Welcome back everyone! ^^

Lisa: . . . . You all are on my shit list now!

What'd my faithful readers do now?

Lisa: *glares* only one person (plus their hikari) gave me cake. No one else!

…. Is that it? If you wanna a cake, go make one yourself. You have two arms. Don't bother them with something as simple as that.

Lisa: Really? You'll let me make one?

Yeeeees…?

Lisa: :) Alright. But, if something happens, it's your fault. *Runs off to the kitchen*

….. o.o Ah crap. I just gave her permission to use the stove! And I just bought a new one! *Runs after* don't you touch my stove! Cook the cake in the microwave!

A random bug: Only Takahashi, Kazuki does!

Chapter fourteen:

Three long days passed by. Instead of getting better, our young dueler had been getting worse. He was still as pale as ever, but he was even more weaker and had to wear an oxygen mask most of the time since his air pipes was constantly clogged with blood. ((I guess)) At random times of the day, he would throw up mouthful after mouthful of blood that the doctors had to hook him up to a blood packet that was donated from a blood donor.

The doctors had tried for several days to come up with a cure, but everything they tried, failed. That didn't mean they gave up; they kept giving it their best. But, for now, all they could do was help ease his pain.

Seeing as today was Thursday, a school day, Ryou was at school. However, Tristan, Tea, and Joey were not; they were with Yugi all hours of the day. Yugi tried to persuade them into going, but they absolutely refused, giving him the excuse, "School can wait, you can't." Since they were there, Solomon had gone home to catch up on sleep and take some time to take care of the shop.

"Dude, this sucks!" Joey whined. He and Yugi were playing a standardized game of Duel Monsters and Joey was losing. "You're sick and what not, but you're still kicking my butt!"

Yugi softly laughed but it turned into a cough. "Yeah. No matter what state I'm in, my strategizing for dueling doesn't waver."

"You alright?" Tea asked as she handed him a cup of water. He nodded and gratefully took the cup and sipped the cool, refreshing liquid.

Tea sat on the edge of the bed and watched the two continue to play.

Tristan observed beside Joey. He had one hand holding his chin in a thinking way before patting the blonds back and smirked. "You are so going to lose man."

Joey shrugged away from the hand. "Don't you see I know that? But maybe . . ." He played a card face down but Yugi never got to see it because loud voices sounded on the outside of the hospital's room door before it opened.

"Just give me ten minutes! I'll be back out and then you can take me to jail or whatever." A familiar voice grumbled.

Yugi's eyes widened as he recognized who he voice belonged to. Even if you only heard the voice once, you would always be able to place where that deep husky voice too. And just like that, Coby walked into the room.

Coby, the buff, well built man, was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, a brown jacket, was clean shaved, his black hair that had grown out long was pulled back into a pony-tail, and his emerald eyes just as bright as before.

Yugi's friends looked over and Joey frowned and asked, "Who're you?"

"What're you doing here, Coby?" Yugi asked in a cautious voice, surprising the blond.

"Coby? You mean he's Coby?" Yugi nodded.

"Mr. Mutou, good to see you again." Coby greeted and walked towards the group till he stood in front of the bed. "Though, you don't look too good."

"I wonder why!" Joey growled ass he and Tristan jumped to their feet in a fighting stance as they glared at the man.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it there, blond-y," Coby held his hands up in a surrender like posture. "I'm only here to talk, nothing more."

"And why should we believe you?" Tea asked, crossing her arms against her chest.

Coby dropped his hands back down to his sides. "Because I have some good news . . . and bad."

Yugi tilted his head to the side, looking more like his curious self than someone on their sick bed. "Bad news? Like?"

The man frowned. "Well, Cassandra's been - -."

"- - missing and killing people... We know." Tristan spat while still glaring.

Coby rolled his eyes and continued. "Okay, you know that much. That was really the only bad news I had. The good news is your death has been moved until future notice."

Yugi raised an eyebrow. "Moved? What does that mean?"

"It means," he said as he reached into his brown jacket's pocket and pulled out a small, black object. Tristan and Joey tensed. "Relax boys." He tossed the object to Yugi who caught it. "That's the cure for the poison."

The black object was a small bag about the size of his palm. He slowly started to open it as he asked in a confused voice, "I thought you didn't have the cure."

"And how do we know we can trust you?" Tristan raised a brow.

"Just go look outside that'll tell you whether or not you can trust me. And we never said we didn't have the cure. We did, but, we didn't."

"That's contradicting." Tea said.

Coby nodded. "Yeah, I know. To explain, we had the ingredients' to make the cure, but we never made it, hence that we had it, but didn't have it. Well, until I made it, did we actually have it." He pointed to the little black bag.

"So, what's outside?" Joey asked, still not trusting the man.

"Who, rather than what, just the police. I turned myself in but on one request."

"To drop the cure off?"

"Bingo, Mr. Mutou. You were smart enough to escape so you should be allowed to live. Am I right?"

"Coby . . ." Yugi tried to say but was cut off.

"Just put the powder in a glass of water. And make sure you drink the whole thing. There's only enough there for one dose, but that's all you need. Like the plant, you only need one dose before it starts working." He shrugged just as a knock sounded on the door. He let out a sigh. "Well, my time is up. But, before I go, here," he pulled a purple envelope out from his jacket and handed it to Yugi. "That'll explain any questions you have."

Yugi took it just as the man turned to leave. "Coby?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He chuckled. "Sorry things happened the way they did. Well, see you whenever, kid."

"Mmm," The teens watched Coby walk out of the room. When the door clicked shut, everyone turned to look at the one in the hospital bed.

"That was him?"

"He looked kind of . . . tough." Tea nervously added.

Yugi shrugged. He put the envelope down and opened the little black bag. Inside the bag was a grainy, brown powder. He looked up in search for a glass of water when Tea handed him one.

"You sure that's safe?" She asked a bit skeptic.

He frowned and poured the contents into the water, swishing it around for the grainy powder to dissolve. The crystal clear water turned to a murky brown. "Only one way to find out."

'That looks gross.' The ever so quiet Yami observed.

Yugi took a small sip to try it and almost spit it out. He made a face and swallowed the liquid. "Yeah . . . it's gross." He commented before forcing himself to swallow the rest.

XxxxX

About ten-ish minutes later, Yugi finally drained the 'water'. He set the cup down and wanted to throw it back up. The cure tasted like dirty socks mixed into a pot of boiling mint leafs; a bad taste with a minty after taste. "Yuck . . ."

"Feel any better?" Tristan tentatively asked.

"What'd it taste like?" Joey asked out of curiosity.

Yugi shook his head, wanting to get rid of the taste that lingered in his mouth. "You soooooo do not want to know . . . trust me." Even though it tasted bad, he could feel it work almost immediately. His head stopped pounding and the shakes died down. His stomach didn't have the horrible feeling of something exploding anymore.

"Well what do you know, it actually works!" Tristan announced. "You're starting to look better, more healthier."

The smaller teen nodded. "And I'm starting to feel a bit better." It felt as though he drank an energy drink; he could feel energy and strength returning to his weak body.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Joey asked, pointing to the forgotten envelope in Yugi's lap.

Yugi nodded and opened his mail. There were two pieces of paper with black writing on both and a picture of a man, a woman, and a boy. He put the picture to the side and didn't notice a small piece of paper slip out of the envelope. He started to read the letter to himself . . .

Dear Mr. Mutou,

Sorry I couldn't talk to you in person, but, this was the best I could do.

To start things off, I have to apologize about the hell you've been through. You must have hated me for putting you through all of that torture, I mean; I hated doing it and watching it. But, I owed Cassandra, so I couldn't refuse.

Now that I've said that, I should probably explain.

Me and Cassandra, we are childhood friends. We've known each other since grade school and stayed very good friends up till middle school. By the time the end of High school came, our friendship crumbled. I got married and had a kid and she went off and got rich. I don't know exactly how, so don't ask. (Even though you can't)

Well, after many years, my son died of a disease . . . There was no helping him. He was only nine years old. His name was Marky.

After the funeral, my wife and I . . . well, we were devastated. Our little boy was taken from us. We tried to get on with our lives, but my wife kept getting more and more depressed with each passing day. Soon enough, she got sick. I had three jobs, and even with the money I was earning, I couldn't afford to pay for her cure or keep her in the hospital. It was just too expensive. That was when I remembered Cassandra becoming rich and famous. So, I gave her a call.

She said she would help and she gave me the money, but there was a catch. I was willing to do anything to save my wife so I said yes. She told me I had to work for her and you know what I mean by work.

I did what she asked without a complaint. I felt sorry for you boys but it was to save my wife. I did that for the past four years. That was until my wife died just a few months ago. She was in a car accident and . . . didn't make it.

After her funeral, I knew that I was going to have to continue to work for Cassandra for a bit longer. But, I told myself that I was gonna try and help y'all escape. But I didn't have to. Before I knew it, you, Mr. Mutou, helped everyone escaped.

Cassandra was very surprised to see that y'all escaped. She, how should I put this, was angry, surprised, and pleased. She's a woman, so they're very difficult to read. ((A/N Which I resent my own writing!))

Anyways, to fair warn you, Mr. Mutou, Cassandra will kill ya if you let your guard down. So, word of advice: Be alert at all time. That's all I really have to say and now you understand why I did what I did.

Take care of yourself.

~Coby Home

Yugi finished the letter and was speechless. He had no idea . . . He laid the paper down and picked the picture up to examine it.

Coby, looking just a bit younger, was smiling real big as he held a petite lady, must have been his wife, and in front of them stood a young boy. The lady came up to Coby's shoulder and had long, wavy black hair. She was wearing a spaghetti strap light blue sun dress with black closed flats. She was smiling and looked very beautiful. The little boy was a mini Coby, but just not as bulky and he had his mother's hazel eyes. Both males were dressed in black dress pants and white, long sleeved shirts. The background was a park with many huge oak trees, benches, a few scattered picnic tables, and bright green grass.

Yugi flipped the picture over and found writing on it.

Coby, Melissa, and Marky Home

May 19th, 2000. Family Picture

"What's it say, Yuge?" Joey asked from where he sat. He had moved over to the chair and sat down a moment ago while Yugi had been reading.

Yugi put the photo down and rubbed his sleepy eyes. "Why he did what he did . . ."

Tea moved closer to the bed. "Who's the photo of?" He handed her the picture. She examined it before flipping it over to read the names. "Marky Home . . . . That name sounds really familiar. Wait, wasn't he the little boy who died from a disease a few years ago?" Yugi nodded and she handed him the picture back.

"You know, I'm kind of curious about . . ." Yugi had started to say but his voice died down and his eyes drooped downwards.

"Yugi?" Tristan, who was standing next to him asked, confused. Being as quick as a teen could get, ((And being the first to see)) caught his falling friends as he started to sump forwards.

Joey jumped to his feet. "Whoa, what happened?" He watched Tristan lay their unconscious friend down on the bed.

Tea leaned over to check on him. "I think he just passed out." She placed her hand on his forehead. "No fever . . . I wonder what caused this? it's so sudden."

"I think I know," Tristan picked up a small piece of paper that hadn't been noticed by anyone off of Yugi's lap and read it aloud, " 'Just so you know, the cure will knock you out for about a day or two. ~Coby. P.S. It will taste really gross, but it should start to work as soon as it hits your system.'"

"Glad he didn't tell us before hand . . ." Joey griped.

XxxxX

Till next time!

So… How was it? ^^ Sorry it was short!

R&R please!