magic and danger and different dimensions or monsters in alleys). "You don't have to worry."
And if that last was a lie, well, there was nothing to be done about it but try and turn it into truth. Tea squeezed them tightly, her willowy mother and her rock of a father, and then she hobbled out of the door to the waiting Mokuba.
The youngest Kaiba slouched in the backseat of the limo, peering unhappily at the phone in his hands. Why hadn't Seto called him yet?
He was so deep in his brooding that the sudden tapping on the window made him jump in surprise. Turning, he blinked up into Tea's smiling blue eyes. The girl had her bookbag slung over one shoulder and her opposing hand clenched about the cane.
"Anyone in there?" she smiled.
The bodyguard leaned back from the front seat. "Do I need to clean a bug off the side of the car, sir?"
Mokuba held back a scowl. "Only if you want to clean out your desk while you're at it." Ignoring the man's hurried apologies, he smiled sweetly at Tea and rolled down his window. "Sorry, Tea. New bodyguard today. Please forgive his Neanderthal tendencies."
"Sure thing, Mokuba. Goodness knows I've done the same for Joey, bless his little un-evolved brain," the girl smiled fondly at the thought of her brash friend and sent a congenial wave to the sheepish bodyguard, who waved back, confusion plain on his broad face.
Mokuba laughed, opening the door for her and watching carefully as she entered, wobbling on two healing legs and a cane.
The past week, he had been delighted to find that he had continued to enjoy her company. She always welcomed him, had a smile for him as soon as he appeared on her doorstep despite her crutches and injuries. He'd bring over movies and games, and they'd laugh together. Tea proved to be humorous and witty, something that he had suspected before but never been able to clearly see at the time. After all, most of the time he was around her, the focus was on their respective loved ones: his brother and her friends.
His big brother would always, always be first in his heart. But Tea was quickly nudging her way into second place, providing a different sort of warmth than his brother. Seto held a special place in his heart for Mokuba, but Tea had an full auditorium of people in her heart, and there were always extra seats. It made for a pleasant and informative change.
She smiled brightly at him as she closed the door, and Mokuba lost some of his anxiety at that smile. She wasn't a big sister to him, no, he had, needed, and wanted only one sibling. She treated him like an equal, acknowledging the range of his brilliant young mind, honestly considering everything he said. In some ways, he would be sad to Yami and the others come back. He didn't like to think that most of Tea's time would once again taken up. He still would be relieved to see them again though, because some of the last messages he had gotten from his brother boded ill. He was already preparing a mental list of what to do in anticipation of several various scenarios.
A light bop to his forehead snapped him out of his worried musings. "Hey-hey! Are you in there?" Tea waved a hand in front of his face. "Come on now, do I really have to give you a wet willy?"
"Eugh!" Mokuba jumped, then laughed along with her. "I'd really prefer it if you didn't. Oh!" His already large eyes widened as a forgotten strand of thought reconnected in his brain. "Aren't you excited? They're coming back today!"
Her lips quirked in an odd set of emotions before stretching out into a gentle smile. "That's wonderful!" she chimed. "I've worried over those dolts for a while now...Happy to be getting your brother back?"
Mokuba grinned, the enormity of the joyous expression speaking for itself. Tea laughed. "If I didn't check my calendar this morning, I'd think it was Christmas Eve just by looking at your face, the plants and temperature regardless!"
He chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, you've made your point. Shall I pick you up after school to go to the docks?"
At the gratitude in her eyes, his heart skipped a beat.
"My hero!" She sent him a smile that made the rest of the world fade out into bashful pastels. She wasn't the most beautiful girl, but her emotions, so strong and gracious, transformed her into something a touch beyond physical beauty. Looking at her smile, Mokuba knew with a flash of clarity that she would be beautiful as a young adult, and as a middle adult, and even as wrinkles festooned on her face, she would still be radiant.
The moment passed as most moments did-too quickly and leaving one wistful.
"I think I'll walk though," Tea said, gripping her cane more securely. "I want to take every chance I can to improve." She made a fist and poofed out her cheeks, and Mokuba snickered at her silliness.
All too soon, they were pulling up outside the gates of Domino High. Giving her thanks, Tea exited, joining the mass of students entering the school.
"See you at the docks!" Mokuba called. She waved cheerily, and he watched her increasingly distant form as he drove away until he could no longer discern the movement of that hand.
"We'll be at the docks soon," Ishizu sighed, running a hand through her tangled hair. The last week had been nothing short of exhausting, and as much as she wished the trouble was over, she knew it was just beginning.
The sound of a scuffle drew her from her musings, and she quickly hurried to separate the two fighters.
"Rishid!" she scolded. "What did I say about fighting with Rishid?"
Identical faces stared up at her, and the woman drew deep from her reserves of patience. She wasn't sure what was worse, that Marik and the Dark Bakura now had their own bodies, or that everyone else who had fought the mysterious host of the tournament, a man who called himself the Scales Master, had been separated into two entities, one of light, or one of darkness.
She grimaced as the Rishids began clawing at each other again. At least this was temporary: Weevil and Raptor, the first to be affected, had already solidified back to their original selves, which was a relief, because having four of them running around was far more annoying than just two.
Rishid would most likely return to normal in a few hours, and Mai, Duke, and Joey a day or two from now. For now Tristan monitored the two Joeys, one of whom kept trying to assassinate the two Kaibas, while Malik kept watch over the Mais, who were luckily less physically aggressive but had the disturbing tendency of trying to poison one another. The Dukes hadn't attempted anything yet, but they did seem creepily obsessed with each other.
Even this was less alarming than the reaction of the Kaibas, who both seemed to want to scheme together to take over other companies. One cited his motivation as Mokuba, the other cackled about potential world domination. However, they both also wanted to deny the other's existence, thanks to Kaiba's unending refusal to believe in anything magical. The end result was two CEO's alternating between struggling through an existential crisis and plotting nefarious business.
Ishizu was just about ready to throw herself overboard, and she hadn't even had to deal with the last drama unfolding on the boat, that between the Pharaoh and Yugi.
Quite frankly, she wasn't certain what to do about that mess.
But the elegant lady held a strength undeniable, and, driven by her loyalty to the Pharaoh, she reluctantly turned her feet towards the room housing Yami and Yugi, leaving the Rishids to butt heads again.
She knocked quietly on their door, and Yami's muffled voice bade her enter. The sight on the other side of the door brought further sorrow to her heart, and Ishizu felt a sigh building in her throat.
Head hanging, her Pharaoh knelt by Yugi's bedside. Disconsolately, he placed a damp cloth on the boy's feverish forehead.
"It ought to have been me," Yami murmured, raising guilt-stricken eyes to Ishizu. "Why? It should have…I should have…."
Moonlight ran in silver streamers through the window and over the floor, catching on Yugi's pained face.
"You cannot blame yourself," Ishizu whispered. Her gentle tones, hushed as they were, seemed to be as a shout to Yami, who winced back.
"How can I do otherwise?" he asked desperately. "I lost to the Scales Master! I lost, and then we were separated, and Yugi…."
"Faced the Scales Master on his own, yes," Ishizu finished. "And, my Pharaoh, he won. You should be proud of him."
"Proud?" scoffed Yami. "How can I be proud of his victory when it left him thusly?"
Sensing that nothing she could say would change his mind, Ishizu kept her silence, watching the man she had respected for so long be reduced to a nervous wreck by the side of a boy she had known for a shorter period of time, but who she regarded equally.
"How fares your brother?" Yami asked after a period of silence.
Ishizu shook her head, sorrow in her blue eyes. In a rush, Yami recalled another set of blue eyes, but pushed away their image.
"He, once more, blames himself," the priestess said heavily. She turned back to the gently undulating waves outside the window. "I cannot help but feel cheated on my brother's behalf. This was all supposed to be settled long ago."
Yami gripped the cloth in his hand tightly, overcome with self-recrimination. "I'm sorry, Ishizu. Hopefully, fate will explain itself soon."
How could he have known the overwhelming power of that man, the Scales Master? (Shaadi had been quite indignant at that title.) Not only could he machinate light and dark, he could also twist polar emotions, like confidence and guilt. Even when Yami had discovered this, he hadn't comprehended the extent the man could take his powers to-hadn't a clue that the Scales Master would be enough to bring back Marik, Malik's self-made darkness.
Someone else with brown hair drifted across his mind. Brown hair, blue eyes, a moral backbone like steel.
He missed Tea, as much as he might miss a limb. Her absence unsettled their group, and he commonly noted the propensity of himself and his companions to look for her, or make a comment to her, only to realize painfully the void where she should be, and of, course, where she wasn't.
Yami held in sigh. He would be glad to see her again.
Far in the distance, lights glimmered over the water. Domino City would be reached by morning.
Ishizu bid him a good night, one he knew neither of them would receive, and she exited as quietly as she had entered.
The silence became overwhelming.
"Yugi," Yami murmured, bowing his head to the boy's. "Can you hear me?"
Slowly, the gentle amethyst eyes opened, and Yami bit back an exclamation of relief. "Yami?" the smaller one whispered. He coughed hoarsely. "Are we almost back?"
"Just a few more hours, I promise," Yami answered. "Do you want water, more blankets?"
"'M fine," the small boy whispered. "It's weird not to have you in my head."
Sighing, Yami rocked back on his heels. "I know. It feels…odd to me as well. I suppose we shall just have to accustom ourselves to the change."
Yugi blinked rapidly, his mind whirling in the haze of pyrexia. "I want to see Tea," he rasped solemnly. "I wish she had come with us."
The pharaoh blinked, wondering what brought this on. "Is it not a good thing that we didn't?" he questioned. "Imagine how hurt she could have been, seeing as how everyone ended up."
"Tea's tough," mumbled Yugi. "Before you were here, she always…always looked out for me. She can do more than you think." His eyes fluttered shut, and he slid back into slumber. Sitting silently at his side, Yami pondered the small one's words.
Tea was brave and kind. He would never deny that. But Yugi had always held her on something of a pedestal, and Yami could not understand why. Courageous and caring, she might be, but the Pharaoh did not find any strength in her.
Crossing to the window, he sighed heavily. He didn't care to imagine how hurt Tea could have-no, would have been had she accompanied them. He was only grateful that she had remained in Domino City, safe and sound.
Tea waited for a few minutes after the limo had vanished from sight before she began moving.
She walked past the open gates, down the lane away from the school, deciding to take the whole day off. While it had been a struggle to catch up on all the work she had missed during her stay in the hospital, she had grown used to teaching herself quickly after skipping out so much with Yugi and the others. She would wander around for a bit, then proceed to the docks to meet up with Mokuba and greet her friends.
She wondered why her hand hurt, until she glanced down and saw that her knuckles were white through the force of her grip on her cane. Chuckling at her own silliness, Tea eased her fingers. She sought out a pleasant spot, finding one to her liking on a low brick wall protected from the heat by the shade of a graceful oak. She sat on that brick wall, and she put her cane down, and she thought.
Seeing her friends again...was she ready? She wanted to meet them happily, wanted their homecoming to be one of celebration, but a knot of anger and hurt still tangled up in her heart, and she wasn't certain she could welcome them back without a shred of bitterness.
Because things had to change. Tea couldn't pretend that the world was on hold anymore, while they went on their grand and terrifying journeys. When this was all over, if it ever was, Yugi and Joey would be fine-their future careers were most likely in Duel Monsters anyways. Tristan would be all right as well; she knew he was planning on apprenticing to his uncle's repair shop.
But Tea had no such back-up plan, so safety net for the day when their momentum led them tumbling over a cliff. After Yugi solved the puzzle, sparking the catalyst for their supernatural adventures, she had gotten lost in the lives of her friends, putting aside her own life in order to be the backup for theirs.
And she had lost years of herself following them, doing all she could for them, and it was only natural, because she was their friend and she loved them.
But almost being killed had forced her to look at her life more severely. She wanted a legacy beyond being a support system-a rejected support system at that. She wanted her parents to not have to worry about her.
But at the same time, the girl hated the idea of not being there for her friends if ever they should need her.
Tea puffed out a gust of air. Sheesh, but life could be complicated. Maybe she should try and simplify things.
The main question for today was: would she regret not going to the docks?
The answer: yes. There would be time later to talk to her friends and figure everything else out.
Made peaceful by this decision, she kicked back her feet, swinging up fully onto the wall. The sky was blue and perfect, and the clouds paddling through its expanse simply begged her perusal.
For about an hour, she amused herself with the caprices of the atmosphere. Feeling her stomach's rising mutiny, Tea eventually rose, dusting herself off and re-gripping her cane.
"Let's see," she mused. "I know there's a restaurant around here somewhere..." She glanced about, sniffing the air for any stray aromas. She saw a young man standing near her. Pushing away the fear that instinctively flared(she had thought it safe to talk to another man too, on another street, dark and terrible), Tea ambled over to him, forcing herself to push away anxiety. Just because she had gone through a horrible experience, she didn't intend to live the rest of her life haunted by it.
"Excuse me," she called. He jerked, so Tea knew he had heard her. However, instead of replying, he started walking away.
Rude sort, thought Tea peevishly. What a thing to do. She turned and started away herself. However, footsteps behind her made her pause.
"Sorry," wheezed a voice. Tea froze. She knew that voice, knew she knew it, but where?
Rex Raptor smiled at her. "Sorry," he panted out again. "I just wasn't sure whether I should talk to you or run like blazes in case that Yugi kid showed up with you."
Tea blinked, a bit stunned by the appearance of her old acquaintance. "It's fine," she mumbled, very aware of her scares and her cane. "I, um, just wanted to know if you knew of any place to eat around here."
"Oh!" exclaimed Rex. "An eatery. Right."
Well, that was a curious way of terming it. Tea gave no exterior sign of her curiosity, only subtly tried to peer at his eyes and forehead to see if, yet again, he had been inhabited by a menacing something. The Orichalcos version of him had a dead giveaway, after all. He appeared normal, or at least as normal as someone with his hair could be.
"I am familiar with a nice one just a few blocks away," he smiled. "Care to join me for lunch? My treat."
Tea contemplated refusing, but reminded herself of her resolution to live life without the taint of perpetual fear. Ignoring the dismay curling up in the back of her mind, she smiled courteously.
"It would be my pleasure." He smiled at her.
Tea followed him down the street, making pleasant and meaningless small-talk. They passed two girls, one of whom turned and stared after them for a bit.
"Do you think that girl is OK?" she asked her friend. "Why was she talking to herself like that?"
Her friend shrugged. "She must have been talking on the phone or something."
Placated by this answer, the first girl nodded. Both parties continued along, although one was in significantly more peril than the other.
Tea's feet were oddly certain of where they were going. She stared at them, clad in the school uniform footwear that she could remember belittling with some of her friends back in first year. Her priorities had been different then: Get good grades, get better at dancing, get a job, get Joey and Tristan for picking on Yugi, get home on time.
Not that it mattered now, and not that now really mattered anyways, as her feet seemed to have now under control. How long had she been walking though? Her scars were starting to twinge painfully, and her breathing had deepened.
Tea followed Rex down several more blocks before an odd concern came to her.
"Weren't you in the competition with-with the others?" She asked him. She recalled seeing his sneering face pasted across the television for sure.
He laughed mildly, a completely different person from the boy the television had shown her. Why, oh why were her feet so sure?
"Well," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I got knocked out of the tournament so early, I just decided to go back home!" He laughed it off again, continuing to stride alongside her placidly. So strange, her feet were so sure of their direction that he wasn't even leading anymore, just walking beside her companionably.
Shaking off her preoccupation with her main means of locomotion(had the heat gotten to her?), Tea smiled politely, her mind buzzing around his answer. Was that how it had happened? She knew Rex was no where near the caliber of Yugi and the others, so it was likely he had been struck out of the tournament early on. But the Rex she knew would never behave so nonchalantly, not unless he was trying to gain something. She would enjoy the leisure of entertaining the notion that he had changed, improved, taken up a new outlook.
She would also enjoy the leisure of not walking with a cane and bearing horrible scars.
The girl took a tighter grip upon her cane, preparing herself to use it in defense if the need arose. She absolutely refused to be kidnapped on the very day Yami and the others returned to Domino. If she had to bash in a few skulls to avoid that mortifying scenario, she would. She also would follow Rex, even though he was acting suspicious, because the other scenario she wanted to avoid was Rex telling Yami and the others what a fickle scaredy-cat she was. Not that she could see Rex and her friends exchanging gossip over crumpets or whatever, but she had pride.
Then again, she asked herself, why should I care how anyone else thinks of me?
"It's just around this corner," Rex told her. She looked ahead at said corner and frowned. How odd. For just a second, she had thought that the well-lit turn was actually the entrance to a dark, grungy alley. She stopped, ignoring the inquisitive look on Rex's face.
"Come on, Tea, it's only a few feet further," he coaxed. "Don't you smell the food?" Oh, and did she smell it! Finely seasoned meats; the ripe trails of odor exuded by sweet fruits; the sharp tang of vegetables and more potent sauces.
Her stomach rumbled, and her feet, taking charge once again, readily obeyed its order to move. But as she rounded the bend, she found something that bothered her: why hadn't she smelled the food before Rex mentioned it?
She stopped, wavering over the edge of the curve. Come on, said her feet.
"Come on," said Rex. He stared at her bemusedly, hair strange as ever under that ridiculous cap he always wore. A store-front, decorated with pictures of delectable meals, waited a little ways down the side-walk from him, and it smelled good and her feet wanted her to move, move, MOVE!
"Hurry up, Tea!" called Rex, smiling brightly. "Aren't you hungry?"
Hurry up, Tea, said her feet. Tea shook her head at the little voice; had she been out in the sun too long? Surely, that must be it.
"We don't want to waste time," said Rex, and somehow he looked more intense as he called her, and somehow one of her feet pulled forward without her permitting it, and in that second, Tea wondered if she imagined the gleam of satisfaction that entered the boy's face.
We don't want to waste time, Tea, said her feet. The girl shuddered, breathing harder, trying to imagine that she was only imagining the faces that seemed to be sprouting out of her shoes, leering at her. She lost her balance as the other foot shot out to join the first, just barely catching herself with her cane. Growing progressively louder, her heartbeat thundered in her ears, rampaging through her skull with the force of a scream.
What was she doing? Where was she?
"Come here, Tea," said the boy in front of her. With blurring eyes, she gawked at him, mind scrambling to identify this figure and why she wanted so badly to obey it.
"Rex?" her mouth asked for her, the name rasping out of her mouth in an ugly way. The girl felt that she couldn't breath. Everything was too much, too bright, too dark, too far away and too immediate.
"Go there, Tea," said her feet, and now they had eyes and mouths pressing up against the cloth of her socks, and she could see their tongues.
For a second, she wavered. Go here, Tea; come with us, Tea; let's do this, Tea. She was used to this. She was used to following others. But every so often, she would say
"No." The pressure behind her eyes increased as she said the word; her feet frowned up at her; the boy frowned across at her.
"But why?" they all questioned in eerie unison. "Come on, Tea." The voices merged into a melody so enticing that the girl almost wept. How could she deny this voice? So beautiful, so pure and perfect. Wasn't she a good person? To say no to this voice would be bad, bad
"Bad," she said, and she only knew that some secret part of her soul knew what she was talking about more than her mind did.
The boy and her feet snarled, and the girl clasped desperately onto her cane. "Get over here, girl," they whispered, breaking from former harmony into a discord so hideous that Tea really did weep from the pain of hearing it. It was broken glass and hate in her ears; it had sullied her just by existing near her.
"Shut up!" she shouted, and something revitalized in her spirit. Where was she? She had been with Rex-No. This-Rex...No. Without troubling her befuddled mind further, the girl knelt, clawing off her shoes and socks, baring her feet to the gray stones of the alleyway-no restaurant, just a dead end, oh help, she had been here before- and gazing in determined horror, and then horrified determination at the keening faces growing out of her feet like obscene weeds in a garden. Gritting her teeth, Tea ripped with her bare nails into her skin, digging down as blood welled around her fingers. She touched something scaly inside of her foot, wrapped her hand around it, and pulled. She wailed from the agony of it, and the face wailed too. Inch by inch she wrested the thing from her body, then flung it down to the ground, ignoring the furious screeches of the other foot-face in favor of the hands wrapping themselves around her nose and mouth.
She threw herself forward, disentangling herself from the attacker's grasp. Scrabbling backwards, she stared down the thing that had taken Rex's shape. It had two symmetrical sides, and Tea almost thought she had seen in somewhere before, with rags of faded cloth hanging from its frame. Two arms, two legs, two heads...no faces in either one. With a gasp, Tea realized that the faces in her feet had come from this...thing. Quickly, she worked to extract the other, dodging clumsily as the body of the thing swiped at her. She needed to stall it, or she would never be able to remove the second head. As she sought around for a weapon, she realized the other face still twitched and moaned. Biting her lip, the brunette threw herself at the lumbering body, dodging in between its legs and yanking on one of its ankles. With a groan from the face still in her foot- and she tried so hard not to scream at the thought, the thing fell.
Tea grabbed up her shoe and went to crush the first face, but could not help pausing. Oh heavens, the thing looked so strangely human...she didn't want to do this. Not again. But if she didn't, who would be its next target?
Numbly, she pressed her shoe to it, as it glared weakly up at her. "I'm sorry," she babbled. "But, unless you promise not to hurt anyone else, I will have to-erk!"
Her throat trapped in the clammy embrace of the creature's hands, Tea berated herself for waiting so long. As she was being dragged backwards, she kicked at the face. A tremor went through the beast, and the girl clawed herself loose. Desperately, she hurled herself at the face and crushed it with her bare hands. The face still lodged in her foot ululated with grief, just as the hulking body behind her lost a half of its locomotive functions. Tea sat, knowing that the main body would give her no more difficulties. She sobbed as she went back to digging the second face from her body; it twisted around inside her flesh to cause her as much pain as possible. It cursed and spat at her, great wads of purple spittle that soon littered the girl's hair and clothes. At last, the wretched thing came loose. With holes in her feet, Tea limped over to her abandoned cane. She had to move around the spasming body, and she rapidly lost the battle to not sick. She breathed bitterly, then raised her cane, winced back over to the face, and swung it down with such force that the sturdy wooden pole broke in two.
She stood like that for a minute, nearly hyperventilating, still holding on to the shattered cane, blood leaking from her feet and several abrasions on her body. Slowly, Tea tilted her head back, examining a faultless blue sky arching above the dingy backstreet she was on.
"I hate this," she said at last, and the only good thing to her at the moment was that at last there was silence enough for her to think and speak.
She was alive. Her injuries were less this time. Her friends were coming home.
She had killed something, someone again, and, to her strange relief, it felt just as horrible as the first time, if not worse.
AN: Yay! Thirteen pages to make up for the piddling two chappies before! Thanks so much for reading! Next time: Ryou is adorable; Mokuba is confused by having two brothers, and Duke is institutionalized for trying to marry his dark half(just kidding!)