A/N: Almost at 100 reviews, guys! I've got so many OCs from you! Which is brilliant, they're all being conversation snippeted right now XD

You still have time to get your character questions in too!

Thank you all for being such amazing readers! It's getting closer to a year's worth of writing and reviewing with every day, and I just want to say thank you again!

On another note, since I've gotten so many questions as to what Sophie looks like, I went and made her likeness! If you go to my profile, under the TV Tropes link, it says "BEHOLD SOPHIE GRACE MCCALLAGHAN." If you can't figure out what that link leads to. Get out. Get out of reading my fic right now. XDD

~Ava

~XxX~

Teá and I barely spoke the night before, she basically read my mind, after blearily opening the door, she shoved the blue fleece throw that was at the end of ever bed at me and I made my way over to the sofa, re-arranging the cushions and barely having the sentience to pull my shoes off before crashing out. I was suddenly shattered, the fatigue of running cramped my legs as I tried to sleep and when I woke up the following morning I surmised that running for so long was the new devil. Speaking of waking, I woke up at eight thirty, giving me five-ish hours of sleep, so it was no wonder that all I did was stumble back to my room (quietly, I didn't want to wake up my best-friend) to brush my teeth, shower and then wander into the main room for a cup of coffee.

That was two hours ago.

~XxX~

"SOPHIE!" I heard Teá's voice from behind me seat as I flicked through various TV channels of utter uselessness. I jumped in my spot, feeling a hug around my neck before my friend plonked herself next to me.

"Good morning?" I ventured, wondering why she was so utterly perky right now without the aid of caffeine. I really was jealous of her for that, and then I remembered-

"Happy Birthday!" Teá smiled at me as I set my coffee down. I had forgotten what number this was. She hugged me again and this time I hugged her back, her smile being infectious.

"Thank you!" I said as I returned the hug, "I guess I wasn't thinking about that right now." I added, pulling back and picking up my coffee again, taking a sip. Teá narrowed her eyes at me faux angrily.

"Put that down." She said, pointing to my coffee. I hesitated before complying.

"Wh-HEY!" I had started to ask a question, but she'd shoved me in the arm so hard I nearly fell off the couch.

"How could you almost forget your birthday!" Was the indignant reply.

"Wh-I didn't forget it per say, I just…was thinking about other things." Other…blue-eyed, annoying, tall, jerk-arse things that had wandered into the main room fifteen minutes after me and disappeared into his office. The only reason I felt safe enough to stay alone in the main room. Damnit.

"Oh? And what would these other things be? Would they be the same things that made you wander into my room so you could sleep on the couch?" Teá crossed her arms and nailed me with a look that clearly meant 'explain'. I was being nailed with that look a lot recently.

"Uhh…Now, I don't want you to worry or anything but…" I tailed off, trying to think how to word what I had to say next, "But…Marik, kinda wants to kill me in front of the Pharaoh..." I ran through the sentence in one long breath. Teá went from 'explain to 'well fuck' in 0.6 seconds.

"And you know this…how?" She asked tentatively. As I sighed and picked up my coffee again, a nervous reflex.

"I…kinda…bumped into him…in the hospital wing…"

"Why were you in the hospital wing?"

"Uhh…stomach pains?" Fortunately, 'stomach pains' was a universally recognised female code and Teá got the idea.

"Ahh."

"Mmm."

"But why did you hang around?" She asked a question that made me squirm uncomfortably in the sofa. I always felt odd telling other people that I talked to a person in a coma. Always, even my own Mother.

"I…was talking to Mai." I said, glancing over at Teá. Even though I knew that she of all people wouldn't scoff and laugh at me, I still felt weird saying it out loud. Her expression softened as she sighed sadly.

"Speaking of her, Joey just told me that he's going to duel Marik to get her soul back." I sat bolt upright at Teá's words, slamming my coffee down on the table and yelping.

"HE WHAT?" Teá clamped both hands around my upper arms, steadying me and forcing me to look into her eyes.

"You can't tell him I told you and you can't yell it out loud!" She seemed to hold back a laugh at her last words as I calmed my voice, mind still racing.

"But he can't!" I hissed quietly, "Marik's a classic Androphonomaniac! That means he has extreme homicidal insanity!" I quoted my textbook verbatim, too nervous to put it into my own words.

"Sophie, do you remember what I said when Joey decided to duel Odion-"

"-He thought he was Marik too."

"Yes, but do you remember what I told you?" I cast my mind back, remembered, and sighed defeatedly.

"It's his choice and we have to support him in his choice. God I hate you when you're speaking sense." I sighed again and smirked behind my hand as Teá processed what I just said, I felt another shove, this one less forceful than the last. I looked up and smiled.

"Ooh! Ahh crap." Teá's eyes lit up before she cursed.

"What?"

"Your birthday present." She started as I choked on my coffee, she laughed, "What? I shop early. Anyway, it's back on land." Teá said, pointing at the floor of the blimp. "At the back of my wardrobe…But still! You're here! Not there!" She bit her lip, "How'd you think your Mom's feeling?" I winced behind the cardboard cup.

"I'm sure my Mum," I over-enunciated the 'u' and looked pointedly at Teá, who shooed with her hand. I smirked before becoming mildly serious again. "I'm sure she's fine, working, chatting with Sandra, playing with the girls and generally cursing my name to the dust. She'll be fine once I get back, of course, she'll probably ground me for the rest of my life, but, what the hey." I shrugged, "It's not l-" My eyes widened as I made a connection in my mind.

"What?"

"Berightback." I spat out the words, already at the other side of the room and storming into the room with the person I had be avoiding thinking directly about.

"Private office. I'm sure I've said this before." Kaiba didn't even look round at my dramatic entrance.

"Shutup." I waved my hands frantically, needing an answer as quickly as possible. "Is any of this, this finals thing, televised?"

"Yes, Callaghan. Of course it is. Though the energy disruptions whenever a God Card is played is an extreme annoyance." He hissed through his teeth at the mention of some of his precious tech having a weakness and/or failing. I, however, slumped slightly.

"She'll have seen some of it then…she's a gun-jumper…she'll think we're all…yeah. That's not good." I was muttering to myself now as I leant against the wall next to the door, which had closed behind me. I buried my face in my hands. "This is so very, very not good."

"I doubt your Mother thinks you dead, Callaghan." Came the reply from in front of me. I glanced up and lowered my hands. Kaiba had turned his chair round to face me and had raised his eyebrow at my mutterings.

"You have ears like a bat." I muttered again and saw a twitch of a smirk. I became instantly defiant at his self-satisfied smugness. "And what makes you think that?" I folded my arms, mirroring him, "You don't know my Mother! You have no idea as to how much she jumps to conclusions!" I remembered a certain incident three years back which was best left forgotten. Kaiba smirked fully now.

"The only feasible manner in which any of us could actually die is if the blimp crashed, or in some other catastrophic accident in which there would be no survivors-"

"-Not helping-"

"-And my death would be splattered across every magazine and newspaper, not to mention the internet and television channels." He paused as my mouth dropped open, this was his reasoning?

"I-I-I think you've broken my ability to be shocked." I sputtered, completely disbelievingly, "That's the single most egotistical, self-centered, arrogant thing I've ever heard from you!" I closed my mouth and regarded him again, narrowing my eyes. He wasn't this tactless…surely? "Which…is why I fail to believe it's your real answer…" I slowly hazarded voicing my suspicions. There was a pause before I was rewarded with a genuine half-smile, the first time since the Virtual World fiasco. Damnit. I cursed myself and him again. He inclined his head to me slightly, still half-smiling.

"And there's the real reason." He snickered slightly, "You're no idiot and anyone who could stand to raise you for seventeen years has to be astoundingly patient and also not an idiot." There was an awkward silence as we both simultaneously realised that we were straying dangerously close to actual normal person friendship. He turned back to his work as I looked away and cleared my throat. I decided to chance something, it was my birthday after all…

"Salutations, Sophie?" I half-questioned. half-prompted. There was a pause.

"Congratulations, Callaghan." He answered, not turning round. I smirked.

"Back-handed compliments, a compromise and alliteration. Man, do I feel special today." I deadpanned my way out of the door, looking around the main room for Teá. I found her by the large windows that looked out onto the ocean. Well, it had been the ocean. It appeared we were now hovering nearby…uhm…

"Attention Duelists, we will be arriving at Alcatraz, the location of the Battle City Finals, in fifteen minutes."

The pilot's announcement cleared up my confusion as I reached Teá. She turned to me, leaning against the window.

"What was that about?" She asked, folding her arms and regarding me warily. I hand-waved her concerns.

"Oh nothing, I thought that this was being televised all the time. In which case Mum would have…well, not taken it very well to say the least." I laughed a little at the thought as Teá nodded and smirked.

"Hmm. I meant something more along the lines of, kinda strange that you can get through the only locked door in this place." She had said this after we'd started walking to the hospital wing (apparently they all went to check on Mai every morning) and we were halfway down the hallway before I stiffened.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"…"

"You okay?"

"Plotting."

"I feel like I shouldn't have told you that…"

"…"

~XxX~

A/N: And so Sophie plots her rewenge. (Blackadder reference, NOT a typo. XD)

And because I'm so close to 100, you guys get…A DOUBLE UPDATE! There, feel special.

~Ava