Hey everyone! Glad that you could join us again! Sorry I took a while in updating!

Lisa: …. Did you bring any cake?

Why do you want cake?

Lisa: Why wouldn't I want cake? Cake is amazing and delicious and chocolaty and - -

Alright, alright, I get it. You're making me hungry now…. T.T

Lisa: :) that's what I hoped. So, anyone got any cake?

Probably not….

Lisa…. That's depressing and here we give them an interesting story, and they can't even supplies up with cake!

Well, that supplies us with reviews! =^.^=

Lisa….. That ain't the same!

Oh, boo hoo for you. Just do the disclaimer or I'll have to do it…

Lisa: …. You always do it; I don't see why I have too. But, anyways, Kairi don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or my name would be Walt Disney. -,-

Chapter thirteen:

Pain. There are many forms of it; a feeling of discomfort, unpleasant physical sensation, emotional distress and many more. Pain is what the brain sends out through your nerves when you get hurt. Pain is not something you want to undergo, but no matter what, you'll always witness it. Every day of your life, you always get hurt; even if it's the smallest ant bite or scratch, its still pain.

His whole body was in pain. It felt like someone had plunged a knife into him many times over and over again and then sliced open his skin. It felt like he went through hell and back, many times over. It felt like he wanted to throw up his whole insides, from the liquids to his organs and lungs. What a great surprise to wake up to.

Yugi blinked his eyes open slowly. His head felt foggy and heavy, as well as the rest of his body. He wanted to closed his eyes again and fall back to sleep, but he suddenly had a panicked feeling. Where was he?

He was lying on a bed with a few blankets over him. The room was small but not too small. A few chairs, a TV up on the wall, and a roll-y table were the only furniture in the room besides the bed. The table was right next to the bed holding a pitcher of water and an empty cup next to it. He moved his head around and noticed a window with the curtains drawn closed. A long metal stick with a bag of clear liquid to it had a cord leading down and seemed to be attached to the cock of his elbow. He could feel a cord on his face, meaning it was the oxygen cord.

'You're in the hospital.'

Yugi nearly jumped out of the bed. Yami appeared from the millennium puzzle, which was on the bed next to Yugi, in his transparent form. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching him with a concerned, but relieved look to his eyes.

"Y-Yami!" Yugi breathed out, trying to recover from his shock.

'I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you.' The pharaoh bit the inside of his cheek.

Yugi shook the apology off with a shake of his head. "It's alright. But, why am I in the hospital?" He slowly sat up and had to lean against the wall behind him for support. A soft beeping reached his ears and he turned to look at what the noise belonged to. A heart rate monitor was right next to the metal pole, telling him that he was indeed beeping.

Yami put a hand on Yugi's shoulder, immediately getting the other male's attention. 'Aibou, the poison in your body, the doctors cannot find a cute for it. That's why you are in the hospital.' Yugi's eyes widen just a tad.

The poison was the stupid plant Cassandra had bought in Egypt to make his and Yami's connection impossible to talk to each other. The plant messed with your brain after the first time you take it and continues to grow. If you stop taking it, your body will go through different stages until you die.

Yugi opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when the door to the room clicked open. In walked a quiet blond and two brunettes, each casting their eyes downward.

"– I don't know," Tristan muttered, answering someone's question that was probably asked just before.

"But, how - -," Tea started to say when, weird enough, all three teens looked up at the same time. When they saw their small friend awake, their eyes widened in joy.

"Yugi!" They shouted in unison and ran over to the hospital bed. Joey, who was a half step in the lead threw himself at a startled Yugi before Tea and Tristan was there all enclosing the smaller boy in a group hug.

"Yugi! Y-you're awake!" Tea squeaked through newly found tears.

"Dude, we almost thought you were a goner." Tristan got hit on the head by Joey.

"I didn't! I knew he was going to pull through!"

Before Yugi got squished into a hug, Yami had gotten up and leaned against the wall as he watched the happy scene on the sidelines.

"Uh . . . guys? Need air . . . now," Quickly, the three teens let their small friend go. "Thanks," He glanced around his friends to find that they each had tears glistening in their eyes.

"Are . . . are you alright?" Tea sniffed.

He nodded. "Yeah, but just a bit lightheaded."

"Dude, we thought you were a goner." Tristan repeated his line from earlier, though it sounded more sad. At this, the other two, plus Yami (Remember, no one can see him because Yugi is back….. don't know why ^^) became very silent. The only noise in the room was the heart monitor going beep beep beep and people's uneven breathing.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked, slightly confused.

Joey cleared his throat and explained, "When we first saw you, Yuge, you were passed out. I mean, who wouldn't of have? You had a really high fever and were really, really pale. I don't know how you managed to even be outside, much less running."

"The doctors," Tea started. "They don't know what to do. They know you have a fever, but something else is causing you to be this sick. They said they never seen anything like this so they don't know what kind of cure to give you."

Yugi looked down at the hands in his lap. His left hand was curled tightly into a fist so you couldn't see the mark that would always haunt him, while his other hand remained open, lying flat on the bed. "That's because they probably don't know where the poison came from." He whispered.

There was a pause and everyone glanced at each other in confusion while Yugi stared at his bedding. Then, Tristan asked, "What poison? How do you know that?"

The heart monitor stared to beep a little faster and louder as Yugi grabbed the side of his head. His eyes squeezed shut as pain suddenly abruptly exploded in his head.

"Yugi?" All three friends asked in a perplexed way, confused by his actions.

Yami looked up. 'Yugi? What's wrong?' He walked around his friends to his light and laid a transparent hand on his shoulder.

"My . . . head . . . hurts." He murmured through clenched teeth.

"Someone go get the doctor!" Joey yelled. Tristan nodded before spiriting towards the door and out into the hallway.

"C'mon, Yuge, just . . . just try to block the pain out." Joey tried to instruct, but failed. "Just hold on until the doctor comes."

Yugi tried to nod his head, but couldn't. Everywhere in his body was screaming out pain. From the tips of his toes to the top of his head. He could feel something in the pit of his stomach turn, which probably wasn't a good sign.

" . . . Joey," Yugi managed to say through his tightly clenched teeth,

The blond was instantly at his side. "Yeah?"

"Don't . . ."

"Don't what, Yuge?"

Yami watched with pain-filled eyes. Here he was again and he couldn't even help. He closed his eyes and transferred his soul back to the Millennium Puzzle. Seconds after his arrival, he reopened his eyes and made a mad dash towards his soul room door, yanked it open, and ran to his partner's room.

"Yugi!" He ran towards his hikari who was lying in the middle of the room. On his knees, Yami pulled his light into his arms. "Yugi, wake up! Please, don't fall asleep," his voice was desperate.

"Mmm," The boy's eyes fluttered open. ""I'll . . . try . . ." His voice was weak and shaky. "Just, everything . . . hurts so . . . much,"

The darker half nodded, not sure what he could do to help.

Back to the others:

A doctor walked into the room, followed by a shaky Tristan. Yugi was barely holding on to consciousness as he continued to clutch the sides of his head.

"What happened?" The doctor asked. He walked calmly over to the side where the hearts rate monitor was.

"I – we don't know," Tea said. "When we were in here, Yugi was awake. We didn't get to talk for very long before the monitor started to beep faster and he's well . . . like this!"

The doctor nodded before softly addressing his patient. "Mr. Mutou, can you hear me?" The tri-hair nodded. "Good. Now, where does it hurt the most?"

" . . . Head,"

The doctor nodded once again and reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled a syringe out. The object was filled with a clear liquid. "I'm going to knock you out so the pain will go away, is that alright with you?" Yugi bobbed his head up and down so the doctor ever so carefully poked the needle into the tube that was connected to Yugi from the liquid bag on the stand. ((I guess…))

Within seconds, the hospitalized teen started to go limp as the drug took its affect. Joey and the doctor caught him and gently laid him back down on the bed.

"The drug should last about an hour or so," The doctor said, now messing with the monitor, changing something.

"Did you ever find out what's been causing all of this?" Tea asked, watching her friend's uneven breathing.

The man turned to look at her. "I'm afraid we haven't. We're running tests and trying to do some research, but, so far, no luck."

"Yugi mentioned it was a poison before I went to go find you." Tristan added, thinking it would be useful.

Clearly, it was. The doctor had on a surprised look. "Poison? Did he say anything else?" The three shook their heads. "Oh, well, alright. This information could be of help.

XxxxX

About an hour had passed and their friend still hadn't awakened. The three friends thought it was best to stay in the hospital just in case. They called Solomon and Ryou, who wanted to be notified if there were to be any changes. So now, all five of them were in Yugi's small hospital room just chilling and waiting for their loved one to wake up.

Tea was sitting at the foot of the bed, reading a book and every so often, would glance up at her childhood friend. Solomon and Ryou were watching TV, with the sound on low, and were talking about the Game Shop. And Joey and Tristan were playing a standard game of duel monsters on the floor.

"I swap my Panther Warrior and Rocket Warrior for Jinzo, use his special effect to get rid of your trap card, and last but certainly not least, use my Thousand Year Dragon to defeat your Two-Headed Dragon." Joey declared, ending the game. He smiled in victory as Tristan bowed his head in defeat.

"The third time in a row," The brunette whined. He gathered up all of his cards before getting to his feet. "All this losing is making me hungry."

Joey nodded in agreement. "And all this winning is making me hungry!" Tristan hit his arm when the blond stood up but didn't say anything. Joey turned to address everyone in the room, "We're going down to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Y'all want somthin'?"

Tea shook her head without looking up from her book and Ryou also shook his head. Solomon, however, stood up.

"I'll go buy some dinner for everyone; you boys just sit back down." He said in a rather tired voice. Since he found out Yugi had been found he hadn't been getting that much sleep. He was staying at the hospital twenty-four seven when Yugi was still in the coma and the day he went home, forced by Tea, his grandson woke up.

"You sure? We don't mind going." Tristan asked and the older man nodded.

After he left, everyone went back to chilling. Tristan took Solomon's empty chair and started to watch TV and Joey sat back down on the ground, leaning against the wall for support. He started to flip through his cards.

"Mmn . . ."

Tea looked up from her book and over to her friend. She blinked then smiled. "You alright, Yugi?"

He was blinking his eyes open and slowly nodded his head.

The three boys glanced up before getting to their feet. Suddenly, Yugi was surrounded by his friends.

"You sure you're alright?" Tristan asked, watching him carefully. "No pain?"

"N-not really," Yugi mumbled, his voice sounding a bit groggily. "A bit . . . numb? But no pain." He struggled to sit but couldn't, resulting in someone helping him, "I feel weak . . ."

After Tristan helped him sit up, he let a pain filled sigh. "Okay, never mind; the pain's coming back. But, not as bad." He quickly continued when he saw the alarm in everyone's eyes.

"Do you need me to go get the doctor, Yugi?" Ryou asked in his soft voice.

"I'm alig - -," the boy stopped mid-sentence when he saw his silver haired friend. "R-Ryou?"

"Yes?"

"Y-you're still here . . . you're not gone!" Yugi said, shocked to see the holder of the Millennium Necklace still here.

Everyone looked as confused as Ryou who answered, "No, I'm not. I'm still here . . ."

Yugi recovered from his shock and shook his head. "S-sorry, Ryou. It's just a good thing to see you again."

"What're you talking about, Yuge?" Joey questioned.

Before the boy could explain himself, the door opened and a familiar elderly man walked in, holding a big brown sack in his arms. When he closed the door behind himself and looked over and saw the teens crowding the bed, he let out a tiny gasp that you wouldn't have noticed if you were not watching him.

Yugi's face seemed to brighten up the whole room. "Jii-chan!"

Solomon set the bag down on an empty chain before making his way to his grandson's bedside. Joey and Tristan quickly stepped aside.

"Yugi!" He exclaimed through tears of joy, he hugged his grandson tightly who hugged him back. "Oh, thank Ra; I thought I'd never see you again!"

Tears were sliding down Yugi's own face as he buried his face in his grandpa's shoulder. "I missed you so much, Jii-chan." He hiccupped.

The four friends stepped back and watched the reunion quietly. Tea had tears sliding down her face, but wiped them away.

A few minutes later, they finally pulled apart, smiling and wiping their tear-stained faces.

"Y-you've grown," Solomon laughed, producing his own small hiccup.

Yugi sniffed and laughed softly. "I g-guess. Haven't really noticed."

Solomon nodded and sat down on the bed with his grandson. "When did you wake up?"

"Um . . . about . . ." He felt a light head-ache form in his head and he ignored it. "Like, ten-ish minutes ago?"

"Yeah, it was about the time you left." Tea added.

Solomon nodded before remembering the brown bad he had brought in. "That's right, I brought everyone something." He looked from the bag on the chair to Yugi, "Are you hungry?"

Yugi thought about it as a faint growl erupted from his tummy. A blush appeared upon his cheeks as everyone in the room laughed. "I guess I am. The last time I ate was . . . the day I escaped. Wait, how long was I out for?" He asked, realizing how hungry he was.

"Well . . . an hour plus three days." Tristan answered.

Yugi blinked in disbelief.

"Well, you were in a really bad condition with the high fever and everything" Tea explained, "The doctor's thought you had gone into a coma so your immune system could fight off whatever was going on."

"Coma?"

"Yes, it was really, really bad."

The smaller teen closed his eyes. His mind kept switching to what Cassandra had told him to the different stages he's going to go through.

'You first get a bad head-ache . . .' he thought, 'and with that, you'll feel like you want to thrown up your insides. Well, I know I already passed the first stage, even though I'm still in it. The second part was to get a fever, a high fever . . . apparently that already passed. Then, what was it that she said happened after?'

"Um . . . Yugi? Are you alright?" Ryou asked, breaking his train of thought.

He blinked his eyes open. "Y-yeah, I - -," Then he realized that he was shaking badly. "- -Was thinking about something."

"That must have been some thinking," Joey observed. Yugi nodded.

'Then you'll start coughing up blood ((Puking wise)) until you die of blood loss.'

The shaking came to a still as the though came to him. He could feel whatever blood he had in his cheeks drain as he went pale. Though, no one noticed because he was already pale, except for one person.

'Yugi, are you alright?' Yami asked from the puzzle. He could feel the distress coming from his light easily.

Yugi didn't answer as his mind switched to something else. To protect the mind and body, the brain started to think of happy things. Other things like - -

He looked down and noticed that he was wearing the hospital's clothing; a light blue shirt and what felt like sweatpants. The material was nice, light, and soft, reminding him of back when he was a little kid.

Looking back up, he found his friends, well, the three boys, digging into the brown food bag. Tea was watching him closely with concerned eyes but didn't say anything and Grandpa was watching the three boys with an amused expression.

"What, what happened to the clothes I was wearing before?" Yugi asked to who-ever was paying attention.

"Um . . ." Tea frowned before standing up from the bed and walked over to the recliner in the corner. There, she lifted a nicely folded bundle of clothes. "We didn't know what to do with them," she said as she walked back over and handed the clothes back to their owner. "So we kept them, in case."

Yugi nodded his thanks and took the bundle. He set them down on his lap and dug his hand through both of the jeans pockets before finding what he was looking for.

Joey came over with a sandwich with a big bite missing in one hand, and three still wrapped sandwiches in the other.

"Whatcha got there, Yuge?" He asked through a mouth full of food. He handed an unwrapped sandwich to the others, Yugi, Tea, and Solomon.

"Um . . ." Yugi started to say. He took the food and placed it on his lap. Slowly, still sitting up, he brought his legs up so he could cross them. The others gathered around his bed and watched with curious eyes. In Yugi's hand was a crumpled piece of paper. "I promised someone I'd call them to tell them I got back okay."

'You think she's going to be mad that you didn't call her right away?' Yami chuckled as materialized out of the puzzle and leaned against the wall next to his partner.

Yugi thought for a second before thinking back, /I hope not, but there's only one way to know./

As everyone found a place to sit, Yugi reached for the phone and dialed the number on the paper. No more than three rings and a familiar female voice picked up. Yugi's face brightened up as he muttered into the phone, "Alex? This is Yugi." His friends and Grandpa looked up.

"Yugi?" The other line spoke before yelling, "Oh thank Ra! I thought she got you! Why didn't you call me sooner?"

Scared by the sudden outburst, he fumbled with the phone. Joey raised an eyebrow and Yami chuckled. "S-sorry, Alex. Um . . . something came up and - -,"

"Something came up? More important than calling me to tell me that you were all right and safe?" He could hear the hurt and worry in her voice as she tried to call down. Ina smaller voice, she whispered, "Yugi, I thought she came after you . . . I thought . . . I thought you . . ." And now she was crying.

Yugi's eyes widened with guilt. "No, Alex. I assure you, I'm okay. I got back safely and - -," Again, he was cut off, but by different voice.

"Yugi, have you talked to the police yet?" No mistaking it, it was Krissy.

"Hey, Krissy, and . . . no, I haven't. Er . . . not yet, that is." He replied honestly. "To tell you the trust, I've been in the hospital and - -,"

"What?" Both girls shouted in the phone, resulting Yugi having to pull the phone an inch or two from his ear.

Those who had looked away, to either watch the television that was still on or read a book, turned back. Apparently, the girls yelled very loudly.

"Who're you talking to?" Ryou asked.

"Um . . . two friends that I made back at - -,"

"Yugi, is your grandfather there?" Krissy suddenly asked.

Yugi looked to his grandpa who was sitting on his chair watching TV. "Yes, why - -,"

"Give him the phone, please."

"Um . . . Jii-chan?" The elder looked over. "My friends, they wanna talk to you." Yugi said with a frown. He handed the phone out.

Grandpa looked a bit surprised, yet understood and took the phone from his grandson. "Hello, this is Solomon Mutou."

'They are not happy with you, Aibou.' Yami observed.

/Apparently. But, it wasn't my fault, was it?/

Yami walked over to his light and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. 'No, it was Cassandra's. Don't worry about it, you can tell them why you didn't' call them right away. They'll understand.' Yugi nodded.

"You see, Yugi has been out cold for the past few days and - - no, no. We think he's fine. - - Yes, you see, we don't actually know what's wrong with him - - yes, they're trying. He just woke up today so we haven't been able to contact them. - - - Mmm hmm. Don't worry; we're taking care of him. - - - No-no, no need to come down." Grandpa tired to explain but kept getting cut off. He nodded and sighed before handing the phone back to his grandson. "They're very worried."

When Yugi put the receiver back to his ear, his two friends were talking quietly to each other. He cleared his throat, interrupting them.

"Yugi!" Both girls squealed. "Why didn't you tell us you were in the hospital?"

"You didn't let me," he lightly chuckled, but a cough interrupted him.

" . . . You okay?"

"Yeah, no worries." Yugi said. He coughed again and covered his mouth. When the coughing came to a stop, he pulled back and felt something warm and wet stuck to his palm. He opened his closed hand and had to stifle a gasp before quickly closing hi hand again. Sitting in a small puddle in his hand was a think, red liquid. Blood.

"You sure?" Alex asked, snapping his attention away from the blood.

"Y-yeah." No one seemed to notice because they went back to doing whatever, except for Yami, but he didn't say anything. "Did you talk with the police yet?"

"Yeah, they interviewed all of us and - -,"

"Then called the police where - -,"

"Cassandra lives. The police there - -,"

"Surrounded her house and searched it from - -,"

"Top to bottom . . . but didn't find her." The two said, finishing each other's sentences without even realizing it, and totally confusing him.

Recovering from his confusion fast, Yugi's eyes widened. "Wait, what do you mean didn't find her?"

"I mean, she wasn't there."

"It was like she vanished into thin air." They both sounded disappointed. "But, we know she's out there; stalking us."

"Waiting for us to be alone." Alex said her voice grim.

"How do you - -,"

"Know?" Krissy guessed. "It's been all over the news." Yugi looked up to see the TV to see it on commercial.

"Apparently, Cassandra's been going to each of our houses and killing us." Krissy said quietly, her voice growing thick with emotions.

"Killing?" Yugi squeaked.

For the millionth time that day, everyone looked up, though Joey said, "Hey put the phone on speaker. I wanna know what's going on."

Yugi obeyed and put the phone on speaker. "You're live, guys," he mumbled.

"Hey, Yugi's loved ones. I'm Alex."

"I'm Krissy, hey."

Joey, Tea, Tristan, and Ryou all introduced themselves.

"So, what did you mean by killing?" Tea asked, loud enough for her voice to be carried to the phone.

"How do we explain this . . ." Alex mumbled to no one in particular. "Cassandra, the one who imprisoned us, wasn't caught by the police. She somehow got away before the police went looking." Upon hearing this again, Yugi looked down at his bed, glaring.

"And when she got away, we soon found out that she was in Tokyo." Krissy added.

Tristan spoke up, "And how do you know that?"

"She's been targeting us, one by one."

Complete silence filled both sides.

"What do you mean?" Ryou asked a couple of minutes of silence.

Alex sighed. "She's been leaving notes for everyone she's visited. Saying . . . well, in the most part - -,"

"That if she couldn't have him,"

"No one could." The two best friends started to finish each other's sentences again.

"Who has . . . she killed so far?" Yugi asked quietly, feeling his gut twist painfully in his stomach.

" . . . Sokko, Leon, Sai, . . . Tiler . . . and,"

"Dixie." Krissy finished on a sadden note.

Yugi closed his eyes and asked, "What about Devin?" When there was silence, his eyes flashed open. "What about Devin?" Panic was making itself known in his mind. His gut continued to twist even tighter, that he was afraid that it would burst if it didn't stop.

"Yugi?" Tea gently said, noticing her friend's panic.

"Don't worry, Yugi, I'm alright!" A sudden cheerful voice piped up.

Yugi suddenly let out a sigh of relief and weakly mumbled, "Don't ever scare me like that again, guys." His body relaxed its tense position some, but his left hand gripped the bed unnoticed.

He put the phone off of speaker and talked with the three for a while longer. They talked about re-uniting with their families and explained to the police what had happened.

Finally, when he hung up, Yugi leaned against the wall and squeezed his eyes shut. His chest felt like it would burst open and his head felt like someone was hitting it with a sledge hammer.

'You alright?' Yami asked.

/Y-yeah, j-just hurting a l-lot./ He managed to think back, even though it hurt.

Alarm flashed through the spirit's eyes and he moved to look at his light. 'Just take it easy, you've had an eventful day.'

Yugi barely shook his head. "I don't think it's that . . ." He said aloud, getting everyone's attention again.

Tea, who had started to read again when Yugi was on the phone, closed her book and stood up from the bed.

"You alright there, Yugi?" Tristan asked.

Said boy shook his head. The monitor that kept his heart rate in check started to beep a little faster. He let out a weak whimper as his body started to shake and he started to cough. The coughing was loud and scratchy; sounding like a bunch of needles was being stuffed down his throat.

"Yugi?" One of his friends voice started to drip with concern.

Before any of them could move so much an inch, the door to the room opened and a petite lady walked in. The nurse walked over to her patient without saying a word to anyone. She stopped right next to the boy and started to check his vital signs. ((I think))

"Mr. Mutou, where does it hurt the most?" She asked in a soft but firm voice.

Yugi tired to speak, but his coughing got worse. His whole body was wracking with convulsions as he fought for air.

The nurse quickly looked up at the monitor before muttering to herself. Looking as though she knew what she was doing, she reached under the bed and pulled a small red bucket out. She handed it to the boy just in time.

Blood had started to spew from the corners of his mouth as he tried to keep it closed. He had to cover his mouth with his hand so the blood wouldn't come pouring out. And right when the bucket was handed to him, a bloody vomit filled its space.

The nurse quickly shooed everyone out of the room so she could take care of her patient.

Out in the hallway, Joey leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "He ain't tellin' us something."

"What do you mean?" Tea asked, skeptically.

"Remember when he passed out on us before the first time?" The group gathered around him with Tea and Tristan nodding. Ryou and Solomon shook their heads but wanted him to continue. "Well, we were talking about why he was in the hospital. We told him the doctor's didn't know what was wrong with him and why he was so sick, when he said . . . damn it, what he say?" he cussed.

"He said they didn't know where the poison came from." Tristan remembered.

"Poison?" Ryou asked as his fingers started messing around with the Millennium Ring. "How did he know its poison?"

"That's what we wanted to know. Before he could explain, we had to get a doctor because he started feeling bad." Tea remarked.

Solomon nodded, seeming worried. "When he's ready, he'll tell us."

XxxxX

Once the nurse left with the bucket, she allowed the visitors back in, but not before saying, "He's getting worse, so don't put any strain on him."

Yugi looked even worse than before when they walked back into the room. He was lying down now with an oxygen mask over his mouth. His eyes looked feverish, but when the group walked in, the look in his eyes brightened up some.

Solomon rushed to his grandson's side. "Are you alright, Yugi?"

"Mm hmm," Was all he could make out.

"What . . . what happened?" Ryou asked. He stood at the foot of the bed, his forehead creased in worry.

Yugi tried to sit up, but was too weak so he stayed down. He took the mask off before saying in a raspy voice, "So I don't confuse you, I'm going to have to explain things. I'm the only one who can, and I better tell you before I become silent forever," ((So dramatic!))

"What do you mean, 'silent forever'?"

He took a shallow breath of air and winced from the pain before explaining, "R-remember when I told you the reason the doctor's didn't know what was wrong with me was because of a poison? Well, it is. I didn't even know that I was taking poison at the time."

"What do you mean?" Tea asked, frowning, "You didn't know you were taking it?"

He slowly shook his head. "No . . ."

"How'd you find out?" Tristan inquired.

"Cassandra told me herself . . ." He mumbled. "I don't exactly know if she intended on telling me. She was kind of drunk at the time. Kind of.

"The poison, like I mentioned before, well, you only have to take it once before your body becomes addicted to it. If you stop taking it, you start to feel really bad. To explain how you feel is like getting a head-ache only worse." He paused, remembering what he had gone through, what he still is going through. "Well, the head-ache will continue on, each day getting worse. Then the next thing you start to experience is the high fever. Which lasts a long time. And last, but not least, is - -,"

"Let me guess, coughing up blood?" Joey guessed.

"Till you die of blood loss." Yugi finished and looked away.

"Is there no cure?" Solomon looked horrified. Here he just got his grandson back and then he might lose him forever.

The tri-hair shook his head. "If there was, she never told me."

Yami's voice drifted into his hikari's mind. 'You know, you're going to have to tell them, the whole story, Aibou."

/I know./ he thought back. /But, would they still . . . I don't know, look at me the same? Treat me the same?/ he felt fear well up in the pit of his stomach.

'Yugi, they aren't the kind of friends to just push you aside. They love you, no matter what you've been through.'

The young teen mentally nodded his head and looked up to meet his friends' eyes. "You all are probably curious about what happened to me for the last year and a half."

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Yugi." Tea said, even though she was dying to know what happened to her childhood friend.

Yugi shook his head. "No, it's important . . ." So he told them his story. He started off on the night where everything began to everything else that happened. For their own good, and his, he didn't do into too much detail, unless they were important.

The group stayed quiet throughout the whole story. Their eyes widened in horror at a few points in time; Yugi saw both Joey and Tristan clench their fists and Tea give off a silent gasp. When he got to the part about being burned, [He even showed them his mark] Grandpa, Joey, and Yami had their eyes narrowed.

"When I find that son of a bitch, I'm gonna kill him!" Joey vowed.

Yugi smiled weakly. "Yeah, but Coby did let us go. And he was following orders from Cassandra." Joey only nodded and let his friend continue.

Throughout the rest of the story, Yugi watched his friends carefully. Ryou, on the part when Yugi described that he was going to be next victim, paled and looked like he was having a conversation with his own yami, Bakura. Tea had tears in her eyes and had to sit down on a chair before she fell down. Joey started to glare out the opened window and watched as the sun was setting very quickly like it didn't want to be up in the sky any longer. Solomon and Tristan didn't say anything and they did a good job at hiding their emotions.

"I had promised Alex and Krissy I'd talk with the police right when I made it in Domino. But, as you know, I passed out right when I found them." He finished.

Ryou thought for a minute. "So you found your way to the police because Yami was helping you?"

Yugi smiled. "Yup. Apparently, we both thought it was just a random person in our heads and we talked to them. "

"So . . . that's what happened to you?" Tristan asked quietly. The tri-hair boy nodded and looked down at his fists in his lap.

"I know that what happened to me was bad and everything," Yugi started off quietly, his voice small, "But, I'm still the same person . . . kind of." He looked up with tears in his eyes. "I - -,"

"I know what you're getting' at, and don't." Joey cut him off. "Whatever happened to you, we don't care. You're still you, no matter what. You'll always be our short, kick-everyone's-butt-in-games, Yugi."

Suddenly, Yugi was crushed into a group hug. None of them cared that he was raped multiple times, well, they do, but . . . yeah, you get the point. All that mattered was that he was home, alive, and breathing. Even if it was only for now.

XxxxX

Well, there you have it! Next chapter should be up soon!

Sorry that took so long, but I hoped this length made up for it! ^^ The next chapter, hopefully, should be up soon!