A/N: I like my new writing journal, it's already got pictures doodled all over it pertaining to parts of the l=polt, it's already got whole sections of conversation and whole other sections of prose scattered inside it, it's already plotted out duels between OCs and whole deck structures around their personalities, it's already got everyone canon's back stories scribbled in it.
And this is why I get A*s. BECAUSE I GET OBESSESED WITH TOPICS AND SPENT DAYS OF MY LIFE ON PROJECTS. XDDDDD Ahhh OCD, you are useful for something in the end. XD
Don't forget, you can now see Sophie~~
~Ava
~XxX~
I was still thinking on Teá's words by the time that we'd reached the room the Mai was in, we were greeted by the scene of the others in some kind of miniature war.
"I'm not having Serenity stay here alone!"
"Well I'll stay behind, Joey!"
"Like hell you will, Tristan!"
"Could the three of you please stop arguing?" Serenity's voice cut through the overlapping ones of Joey, Tristan and Duke, who all turned to look at her. Teá and I, meanwhile, stifled laughing. Yugi, it appeared, had given up in the fray and had opted to, instead, talk to the doctor.
"What's the problem?" Teá asked, having walked in a tad after Joey's words. This drummed up another short bought of disgruntled bickering before she glared at them in turn. "Shut up. All of you." Her eyes narrowed and suddenly I realised just how she'd stayed as a firm friend of the other three boys. Teá was fierce. Yugi spoke first, being the only one to not look ashamedly down at his shoes.
"Serenity wants to stay behind and keep Mai company, Joey doesn't want her to stay behind on her own, Tristan and Duke are…well…"
"Tristan and Duke?" Teá asked knowingly. Yugi smothered a laugh and instead nodded. I, however, failed at smothering and broke down, laughing so hard I stopped making a noise and started clapping my hands together like a retarded seal. I was, very carefully, ignored.
~XxX~
"Sophie'll stay." Serenity had said, a foreign firmness in her voice as the three males once more started fighting over her. She had looked across at me pleadingly. I had shrugged. We had spent several hours making idle chatter and she'd revealed to me that there was actually a kitchen on the blimp. I'd made a metal note to raid it later. We glossed lightly over the shared experience of messy divorce and she'd told me about all that Joey had done for her since they were children. I felt proud of my blond-haired friend.
And then the sky over the Duel Tower had turned black.
And then Serenity had fled for the Duel Tower, and I had followed.
And now I regretted it.
~XxX~
Joey collapsed.
"NO!" Yami's yell yanked me out of staring like a fool at Joey on the ground, Mokuba clambered up the raised platform and checked Joey's vitals. There was a moment before I saw his eyes widen and he choked.
"He's-he's not breathing!"
Silence.
"JOEY! NO!" The strangled cry from Serenity as the platform lowered into the flooring was heart-wrenching and before the platform was even fully settled we had flocked to the inert body of our friend.
Not...breathing. My mind stuttered over the words and I cautiously knelt beside Teá and Serenity, the blonde mess of hair in front of me and snaked a hand to Joey's throat, checking for a pulse.
Nothing.
I re-adjusted my hand.
Nothing.
Again, slightly more frantic this time.
Nothing.
I withdrew my hand as though bitten by a snake. I was shaking, I hadn't realised it but it was horribly clear now as I tried to stand. I wasn't looking at my friends, I couldn't see them, all I could really see was the body...corpse? Of a normally firebrand friend.
No! I thought vehemently, Not a corpse! Sophie Grace McCallaghan, how DARE you think so pessimistically. Has Teá taught you nothing? Has Yugi shown you NOTHING?
Still shaking, I glanced to Yami. The spirit who shared Yugi's body was staring at Joey's…person, slack-jawed and blank-eyed. I vaguely heard Tristan yell at Joey, Mokuba calling for the doctors, Serenity begging her brother to wake up, but something else, another voice, cut through it all and made me freeze.
"Pah. He'll be dead soon, if not already." A sigh, "Morons aren't as fun to crush." I felt fabric brush against my ankles and the presence of someone, Marik, walking away.
Primal fear, anger and utter hatred mixed in the pit of my stomach and clouded everything, my thoughts, my actions and my speech. I roared and screamed unintelligibly and launched myself at the retreating form of Marik. A mistake, yes, but a glorious moment, if only for being able to capitalise on a few seconds of surprise. I leapt with my hands out, Marik turning slightly towards me at my yells, one hand, my left, buried itself into one stupid half of his fringe. Marik's arm came up holding the Millennium Rod and for a split-second I considered stopping before he had the chance to mind-control me. I kept the lunge going.
White-hot pain in my left hand.
I felt something boiling in the palm of my right hand and instantly made the connection, he'd sliced me with one of the 'wings' to the Rod. I felt cast-off on my face and reacted instinctively, yanking my left hand out of his hair, my right hugged close to my chest and rearing back in pain and shock. But then I heard the most delicious sound possible.
"You GIRL, will die NOW!" I was in utter agony by now, curling my right hand up carefully at my chest and noticed that tears were running rampant down my face, sadness and fear, but as I heard Marik hiss those words and felt a foreign texture in my left hand I felt myself smile, I had won a little. Not a lot, probably not even noticeable unless you were looking for it, but enough to piss off a murderous psychopath who'd just had a small chunk of hair ripped out of his head by a girl three inches shorter than him and bleeding. He raised the Rod, no doubt to stab me, when I took several hurried steps backwards and bumped into someone, hissing with pain at the jolt it gave my hand. A voice from behind me.
"You've shown me everything I need to beat you, Marik." I knew the voice, but my mind wasn't working. I had just caught sight of the blood running down my hand...and the fact that the flesh was torn in a gruesome gash from left to right in my palm.
"S-Seto...my hand..." I was staring at the blood now, feeling faint with lack of blood and my eyesight blurred a little from tears. I felt a hand close around my left shoulder and heard a low whisper by my ear.
"Don't clench your hand so much. Staunch the blood with something." I was shocked by the 'not-harshness' of his voice.
"It hurts." I whispered back, sounding a little whiny but not caring.
"I think I could already guess that, Callaghan." Kaiba then shoved firmly me to one side, taking care not to jostle my hand and spoke loudly. "Go with Mokuba, Callaghan." It was an order, something that -at the current moment in time- helped clear my mind enough for me to stumble forwards towards the black haired kid.
I fainted on a doctor.
I really regretted following Serenity.
~XxX~
A/N: Short, yes. Packed, yes. Painful to write, yes. But hey, Sophie wasn't thinking right XD
~Ava