Chapter 36

Mai still didn't know which concept she found harder to believe; the idea Joey was pregnant or the idea that she was Joey, thinking he was her, thinking she was him, thinking he was pregnant. If she had to choose, she'd be forced to admit the first was a lot easier to understand and therefore easier to deal with. Though if she were being honest with herself it didn't matter what was easier to deal with, because both situations were as messed up as each other. Still in the time it had taken for her and Ahna to find one of the missing cogs, they'd both managed to agree on two things; seeing a pregnant Joey was funny and Crovell must have one wicked sense of humour to have come up with that no matter how you looked at it.

Their cog had been located near a large stream a good half mile or so away from the table. The cog itself was large, bulky and awkward to carry and even sharing the weight between the two of them the going was still pretty slow. As the area around the table came into sight all talk had dropped between the two girls as they focused their energy into picking up their pace.

'Finally,' Ahna let out a sigh of relief as they broke out into the clearing, 'it feels like we've been walking for hours.'

'What took you guys so long?' Tristan's voice was tinged with Kaiba's arrogant tones.

'Guess we're the last team back then,' Mai rolled her eyes as she acknowledge the other, 'but you try lugging this thing,' she indicated towards the cog, 'for half a mile.'

'Please,' he rolled his eyes.

'I'd like to have seen you do it any faster.'

'I did actually,' Tristan pointed towards the larger of the other two previously missing cogs, 'I guess physical strength really is just a state of mind.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'What do you think it means,' he gave a nonchalant shrug and turned away from her.

'I think it's time to put this thing back together,' Duke gave a nervous laugh in an obvious attempt to pre-defuse the tension. 'We've already worked out that your one goes down first,' he met Mai's gaze, 'that's why we were waiting.'

'I guess we should have figured there'd be an order to it,' Ahna rolled her eyes, 'typical.'

After taking a mutual deep breath in, the two girls carried their cog towards the table. Then, with the help of Duke and Tristan, they slotted it into position. Exhausted, they stood back and allowed Duke, Tristan and Yugi to move the remaining two cogs into place. Almost as soon as the last one was in position, the table started making a loud whirring noise. A large gate like door then shimmered out of nowhere and, after a moment of nothing, slowly opened.

'What a relief,' Mai wiped sweat away from her forehead, 'it looks like we passed.'

Sticking close to Seto, he followed the others through the gate. A large part of him was already hoping the next challenge wouldn't require him being separated from his important person again. In a world where everything was unfamiliar and strange, it was incredibly important to him to have that one familiar thing around making it feel a lot less dangerous and scary.

On the other side of the gate the whole group found themselves in a large white room. The room was dotted with various household objects. In one corner was a curved, wall hugging, diamond shaped mirror and beneath the mirror someone had carved strange shapes into the wall. Somewhere in the back of his head he knew those markings were meant something, just like he knew he should be able to somehow understand what they meant. It was an odd and disconcerting thought, but he didn't let it bother him. Instead he waited to see what the others would do.

The little spiky haired boy everyone kept calling Catilin made his way towards the mirror. He wasn't totally sure he liked Catilin much; he had a weird kind of energy about him and didn't always make a whole lot of sense when he spoke, but at the same time there was something likable about his strangeness.

'You'll never guess,' Catilin clapped his hands as he glanced back at the others, 'our next challenge is a riddle, yay!'

'Just how made for TV game show can you get,' Joey shook her head. 'So what does the riddle say?'

'This mirror reflects all but one. That which cannot be seen is the key to the next gate. Find it and you may pass on debt free.'

'So basically, we just have to find the one thing the mirror doesn't reflect?' Yugi tilted her head in thought.

'That's what it sounds like,' Joey pressed her lips together. 'But…' she closely studied the mirror, before flicking her eyes around the rest of the room, 'I think it's been placed there in order to reflect everything.'

'Uh... but there has to be something,' Catilin's face filled with a strange kind of disappointment, 'else how are we supposed to find it? Maybe it's hidden?'

'That's a good point; maybe we should try looking under things.'

As he watched the rest of them search the room a part of him almost couldn't believe how dumb the others were being when the answer was staring them right in the face. Even Seto, who he instinctively knew was smarter than the rest of them, didn't appear to pick up on what was, to him, such an obvious answer. Without even bothering to confer with the others, he went over to the mirror and unhooked it from the wall.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' Joey's voice was annoyingly shrill.

'The riddle said we needed the object the mirror didn't reflect, right?' He shrugged. 'Well this is the object; the only thing the mirror doesn't reflect is itself.'

'He's right, he's right, he's right,' Catilin clapped, 'why didn't I see that?'

'Because you're an insane child and he's a brilliant one,' a proud little smirk appeared on Seto's face.

'So is that it?' He couldn't help but beam as he carried the mirror over to the others. 'Do we win again now?'

As if in response to his question, the wall behind him shimmered into another gate. On one of the two stone doors, was a mirror similar to the one he was now holding. On the other door, in line with this mirror, was a diamond shaped dip.

'They really are making this too easy for us,' Seto rolled his eyes. 'You want to do the honours?' He nodded at him.

Grinning childishly, he did as he was told. Setting the mirror into its true position he barely had time to admire it, before the gate doors swung rapidly open. Elated that he was the reason it had happened, he darted through without bothering to wait for the others first. On the other side he found himself stood on the banks of a turbulent river, which ran through the middle of a forest.

The air around him was heavy with the murky scent of damp earth and, what he could see of the sky above him, was covered in a thick, threatening layer of grey-black clouds. The water in the river roared angrily. This fact, along with the width and speed at which the water flowed, made it appear dangerously fearsome. So he was almost horrified to see the next gate stood, tauntingly, on the other bank.

It didn't take long for the others to join him. For a few seconds they appeared to be assessing the situation in much the same way he had. He could see Joey's mouth open as if she was about to say something annoying again, but before any sound passed her lips a tall guy, with grass green eyes and jet black hair, appeared before them.

'Seto...?' The new comer's gaze focused on him. 'What... what's going on?'