Chapter XLII: Diagnosis

Hello, again, dear readers and reviewers of "Darkness Falls," and welcome back! So last time, Mary and Violet had a chat and then Mary, Violet and the gang had a chat. And then, Annie and Miss Fontaine realized that Violet, who had previously been diagnosed with depression, might have bipolar disorder. What will happen now? Stay tuned and find out!

Disclaimer: If you can read this, you know we don't own the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise! We just own our storyline, our OCs and some pairs of animal print slippers. Thank you.

Authors' note: This chapter deals with the symptoms and diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that affects millions of people worldwide. It is a very tricky disease to treat and is often misdiagnosed as clinical depression. We hope our portrayal of the disease and the diagnosis of it is accurate. Thank you very much and we hope someday that there is a cure.

Violet's eyes widened; obviously this thought frightened her far more than being depressed had. Being bipolar was serious, and possibly permanent. "B-Bipolar?? But... the doctor said it was just depression, and maybe a little anxiety disorder. H-How can I be bipolar instead?!" There she went again, suddenly shifting from horrible fear to confused anger.

"Violet... it would explain why you've been prone to go from really sad to really, really happy at times," Annie explained, aching for her best friend. "The doctors wouldn't have seen you when you were bouncing off the walls... They would've seen you when you were so sad..."

"But... but what if I'm not bipolar? What if it's something else? How can we know for sure? They could be wrong again..." Now Violet's paranoia was revealing itself, as it had when she'd been worried of what Mary was planning and why she hadn't made herself known that day until she took over.

"This time... we'll have someone look at you carefully and all of this will be examined," Miss Fontaine broke in. "We'll have Dr. Haninozuka talk to you, okay?" She referred to the school psychiatrist/psychologist who'd transferred in at the beginning of the spring semester.

Violet frowned. "The… the school counselor?" she asked worriedly. She hadn't exactly had good experiences with school counselors, even the previous counselor, Mr. Smith.

"Dr. Haninozuka is a psychiatrist in addition to being a psychologist. He's trained to look for mental disorders, Violet. Most psychologists are just trained for therapy," the nurse soothed.

The young woman still looked nervous and wary, but she knew this had to be done. She could only hope that Miss Fontaine's faith in this person was in the right and not the wrong. "O-Okay... do I… do I have to go alone?"

"No. You can go with someone you want with you. I'm sure it'll be all right," the nurse promised.

That comforted Violet quite a bit, remembering how Bastion had been with her for her counseling with Dr. Otani. Then she frowned, realizing that he couldn't be with her this time around. 'But then who should come with me?' she wondered nervously. Violet fiddled with her fingers as she looked at her friends, trying to decide who might be best and if they'd go with her.

If it were possible, all of the gang would go gladly. Unfortunately, they all knew only one could go with. "No one'll get hurt feelings, Violet. We all understand that you can't take us all physically," Adrian explained calmly.

Violet understood the meaning in his words. She couldn't take them physically, but they would be with her in her mind and in her heart. Violet managed a smile, a true smile, for the first time in a while. "I… I know..." She turned to her best friend, meeting her eyes. "Annie?" Violet asked, silently requesting that she join her for this.

Annie nodded, hugging her friend again. "Of course... I'll be with you through this whole thing... We'll ride it out..."

Violet hugged back, relieved that for now the matter was settled. "Annie... thanks... You've always been there for me, ever since we first met," she murmured sincerely.

Mary had been smirking in satisfaction, though at the hug that smirk became a smile. Before it lasted too long she scoffed, the smile disappearing. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be there too. Right now I'm going back to my soul room," she stated off-handedly. Mary disappeared, only because she didn't want anyone to see how glad she was that Violet was going to be okay.

Chazz, watching the scene, started to chuckle. "Why does she sound familiar?"

"Maybe because she sounds like you after you got back from North Academy?" Syrus offered, grinning.

"Yeah and most of my life," the youngest Rhodes sighed, still smiling, however.

Miss Fontaine made the call and got Dr. Haninozuka prepared to come down to the infirmary. "Violet, I'm going to run a few tests on you so the counselor is sure this isn't something medical."

"What kind of tests?" Violet asked, blinking in surprise. She had calmed down by now, but her emotions could shoot a different direction at any given moment.

"We'll run a CT or CAT scan on you... We'll have to draw some blood too... And we'll run an EEG," the nurse stated. "An EEG is pretty much a scan of your brain. We see how its electrical impulses are working and that could tell us if you were having small seizures or something."

Violet nodded, not minding the scans at all. That actually sounded pretty cool. But when the nurse brought up a blood test, her eyes widened and she went white. "B-B-Blood test? Do we… do we have to?"

"Yeah, Violet. We have to be very thorough," the nurse soothed. "I'll be right with you, just like I was in Domino," Annie said as gently, squeezing her friend's hand.

Violet opened her mouth to reply, but then suddenly closed it. She was silent for a long few moments, and then slowly nodded her head. "Mary said she could take over for that test. Since it doesn't have to do with my brain or anything, can... can she? Please?" she asked, looking up at Miss Fontaine hopefully.

"I'm okay with that," the redhead answered with a smile. "Dr. Haninozuka will be observing..."

"Haninozuka... why does that name sound familiar?" Jaden wondered.

Alexis looked at him incredulously. "You mean you don't remember, Jay?"

"It was Dr. Smith before," the boy said slowly. "And then... he transferred out after I got done... And we got a new counselor... I haven't had to see him yet."

"Uh... Slacker... Sy played him on Halloween?" Chazz groaned, face-palming.

"Sy was the new school counselor?"

Those present either face-planted or face-palmed; either way they all now had slightly redder faces. "Uh, Jay... I was Honey from the Host Club, remember? Haninozuka is his real name," Syrus finally managed to say, sweat-dropping.

"Oh...OH!" Jaden's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Honey-sempai! So... he's real?" Everyone fell over.

"No, Jaden. The school counselor just has the same last name," Alexis answered blandly, wishing he'd just get it already.

"Oh, okay." Jaden went silent as everyone got off the floor.

"Well, let's start with the blood draw," Miss Fontaine said gently, guiding Annie and Violet to the blood draw area. The dark-haired young woman squeezed her surrogate sister's hand.

Violet sighed, closing her eyes for a moment as if to collect herself. However, when she opened them, they were as red as the blood Miss Fontaine was about to draw out. Frowning, Mary looked down at the hand holding hers and then at Annie with a confused expression. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, hi, Mary. Violet was in control and afraid of the blood draw," Annie explained as they got into the seats in the area.

"Well duh, I knew that. Why do you think I took over?" Mary replied a bit snarkily. "That doesn't explain why you're holding my… her… our hand."

"She was afraid, so I was letting her know I was right with her," Annie stated as Miss Fontaine returned with the syringe and vials.

Mary still didn't understand the reason Annie needed to touch her, but decided to just drop it. She looked over at the nurse instead. "How does this work?"

"Hello, Mary," the nurse smiled, greeting the spirit as casually as any other student. "First I have to find a vein in your arm. Hold out your right arm. Annie, you can let go..."

"Okay." The dark-haired girl let go of her friend's hand as bidden and sat, trying not to fidget.

Where Violet would have hesitated and not dared to look, Mary simply stuck out her arm and stared. She was curious about how the nurse was going to get her blood without the use of a knife; surely that little needle couldn't do enough damage. The nurse took a rubber tube and tied it around Violet/Mary's forearm. And then she gently wiped the crook of the girl's forearm with rubbing alcohol, and a large purplish vein was exposed. Mary's eyes widened. "How did you do that?!" She didn't know her body could change colors.

Miss Fontaine looked up. "Oh, I didn't do anything. You see, Mary, that bluish-purple tinge in that vein indicates that the blood has lost oxygen. When exposed to the air, the blood will turn red again."

"I didn't know that," Mary muttered in awe, thoughts turning to other things as the nurse continued her work. Even if she was no longer evil and murderous, killing was the only thing she knew how to do well, and so her thoughts often turned to it. 'So if I strangled somebody, and then cut them... I wonder if their blood would be blue and purple,' she wondered.

And then Miss Fontaine, blissfully unaware of what was going through her patient's mind, stuck Mary/Violet with the syringe. "Okay, I just have to fill these vials," she said as the first little bottle filled up.

Mary flinched at the sudden jab, coming out of her thoughts and looking down at the needle. "Ow. How are you doing that? You only poked me. I don't see any blood... how is the vial filling up?" To say the spirit was confused would be an understatement.

"It's just a little bit, Mary," Annie explained as the nurse concentrated on her work. "The needle is a hollow tube that goes into the vein and on the other end of this tube is the test tube. When the vacuum seal is broken, the blood from your arm rushes into the tube."

"I didn't know you could get blood without cutting someone open… er," Mary said without thinking. She really was trying to watch what she said, both on the cursing aspect and the gory talk.

Annie flushed a little, the recent attack still unnerving her. However, she managed to keep it in control. "Well, technology has advanced quite a way from that."

"Okay... what happens when she pulls it out?"

As she asked that, Miss Fontaine pulled out the needle. "There, all done," she said as she placed a cotton ball over the puncture wound and then a piece of medical tape.

"There's a little blood, but not much," Annie concluded, pointing at the now-covered spot.

"Oh. I don't know why this is so hard for Violet. That was nothing," Mary stated, prodding the spot with a finger.

"Everyone's afraid of something," Annie sighed. "I used to be deathly afraid of spiders..."

"Spiders? Why? You just squish 'em. They're not even that fun to ki- I mean... never mind," Mary replied, stopping herself from making another gory statement.

And then there was a call over the curtain. "Fonda! I'm here!" came a youngish-sounding tenor voice.

"Hi, Mark!" Fonda called back. "We'll be ready in just a second! Mary, you might want to switch back," she cautioned.

"Huh? Oh. Oh yeah!" Mary closed her eyes for a few seconds, and when she opened them they were once more their natural green color. "Is the blood test over?" Violet asked hopefully.

"All done, Violet, and Dr. Haninozuka is here," the nurse answered.

"It'll be okay, Violet," Annie soothed again, knowing how worried her friend was at facing the school counselor.

Violet sighed, still nervous about what was to come but determined to get it over and done with. "Okay... where is he?"

At Miss Fontaine's signal, the new DA counselor came through the curtain. "Hi!" he said eagerly. He was about Alexis's height with blonde hair and brown eyes, and wearing a blue Duel Academy staff uniform. He looked somewhat like a teenager, but in actuality was 30 years old. He sounded younger than his years, but that perhaps was a good thing.

Violet blinked a few times in surprise; she certainly hadn't been expecting that. He sounded happier than she figured he would, and looked way too young to be a psychiatrist and psychologist. "Uh, hi," she greeted back.

Annie couldn't say a word. 'He... he looks like an older Honey!' she thought, stunned.

As if reading her thoughts, the youngish counselor grinned. "Yeah, I've watched OHSHC too... People say it's not an accident that I look like Honey-sempai. So... you must be Violet," he greeted the purple haired girl.

It took Violet a moment to come back to reality after the anime connection, but she finally did with a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I'm Violet. Um..."

"You can call me Mark," he answered, turning a little bit serious. "Violet, I've had a look at your file and today, we're going to look at your brain activity and check the inside of your head for any medical problems, all right?"

She nodded. "Okay... I still don't see what a few pictures can tell you about my head, though."

"It'll tell me how your brain is acting and if you've had a seizure or if you have a brain tumor or something that might be affecting how you see the world," he answered.

She frowned at that. "It… it could be more than just a mental problem?"

Mark looked at Miss Fontaine, Annie and Violet before answering. "That's right, Violet. So we just have to be very, very sure before we put you back on anti-depressants."

Violet looked as if her mood was going to do a flip again. "Oh, no… oh, no… oh, no..."

Annie gripped Violet's hand tightly. "Violet... I don't think you have a tumor..."

Violet looked over at her with fearful eyes. "You… you don't?"

The dark-haired girl shook her head. "If you had a tumor, I think it would've been before all this that it hit you..."

"Y-You're right... it would have..." The purple-haired girl realized with a relieved sigh.

"All right," Mark said, "we'll just test to see what's going on. Fonda, you're running the full blood tests?"

"Mmmhmm, and we already have her blood tests on file. I haven't picked up abnormalities in the past few weeks."

"So, now I understand the scans, but... how can you tell something is wrong with my brain through my… urgh, blood?" Violet had to ask, confused.

"The blood tests would've picked up if, say, cancer was in your system," the nurse explained calmly. "It would also let me know if enzyme levels were elevated, if your hormones were out of whack or if other things were out of whack. Now I haven't done a blood test on you for over a month and a half, but at that time, nothing seemed wrong with you. Your blood tests came back normal."

"Okay... I guess we should probably get these scans over with, huh?" the teen asked, grinning sheepishly when she realized that she'd unconsciously been stalling.

"That's a good idea," Mark answered easily. They headed back past the group and Bastion's room to a special exam area in the infirmary with a large device that looked like a piece of plastic sticking out from a giant metallic doughnut. This was the CT scanner. "Okay, Violet, I need you to lie down on this bed," Mark said, patting the large plastic-like thing which was actually a soft, squishy bed. "We'll cover you over with a lead apron and then scan your head, all right?"

"All right," Violet answered, moving to lay down on the bed-like platform. She wasn't too scared about this test, aside from the normal nervousness one would get. 'It's… it's like getting an x-ray. Just... you go inside something for it… yeah,' she thought.

The platform moved forward a short time later, pulling her into the CT scan's center. The giant "doughnut" was humming and spinning and scanning her brain. "It's okay, Violet! Don't move, remember?!" Annie called out over the hum.

"I-I remember," Violet called back. She didn't like being in such a small space; unlike other girls her age, she'd never tried tanning beds. Watching a certain Final Destination movie will turn you away from that sort of thing for life. Instead, Violet tried focusing on the calming hum of the machine and the cool lights running back and forth. It was over within a matter of minutes.

The doctor and nurse looked over the scans briefly and decided to call to their patient. "Okay, Violet, you can get off the table now," Mark said.

Violet sat up, looking at the two medical professionals nervously. "Is... is everything okay?" she asked, voice wavering.

"We don't see anything to worry about, Violet, but honey, we'll take a look while you're hooked up to the EEG," Miss Fontaine said gently, "and that's next."

"The EGG?" Violet repeated, getting the spelling wrong and confusing herself. "How are you going to hook me up to an EGG?"

Annie sighed, smiling as the nurse and doctor moved to get the EEG equipment set up. "Violet, it's an EEG, an electroencephalography system. What they're going to do is put electrodes all over your scalp and see how your brain acts. It'll tell us if how you're feeling is a result of some kind of mental disorder or something else."

Violet didn't even bother trying to repeat "electroen" whatever. "So... oh, I think I know what that is! When I had to get my chest checked out a few years back, they hooked me up with the same stuff. At least this time I don't have to take my shirt off..."

"Nope... no shirt removal necessary," Annie smiled as they sat in chairs. The two medical professionals hooked Violet up very quickly.

"Violet, Annie's going to talk to you about things while we examine these readouts, all right?" Mark asked. "She's going to help you experience different emotions..."

"Umm... okay." It sounded like a strange way to have a test taken, but at least it would be easy.

What Mark wanted Annie to do was bring Violet through her happy manic moods and into the shadowy parts of her mind as well. Annie hated to do this, but already knew the rules of the physician. Sometimes, in order to cure, one must cause pain. "Violet... could you tell me about what Trueman showed you?" she asked.

Violet hadn't been expecting that. Her eyes widened, and her jaw fell open. "Wh-what?"

"Please, Violet... tell me," Annie said slowly, looking for all the world like a sad puppy.

"Do... do I have to?" Violet asked, voice nearly failing her.

Annie hugged her. "Please tell me... please," she murmured above a whisper wishing there was some other way to do this... But there wasn't. Dr. Mark needed to see Violet at her saddest and then later at her most manic.

Violet's head hung, causing her face to be buried in Annie's shoulder. She ground her teeth together, shaking slightly as her head slid further down so that her voice wouldn't be muffled. She could feel Mary running a hand over her head comfortingly- no, not her head. It felt more like it was on the inside, as if it was her brain. Pushing the distracting and slightly disturbing thought aside, she began to tell Annie what she had relived over and over, word by agonizing word.

Annie held her close, pushing away her own pain at hearing what Violet said she, Annie, had said in that hell, and focusing on her friend and patient. And then when Violet described Bastion's "betrayal," it all became clear. "He used everything that he could to make you think we'd reject you..."

Annie's shoulder had become wet; it was only then that Violet fully registered that she was crying. "W-well... it worked... I c-couldn't take it anymore, Annie... So I gave in... I gave up," she moaned, feeling ashamed. It was because of her that Bastion was bed-ridden, her mind screamed at her.

"Shhh... you've been through so much... And it's no surprise the depression came back," Annie soothed softly. "You fought it... and were hurting so bad... And if you're thinking that it's your fault Bastion's sick, it isn't... He's fighting his own demons and was probably feeling under the weather before he went in there..."

"M-Maybe, but... but I made it worse," Violet muttered, sniffling.

"No… I did," Mary said, speaking through Violet.

"But I let you," Violet countered, aware and yet not aware that Mary was speaking through her while speaking to her.

Annie wasn't about to let go of either of them now. "Don't blame yourselves now... Bastion hasn't fought out whatever's hurting him... Violet... Mary... now you're going to fight it... Maybe not in exactly the same way the rest of us did... but you will not fight it alone."

"I want to help him." It was almost if both minds had spoken at once, but then Violet's voice alone spoke. "I need to help him... he needs me, Annie..."

"You're going to... But we need to get you together first," the brunette stated calmly and determinedly. They talked for a few minutes about casual, fun things and then Annie got a naughty grin on her face. She had warned Miss Fontaine and Dr. Mark that this just might get crazy. "Violet... you've done so well, I think you deserve a treat..."

Violet blinked in surprise; she sure was getting surprised a lot today. "Treat? Really??"

"Yup!" In Annie's hand was Violet's favorite brand of... caramel. "Enjoy!"

Violet's jaw dropped in astonishment. "...Seriously? No catch? I can just... have it?" she asked incredulously.

"No catch," Annie smiled.

In the monitoring area, Dr. Mark looked at Fonda in alarm. "Here it comes," the nurse sighed. She remembered all too well what had happened the last time Violet had caramel.

Violet's eyes lit-up with excitement as she took the caramel, scarfing it down so quickly that it seemed to disappear in thin air. She sighed contentedly as she ate the sugary treat, swallowing the morsel down after half a minute of diligent chewing. "Mmm... nothing better than caramel..."

"Violet... do you remember our first prank together?" Annie asked, smiling and glad that Dr. Crowler was now cool with what they'd done.

Violet got a thoughtful look on her face, foot tapping the ground. "Hmm… was that the hair dye in the shampoo bottle or sneaking into his bedroom?"

"That was the hair dye... I went into his bedroom alone, remember?"

"Oh yeah! Heh heh heh... he had green hair for days!" Violet laughed, perhaps a bit more than necessary, and now both of her feet were tapping in a steady rhythm.

"Remember how we switched his shampoo?" Annie asked, smirking. "I guess we did get into his bedroom that time..."

"Yeah... that was great! What else have we done to him??" Violet questioned eagerly, bouncing slightly in her seat.

"Hmmm... I got that picture of him as Mighty Gai... But that was nothing compared to what he did on his own at the talent show..." Annie started to laugh at that. "Remember? He sang Sweet Transvestite and then did Dude Looks Like a Lady as an encore!"

By now, the sugar from the caramel had fully kicked in, and Violet would be running around the room like a chicken with its head cut off had she not needed to stay seated. However, that didn't stop her from bouncing up and down in her seat, hands gripping the sides tightly. Her grin seemed as if it would split her face in two at any given second, and her eye was beginning to twitch ever-so-slightly... "OH, I REMEMBER THAT!! THAT WAS HILARIOUS!!" As if to prove this, Violet gave a hysterical laugh and nearly fell out of her chair.

Annie steadied her and the medical pros gave her the signal to cool Violet down. "Good times... Now... Is there something you'd like to do later to relax?"

"Relax??" Violet made a very dramatic expression of being deep in thought. "Uhm, I don't know, maybe... uh... OH!! I wanna be with Bastion-baby, Annie!!!" she shouted in a chipper tone.

Annie smiled and handed her friend a glass of whole milk. "Here, drink this down. This'll help."

"Help? Help with what?" Violet asked, drinking half of the glass in one mega gulp.

"Calm you down... you ate caramel and you need to be calm when you see Bastion, right?" Annie reminded her.

"Oh yeah! I forgot," Violet answered before finishing off the glass. She had the cliché milk mustache, and already seemed to be slowing down thanks to the milk.

They talked for a few minutes more, and then Miss Fontaine came back to them. "Okay, Violet, you did well... let's get these off of you." She moved to get the electrodes off. "That wasn't bad, now was it?"

Violet shook her head. "No... Not too bad. Was there... anything bad on the scans?"

Miss Fontaine and Dr. Mark looked at each other and then at Violet. "Violet, we're going to look at all of the scans for about an hour and then we can tell you, okay?" Mark answered slowly.

Violet frowned and fidgeted a little in response, eyes turning downcast. "Oh... o-okay," she muttered, obviously nervous and worried.

"It's going to be okay, Violet," Annie soothed as the nurse and doctor headed into Miss Fontaine's office to examine all the scans. "Let's go back with the gang, all right?"

Violet sighed. "All right... do you… do you think Bastion's awake yet?" she asked hopefully. The confused teenager ached to see her beloved, no matter how ill either of them currently happened to be, both mentally AND physically.

"I don't know... he might be," Annie answered. The two girls got up from their chairs and the would-be doctor embraced her friend.

Violet tangibly hesitated, though not because she was again confused about her friendship with Annie. The confusion and befuddlement of her own emotions took up most of her concentration, but at last she managed to hug back. Usually, Violet would feel friendly love and happiness from the action, but right now her feelings were too jumbled up for one or two to stick out so easily.

Annie sensed the hesitation. "Violet... I know you're not sure right now about where you stand with me... But no matter what... I'll stay by you and see you through this..."

Violet bit her lip, feeling a little guilty for her hesitation, but nodded. "I… I know you will, Annie..."

"It's okay," the other girl answered tenderly. "Shall we go back to see if Bastion's awake?"

"Yeah. And... even if he's not, I want to see him," the shorter girl responded, the ache to do so standing out sharply in her voice.

"Okay..." Together, they walked back to Bastion's room and everyone looked up.

"Hey, guys," Jaden greeted softly. Bastion was still asleep, but his color looked better and he was no longer sweaty. "I think the sleep's helping him," the Slifer murmured.

Violet went to his bedside, not bothering to sit down and instead opting to stand. She reached down to take his large hand into her two thinner ones, surprised by how warm it was compared to her own. Was she really that cold? She hadn't even noticed. With her mind the way it was, Violet realized that she didn't notice a lot recently. For instance, she didn't even notice that she was currently spacing out just thinking about said topic.

Something in her touch caused Bastion to stir. "Mmmmm," he groaned softly, not opening his eyes. "What?"

Violet blinked in surprise, coming back to reality as her green eyes moved down to lock onto her love. "Bastion?"

At the sound of her voice, the Ra genius struggled to open his gray eyes. "V-Violet?" he asked. "You're here," he murmured weakly but happily.

She managed a smile, some of her better emotions finally fluttering into feeling as her eyes met his. "Y-Yeah, I am... how are you feeling, Bastion?" she asked softly.

He managed a weak smile, but that expression showed just how much she was the center of his universe. The fact that she was there was everything to him. "Better since you're here... Did you have fun in the hot springs?" He had slept soundly through the commotion of her missing, the attempt on Annie's life and the subsequent search for Violet/Mary.

Her own weak smile faltered, eyes filling with a mixture of emotion again. The loving feelings were smothered beneath the blanket of the rest, and she nearly dropped his hand. "I... I-I... uh..." Her brain wasn't working. Her mouth wasn't working. What was she supposed to say?

Bastion might be sick, but he wasn't unaware. He could see the combination of shame, pain and terror in his love's bright green eyes and knew immediately something was very wrong. And then he caught sight of his surrogate sister's cheek. "Annie... Violet? What's happened? Why does Annie have stitches on her cheek?"

Annie put a hand gently on Violet's shoulder. "Bastion... calm down, okay?"

"But..."

"Just calm down... Violet needs you to be calm," the dark-haired young woman murmured again, seeing how the couple was being affected.

Violet was breaking down again; she could feel it in both her mind and her body. She didn't want to break down; Bastion needed her to remain whole and stable for him right now. But it was happening, and she couldn't stop it. "Bastion... I'm sorry," Violet whispered, mood plummeting from Mt. Content into the Pit of Despair.

"Violet..." He struggled to sit up again and the guys helped him into a sitting position so he could beckon her to pull her into a hug.

Violet's first thought was to practically fall onto him, be buried in his embrace and forget all that was happening, even just for a few seconds. But then she managed to think better of it, remembering his frail physical state. Instead, she leaned down, gratefully accepting the hug and trying to be as gentle as her mind would allow.

He held her gently. "Darling... why are you sorry?"

She slumped a little in his arms. "Bastion... I... I've done something... terrible..."

"What did you do?" he asked softly, as the others in the room seemed to disappear. For a few long, agonizing moments, she couldn't speak. Then, the words started spilling out of her mouth, even though just a few minutes ago she couldn't put two words together. However, after the first few sentences of explanation, her voice jarred to a halt as she stammered. Bastion held her as tightly as he could. "This... you couldn't have hurt Annie... Is that what you said? You hurt Annie?" he asked, trying to make sense of it.

Violet could only nod, body shaking like a leaf in his weak hands. Tears had formed around her eyes, again, and she furiously wiped them away. Slight anger was boiling within her at her broken mind, but she suppressed it so as not to flip again.

The young man looked up at his surrogate sister and the mark on her cheek. "Annie?"

The girl took a deep breath. "It wasn't her, not really..." And as gently as she could, she repeated the events that had occurred. "...So Mary's nicer now.... She won't hurt us again..."

Violet had wound up dozing off in her lover's arms, head using his shoulder for a pillow. Mary appeared on the edge of the bed, clearly visible to the sick Ra. "I won't hurt you again. At least not on purpose."

Bastion flushed a little. "Err... that's a relief?" he managed.

"Bastion, she means it," Annie stated gently, checking Violet's vitals too. "Violet's been through a lot... It may be that she's had a return to the depression..."

The young man looked stunned and then pained. "This is my fault..."

Mary's eyebrows angled downward, and she jabbed a ghostly finger into Bastion's pale face. "Now don't start that up again! This is not your fault. It has nothing to do with you. So don't think that way. Violet's mind is as crazy as a Van Gogh painting right now; but even in that state she hasn't even considered blaming you or anyone else but herself! Unfortunately..."

Bastion sank tiredly back into his pillows. "You blamed me... and rightly... I couldn't protect her."

"Bastion," Annie groaned, frustrated, "if you weren't so sick... I'd make you watch 'Spock's Brain,' 'Shades of Grey,' 'Life Support' and 'Twisted' all in a row!" Everyone looked at her, puzzled, even her fiancé.

"Uh... Annie? What are you talking about?" Syrus questioned in confusion.

"I'd make him watch all four of the worst Star Trek episodes ever!" she clarified, giving Bastion her most frustrated look.

"Uh... how is that a threat?" Chazz wanted to know.

"I'm just as confused as you, little bro," Atticus replied, grinning sheepishly.

"Trust me, guys, it can be torture... Bad Star Trek episodes can be torture for Trek fans," Annie smiled wickedly.

"But you didn't include 'Star Trek: Nemesis,'" Bastion commented tiredly.

"No... That would really be torture," Annie answered.

"Uh...Translation, Private Annie?" Tyson asked.

"It was a bad movie," she stated, sweat-dropping and reminded for the hundredth time that most of the gang didn't have the Star Trek saga memorized.

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Eventually, the group moved to other discussion topics as Bastion drifted back to sleep with Violet in his arms. "...So anyway, I went screaming down the mountain, just dodged a tree and went flying over a snow-covered rock!" Aster told them. "And then, I flew headfirst into a snow bank, and when I got out... I'd ripped my pants! And the world found out that Aster Phoenix wore Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon Under-roos..."

Those who were awake were staring at the Pro Duelist with goldfish-like expressions. Finally, Atticus managed a barely audible, "Wow."

"What was worse is that the paparazzi had followed me... Fortunately, my lawyers reminded them that such pictures might be considered child porn..."

"What's porn?" Jaden asked. He had his classic idiot face on, and no one could tell if he was serious or not.

Alexis slowly turned to stare at him, her own expression unreadable. "Jaden?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Please tell me you're joking."

And then his expression became very serious. "I am joking..." The group gave a collective sigh of relief. "Or am I?" he asked, smirking.

"Jaden... knock it off," Axel stated. Somehow, the African-American looked less than tolerant of Jaden's antics.

Jim sighed. "He has a point, mate. Another time..."

"Man, I would've liked to see those photographers' faces... I'll bet they were freaked out!"

"Well, yeah," Aster said, grinning. "Needless to say, that didn't end up on a single blog, tabloid site or anything."

"Good for you. If I remember right, Zane's boxers were all over the school website and blogs," Atty replied, snickering and referring to when he and Yusuke had run the stoic teen's underwear up the flagpole.

Yusuke was laughing softly at this. "Yup... I put 'em up!"

"Zane's gonna kill him," Annie muttered.

"Hey, if he didn't kill us then, I doubt he'll do it now," the brunette Obelisk young man countered the girl.

"Yeah, but that was just before I went missing and you did," the chlorinated blonde pointed out.

"...He won't kill us if we don't mention it," Atticus amended.

Yusuke sweat-dropped. "Sy, he hasn't changed that much... has he?"

Syrus rubbed the back of his neck. "Um... that depends on what you think hasn't changed."

"That he won't kill us?"

The bluenette blinked. "Uh... maybe?"

"Aw, crap," Yusuke groaned, dreading the inevitable reunion between him and his other friend. But then he had no more time to wonder.

"Kids?" Miss Fontaine called.

Everyone looked up. "Miss Fontaine?" Annie called back.

The red-headed nurse poked her head in the room and saw Violet and Bastion cuddled close. "Oh, I don't want to wake them... But the results are ready..."

Suddenly, Mary appeared, having disappeared a while ago when her twin and twin's fiancé were both sleeping. She reached out and gave the dozing Violet a ghostly shake. "Violet! Wake up! The results are in."

Violet mumbled something incomprehensible, and then her eyes fluttered open. "Huh? What?"

Miss Fontaine stepped all the way into the room and over to the awakened patient. "Hey, Violet... honey, your results are ready..."

At that, Violet was soon wide awake, and she slipped out of the bed without a second thought. "Can I see them? Is it bad? It's bad, isn't it?!" She was unconsciously working herself into a panic again.

"Calm down... do you want me to give you the results here or in another room?"

Violet faltered at that, and began fidgeting again. That was becoming a bad habit. "Um..." Being told in private sounded nice, but then she'd have to try and repeat it to the others. Depending on what the results were, being told in front of everyone could be worse.

"Violet... it's okay... we'll be here," Blair murmured reassuringly.

"Yeah... the sisterhood looks out for each other," Mindy added while Jasmine nodded agreement.

"Whatever you decide, we're here," Tyson asserted gently, looking at his dorm brother, sleeping.

Violet appreciated the continuous voiced support from her friends, even though she already knew she'd had their support from the beginning. Her mind needed that little reminder, that extra push to make it decisive again. "I... I want to hear it in another room first," she said at last.

"Okay... do you want someone with you?" the nurse asked.

The teenager considered this, but shook her head, deciding against it relatively quickly. "No... just me."

"Okay..." Without another word, Fonda helped the young woman out of the room.

Annie wanted desperately to run after her, but knew she had to stay. "Violet," she murmured.

Violet felt more than heard her surrogate sister say her name, but her decision was made. 'I'm sorry, Annie... I need to hear this for myself first,' she thought, frowning.

And the nurse and patient headed down to the nurse's office area. Fonda sat her down in a chair and Dr. Mark set the various scans up on the wall. "Hello again, Violet," he smiled at her.

She managed another nervous smile, eyes staring at the scans as if she could understand them before being told. "H-Hi..."

"Well, we've had a look at the scans and readouts... do you want the good news first?" he asked.

For once, she decided to just go with it. "Yeah."

"Well, the good news is that you don't have a brain tumor. You seem in pretty good health, actually, considering how much you've been through," he explained. "You've got a good heart rate, and your blood tests came back good."

She let out a heavy sigh of relief, feeling an immense weight of worry lift from her mind and shoulders. She wasn't going to die; she was very far from the event, in fact. But then Violet remembered that there would be bad news. "What... what's the bad news?" she stammered.

"Well, Violet... I don't know if we can totally count it as bad news because we know what we aren't dealing with and what we are now," Mark Haninozuka smiled gently. He beckoned to her to stand up and come to see the scans of her brain. There was one film with four different images of her brain. Where there might be a solid image of grey, there was a grey image lit up with different bright lighted sections. "See all of these bright spots, Violet?" he asked.

Violet blinked a few times, surprised. "Yeah... what are they?"

"This shows how your brain is working. These bright areas show where your brain is most active." And Dr. Mark explained how chemicals called neurotransmitters worked and then explained how Violet's brain worked. "These bright parts of your brain are extra active compared to other people's brains."

"Why? Is that bad?" Violet asked, wondering how her brain being a little more active could lead to all this.

"Well, the thing is, it might not have caused you any trouble... But then you had some very stressful things happen to you. I've read your file and you dealt with people rejecting you, an ex-boyfriend hitting you and later trying to kill you, and then the kidnapping at the end of last summer. And then you had this thing with Darkness. These triggered your symptoms."

Okay, she understood all of that. "Symptoms?" Violet wondered if he meant the way she was acting.

"Yeah, your mood swings, your over-activity and depression... these all indicate that you have something called bipolar disorder," Dr. Mark explained.

Violet paled slightly. "Then... then I am bipolar?"

"It really looks like you are, kiddo... But we can work on making you feel better," he soothed.

But Violet hadn't heard him. Her eyes were wide and she was starting shake, as her newfound disorder struck up its role and sent her sprawling into panic mode. "Oh no... oh no... no, no, no!" she muttered frantically. All words her friends had spoken to her vanished from her mind as she reached up to clutch at her head. She was bipolar. Depression was one thing; it was simple. Bipolar was different. Bipolar was worse... it was a disorder. She had a full-blown disorder! How long had she had it? Months? Years? Her entire life?? The questions and thoughts swirled around her head enough to make her dizzy, and she felt her knees start to buckle under her weight. When had it become so hard to breathe?

"Violet!" the two medical professionals shouted, catching the girl quickly as she lost consciousness.

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It was a few minutes later when Violet heard a familiar voice calling out to her. "Violet? Violet... it's Annie... It's going to be okay..."

Violet groaned, not wanting to leave the calm, simple blackness she had been surrounded by moments before. She didn't want to have to deal with her jumbled mind and weak body, only weak because of her messed-up head. But now she was up, and her mind was rebooting itself as she opened her eyes. "Unn...."

Annie squeezed her best friend's hand. "It's okay... you just fainted..."

Violet groaned again, remembering exactly why she'd done so. "Annie... I... I'm..."

"It's okay... you panicked a little... it happens... It's all right... Just take some time to pull yourself together."

"But I can't," the purple-headed girl croaked, voice a weak whisper.

"Just take some deep breaths... You're going to be okay," Annie soothed again.

"H-How?" Violet asked shakily.

"Dr. Haninozuka is looking at your history and he's going to get some meds for you," she answered softly.

This elicited another groan from the green-eyed teen. "Not again..."

"This time, they should work better," Annie murmured. "Can I do something to help you relax?"

Violet remembered the soothing blackness of unconsciousness. "I want to sleep..."

"Okay... Would you like me to sing something?"

"Y-Yeah..."

"Anything in particular?" the dark-haired girl asked. When Violet didn't answer, Annie asked, "Would you like me to sing 'You Know Better than I?'" Violet, just needing something to lull her back into carefree slumber, nodded. And so Annie sang a song from the movie, "Joseph: King of Dreams," which both she and Violet loved. It was a song about having faith and waiting patiently for answers. She sang the whole song through, and when it was over, Annie looked down upon her best friend. Tears came to her eyes as she silently pleaded for divine help in the form Violet needed.

Then, soft steps were heard entering the room, and a short figure kneeled beside Annie. "Annie...?" It was Syrus, knowing somehow that his beloved needed him.

"Hey, honey..." And then her voice failed her as the tears kept running.

Syrus, seeing her tearful expression, wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to him. "It's okay, Annie... everything's going to be all right..."

"Sh-she's so upset... She'll... she'll be okay... but.... oooh..."

He pulled her a little closer, his grip secure around her as he frowned in concern. "She will be okay, Annie... Especially with you there to help her… with all of us there..."

She pushed into him a bit, gaining strength from his embrace. "Just hold me for a minute... Honey... it's all getting to me..."

He did so. "I know it is, Annie... you need to rest too..."

"I will when she's able to tell everybody," she answered, getting control of herself.

And so Violet has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is understandably scared. What will happen when she wakes up? Next time, please join us for "Dealing." Until then, please read, review and stay tuned. Thank you very much!