Marie's POV, first person

I woke up to find myself in the infirmary again. It was dark, only lit by the dim yellow lights overhead. It hurt to sit up, and I felt sore all over. I didn't remember anything past the middle of my duel with Tom. After that, it was all a blank.

The room was empty, the nurse once again not present. My only roommate was the unconscious Tom. The silence was freaking me out, so I forced myself to my feet and stumbled to the door.

It seemed to take me forever to reach my room. I had to stop several times and take deep breaths. I almost hurled, my head spun so much. A black fog seemed to closing in around me, I couldn't see. I could feel myself start to panic before I heard my dragon's voice telling me to calm down.

"You're almost to your room," he soothed. His deep voice was filled with concern and I immediately felt a rush of gratitude towards him. How could I cope without him? My kind dragon directed me to my room through my haze and I barely staggered into the room before collapsing onto the carpeted floor in exhaustion.

Eventually my vision began to clear and I could see the translucent vision of my dragon bending over me. "Are you feeling better?" Crimson Dragon asked, his reptilian-pupiled red eyes narrowed with worry.

"Yeah, thank you," I said weakly, sitting up. "What happened to me?"

"I saw the whole thing," my dragon assured me. "Are you sure you want to hear it?" I nodded. "In your duel against Tom, Judai rendered you unconscious using the power of a duel spirit residing in his soul, one named Yubel."

I couldn't believe it. "Judai wouldn't do that. Besides, he can't have a duel spirit inside of him. That's impossible, right?" Judai may not have been close, but he was a friend of mine; he wouldn't do something like this, right?

"I assure you, it's true," Crimson Dragon continued. "I didn't want to believe it either, but that foul deceiver could fool anyone with his childish manner. He used Yubel's power to knock you out, then attacked Tom. Of course, then he played the innocent worried friend and got the teachers. He told them that you were the one that nearly killed Tom, spun lies to make him look completely innocent of his crime. His accomplice, that teacher Asuka Tenjouin, helped him spread the rumor."

"No, no." I whispered, nearly in complete shock. It was like those years before the North Duel Academy. I couldn't handle going through this again. My friends couldn't abandon me like the ones from the first time. I wanted to cry. I didn't want to deal with this again.

"They did, whether you accept it or not. Besides, have you forgotten that Judai is a suspicious person who hasn't aged in ten years? Do you know what he did to his friends and to other people? That boy is a sly, back-stabbing bastard.

"When he and his friends were transported to another dimension due to some unclear circumstances, Yuki Judai turned on his friends and viciously killed them, hungry for power. He dissolved them into nothing, and it wasn't long before he took control of the whole dimension. 'Supreme King Judai' was his title and he commanded a whole army of evil duel monsters. He sent many people to the stars in his short reign."

I gasped in horror. To think that anyone was capable of doing something so terrible was beyond me. And I believed him to be a friend, a kind person. Hot tears threatened to run. Another 'friend' had betrayed me.

"He originally was opposed by his duel spirit Yubel, but she lost to him and Judai controlled her by combining her spirit with his. So now she follows his every order, controlled like a doll on strings."

It was too much to take. I buried my head in my arms and stopped listening. Crimson Dragon stayed silent, sensing my distress was at the breaking point.

Quiet tears rolled down my cheeks. They eventually lead me drift off to sleep with my dragon-my only friend-standing guard at my side.