Heeeyyyy, did someone order an early chapter with extra fries? (though technically I should be trying to update my two other ongoing fics, but shhhh that's just between the two of us)

I'm sorry. I'm such a loser. Anyway, I finished this chapter more quickly than I had expected, so I figured here's a gift to make up for the fact that it took so long for me to update last time. This is also WAAAAY more light and pleasant than recent chapters. It might even be funny -no promises though because I'm not funny. Like every time someone laughs at my jokes I just [makes loud pterodactyl noises]

BTW this is proofread but sometimes when I copy and paste the text onto FFN, it gets messed up. If something is completely illegible, let me know.

According to Marik, a recess between duels was in effect. So far, Ryou Bakura and Odion had already been disqualified, meaning that there was probably no point in acting like Marik was really some nice guy named Namu, which took some weight off of my shoulders, because I couldn't lie for shit. And for the life of me, I couldn't remember who was going to duel next. I could at least recall who dueled who; it was hard to forget really, considering what Yami Marik was about to do to Mai during their duel.

We made our way to the blimp's lounge as Marik awkwardly informed me of what I had missed -not sure why, but whatever floats his boat. I didn't know why I had woken up in his room. Had he rescued me from Sun and Zephyr? If so, then why? How did he even know where I was? I tried to ask, but I didn't know where to start, and if I'm being honest, I was slightly terrified of him. He was just a kid, but he was capable of starting an entire duelist mercenary group -not to mention the fact that he didn't shy away from murder in his coercive methods. Therefore, I wasn't so inclined to start questioning him.

I felt my heart get stuck in my throat as Marik began to push open the door to the lounge, the thought of my friends all being out there making me nervous. "W-Wait!" I exclaimed, grabbing his hand out of impulse and regretting the decision immediately after.

"What?" he asked, frowning at me, but not looking particularly scary, so it was all good -I think.

"I…" I struggled to put it into words. I can't be seen with you.

Marik rolled his eyes, stepping away from the door and gesturing towards it with a flourish of his hand. "I'll wait a few minutes before following you in," he reassured me in a disinterested tone.

Smart kid. At least he could decode my strange language of unfinished sentences and weird facial expressions -a great feat, honestly. "Th-Thanks…" I stammered, pushing through the door, eager to get away from him and back to my friends.

The lounge was quite large considering it was in the middle of a giant blimp… Well, I couldn't say it was in the middle of the blimp, seeing as I didn't know the exact layout of the blimp, but it was probably somewhere there. Probably. The room was split into one small area, with a stage and a podium, and another larger area with comfortable-looking sofas and tables, set almost like a very fancy café. Although it was in no way shabby, it was certainly simplistic, so clearly Kaiba had allocated most of his expenses to the actual duel simulation machinery. In spite of everything, I was really looking forward to actually seeing said machinery in action, but the thought of someone almost dying while using it kinda stabbed all the fun out of it.

Reclining in one of the sofas was a slender blonde woman that I had never seen before, and I could only assume it was Mai Valentine. She was sitting alone with one long leg crossed over the other as she looked over her cards. It was very likely that she was coming up with a strategy for her next duel and it kinda sucked that she wasn't going to win, and even worse that she was going to end up comatose for a while, too. Hey, maybe we could start a club, maybe even have some jackets made and stuff. I would have to work on a slogan for us. I'd let Odion join in, too. If I remembered correctly, he was a pretty chill guy when he wasn't obeying his evil step-brother's every command.

Mai was the only person in the room who wasn't a KaibaCorp staff member, so I tentatively approached her, my bare feet making soft tapping noises on the smooth floor. I wasn't exactly stealthy, however, so she whipped her head around at the sound of my approach, with a mixture of surprise and confusion on her face -and just for the record: she was much prettier than I had expected her to be, causing me to temporarily lose my voice in my throat.

"You!" she exclaimed. She recognized me? "You're that girl… the dead one."

Oh… so that was my reputation? A milkshake like that probably wasn't going to bring all the girls to my yard if the terror creeping into Mai's face was any indication. "I'm not really dead, you know," I corrected her lamely, not even sure where to start. Maybe asking about Joey and everyone would be a good idea, so I did just that.

"They were looking for you, last time I saw them. They went to see you in the sick ward after Joey's duel and you were just gone," she explained.

"Yeah… I kinda got lost," I told her, looking down at my bare feet. Man, my toenails could've used a clipping, but now was not the time to worry about that. "Do you know where I can find them now?"

Mai huffed and pursed her lips in thought, placing her cards on the table and then crossing her arms. "Your best bet would be to wait for them here, I guess…" she said, nodding towards the sofa that was placed on the opposite side of the coffee table from Mai's seat. "If you don't mind my asking, though… How exactly do you go from dead to up and walking?" she asked, going back to her cards and going through them. "I mean, obviously you aren't dead, but something made everyone think so."

I made a noncommittal gesture, putting my hands in my lap sheepishly and tilting my head down until my ear was touching my shoulder. "Mm… you see… that is a good question, and I'd love to answer it, but the thing is that I don't actually know the answer to that myself. All I know is I've gone unconscious so many times today against my will…" I lifted my head and looked over to the alarmed expression that lit up Mai's violet eyes. "Long story," I said dismissively.

"I'll say. Sounds like it was a rough day…" she remarked, going back to analyzing one of her cards.

The door to the lounge softly clicked open and I saw Mai turn her head, her brow tightening in a glare, her shoulders rising defensively. Something told me our favorite Egyptian dickwad had just walked into the room. I didn't want to meet his eyes so I simply looked down at my lap, absentmindedly counting fingers. Eventually, she averted her gaze, slowly unwinding her shoulders and settling into her seat again, and she picked up another card off of the table, as though nothing had happened.

Unsure of what to say and uninclined to bother her while she prepared for an important duel, I simply pulled my legs up onto the chair and hugged them, noting the bandages that were loosely wrapped around them. It only just occurred to me that I was supposed to be completely unable to walk, much less lift my legs up and bend them against my body. Did that somehow change?

Idly, I ran my hand down one of my legs, both testing the flesh there for any pain and searching for the end of the bandage. My leg almost jerked under the strange sensation -one that felt like numbness and ticklishness in one. No pain, no ache, no discomfort. Hurriedly, I felt all around my leg searching for the end of the wrapping and nearly tore it off, revealing nearly clear tan skin. My leg looked almost exactly the way it did before, save for a bit of faded layer of scarring running up my leg like a gradient with the most prominent scarring at the bottom near my feet. It was better than I had expected, but they weren't pretty, and I was certain I wouldn't ever be able to wear short-shorts again.

"How'd you get those?" Mai remarked, startling me out of my thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on my single exposed leg, making me feel a bit self-conscious and tuck my leg under me. "Oh! I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth. "I just… You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

I couldn't find a voice to answer her with, like a bad dream where you want to call for help, but you can't. A sense of shame came over me and I nodded solemnly, trying to avoid eye contact. "It's okay… I'd rather not."

At the thought of my scars, Viola popped up in my mind, as she had done so many times today, and I saw my final attack. Still keeping my head low, I spoke up again. "Um… Is- Is Téa…here, too?" I almost said "alive" but stopped myself.

She looked genuinely surprised that I'd singled Téa out as she asked, "Téa? Yeah, she is." I saw her crane her neck up just as the sound of shuffling feet filled the once quiet lounge. "There she is, actually," she informed me.

She didn't need to tell me twice. In about three seconds, I had turned around and was on my knees on the chair, peeking up from over the back cushion. There were four familiar faces and two I only vaguely recognized, and as I made to raise a hand and wave them over, the chair wobbled beneath me. I was powerless to stop it as it fell over onto its back, so I simply clung to the cushion for dear life as it hit the ground with a clatter.

The group stopped in their tracks, each of them giving me their own personal quizzical looks. I must have been quite the sight, kneeling on my knees with my ass in the air (likely traumatizing Mai forever) and the thin hospital gown barely covering a thing, seeming more like the star of a doctor-patient porno than the less than attractive teenage girl I actually was.

"Ow," I whimpered.

A rough hand grabbed my shoulder and helped me up into an upright position. Suddenly, my vision was filled with a smirking face that made my heart both melt and speed up to at least twenty times the speed it was supposed to go. "Careful there," Joey said, barely holding in a guffaw. "Are you okay?" His blond bangs were drooping over his eyes, making it significantly easier to look away from them.

"Physically, yeah… But I don't think my dignity will ever recover," I replied, letting out a nervous giggle. I was pretty sure my face was darkening in a blush at the amused look he was giving me -as if I needed anymore reasons to be mortified.

Before Joey could reply, three other faces shoved their way into my vision, but all I could see was Téa. I felt my throat clog up and my eyes burn. All I could remember was an aching regret and I threw my arms around her, nearly shoving the boys out of the way as I did so. "God, Téa… I'm so glad you're okay," I bawled into her blouse.

Strong arms returned the hug and her head buried itself into my shoulder. "Aw, Lorna," she said in a shaking voice. "You're going to make me cry, too." She laughed away the tension and fear I felt like some sort of magical healing fairy.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," I whispered, all my emotions and fears coming out in one huge sob. I didn't kill her. She was alive. I didn't kill her.

Her hand softly moved in circles on the small of my back. "It's okay, sweetie. Shh…"

Those words sounded like they had just come out of my wildest fantasy, but I wasn't still dreaming, was I? I pulled away from her, wiping my tears on the back of my hand. "How is it okay, Téa? You almost died, and it was my fault. Téa, I almost killed you. That's not okay. How are you fine with any of this?"

Téa shook her head with a reassuring smile on her lips. "We noticed that you were possessed by Marik. You couldn't control that. I can't and won't blame you for that. We all know what he's capable of."

Her response completely baffled me and I couldn't find a single word to say in response, so I simply cocked my head to the side, wiping away tears that were still coming down. "Marik possessed me? When did that happen?" I would have liked to think that if Marik had anything to do with my duel with Viola, I'd have at least noticed.

"During your duel with that Viola chick," Joey clarified and I saw Tristan nod his head.

"Y-You don't remember?" Yugi asked seriously, his sharp eyes burning a hole into my forehead. Wait. Was this the Pharaoh?

My expression clearly wasn't one of understanding and realization and the group could see that, so Téa held my shoulders firmly and helped me to my feet. "Let's not discuss this on the ground," she said. "A lot happened with us while you were in the hospital… and I'm sure you have some stuff to explain, too."

We were all seated around Mai's table -my friends and I, in addition to Mai and the two new people, who had been introduced to me as Serenity, Joey's little sister, and Duke, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters and another friend of theirs. They had all just finished retelling the tale of Yugi's first encounter with Marik, in which Marik had absolutely annihilated one of his servants in a most literal sense, reducing him to nothing but dust and blood. I wasn't sure whether to say "ouch" or "ew" in light of that kind of information.

Yugi had elected to let the Pharaoh retell the story, I could tell by his intonation and his certainty that this sort of thing was probably not the most disturbing or explicit thing he had ever seen in life or in death, but it was most likely still in his top three, which was kinda sad. The Pharaoh needed a vacation.

What struck me as odd, however, was the fact that I was absolutely positive that this hadn't actually happened in the show. I may have have remembered very little of Yu-Gi-Oh, but something told me that graphic and horrifying mutilation was not the sort of thing that happened normally. If things were going differently, was it because of me? Was something going on with Marik that we didn't understand? They said that Marik possessed me and almost got Téa killed, and I was starting to seriously consider the possibility. I would never let her die, even if my own life was on the line, would I?

No, I would not doubt myself. I didn't need that. Not now. I had too much to worry about to wonder whether I was secretly a heartless monster who would murder her friends in a flash if it meant she got out alive.

However, that would also mean that Marik was the voice in my head, which was completely impossible as far as I was concerned. There was no way in fucking hell that he was the one who was speaking to me the whole time. Still it was certainly possible that there were two voices in my head -one that gave me less-than-sagely advice and acted like an asshole, and one that tried to make me commit double murder by card game. It was terrifying that I couldn't tell the difference between them.

In return, I went ahead and told them as much as I could understand from what had happened to me from the moment I passed out after attacking Téa to the moment they found me, leaving out the part where I had woken up in Marik's room. I told them about how I woke up in a morgue and was broken out of it by Bakura. I tried to make the zombie part make sense, too, but I simply gave up and dismissed it as part of my imagination. I mean, it was all very ridiculous. Zombies in the Inbetween: plausible; zombies in real life: not so plausible.

I then mentioned Zephyr and Sun and how they had suffocated me in order to force me into a state of unconsciousness, how I had woken up in a place called "The Inbetween" Most of the people present were shocked and fascinated, but I could have sworn I saw Serenity look down and hug herself at the mention of talking duel monsters and bizarre alternate realms. Perhaps that was my imagination, too.

"You're saying Bakura was there?" the Pharaoh questioned, leaning into the table. "In this Inbetween?"

I nodded reluctantly. "I think he was. I mean, I remember him being there with me, but I can't remember what we were doing. Then I was somewhere else and I met another one of those people who came to your dimension with me."

He nodded silently, resting his elbow on his knee and stroking his chin thoughtfully. If anyone I could trust would know anything about the Inbetween, it had to be the Pharaoh.

Ouch. I'm still here, y'know.

Don't push me. You might be Marik for all I know.

I'm not. Like I said. I'm just your friendly neighborhood disembodied voice. At your service.

That's exactly what Marik would say.

Well, well, look at you, exercising caution and being paranoid. Way to go, Lorna. Just don't forget who saved your ass over and over again.

Deciding to ignore it, I directed my attention towards my friends who were considering the Inbetween amongst each other. The Pharaoh, naturally, was at the center of the discussion, as the only individual with reliable knowledge on the matter.

"It's very familiar to me," he informed them. "The Inbetween… like something I might have heard about in my past life. Sadly, I can't recall anything important," he said apologetically. "However, the term does makes me uneasy, as though I may have heard something sinister about it before. And from what you've told us about it, my feeling doesn't seem that far from the truth."

I was a bit disappointed that he couldn't remember anything, but I was one to talk, especially since I couldn't remember half of the shit that went down in the Inbetween. It still vexed me that all that came up in my mind about the time I spent with Ryou was his voice and his unconscious face. In fact, I probably even had my timeline wrong, too, but that was hardly important if I couldn't even make sense of anything that happened there.

"Hey, Lorna," Tristan piped up. He was hunched over in his seat with his hand over his mouth, a finger idly scratching his nose. "Did you ever figure out what was going on with Rex?"

Rex? Oh, yeah… Something happened with him, too. With all that had gone on, I had almost forgotten that little shit.

"Wait. Rex?" Joey asked, taken aback. Had Tristan not told them? I had truly expected everything I had discussed with him to become public knowledge by then. Perhaps I should have placed more faith in him. "When d'ya meet that little weasel?"

I bit my lip and shrugged. "I dueled him before Viola. Took a locator card from him, too."

"That's not all that happened, though," Tristan added, planting his hands on his knees and leaning in like he was about to tell a scary story, and maybe the story he was about to tell could have been considered scary. "Lorna kinda hallucinated in the middle of it. I found her in the middle of a panic attack or something, and I had to talk her down before she could really duel."

"A-A panic attack?" Téa exclaimed, alarmed and concerned. Her arm went around my shoulders and squeezed me gently. "What happened?" I wanted to feel reassured now that her hand was tenderly stroking my shoulder, but all I felt was choked up and uncertain.

"I-It was…" All eyes were on me and I felt like a mouse trapped in a circle of lions. Part of me wanted to just say it was nothing -that I was just seeing things, and it was all stupid, impossible and childish. "T-Tristan…" I whimpered, trying to find a way out. He knew the story, so what was stopping him from stepping in for me?

I found refuge from the person I least expected. His voice snatched all the eyes away from my timid face and my wide frightful eyes. "Guys, I don't think you should push her. She doesn't look alright." Duke Devlin, the raven-haired entrepreneur I had only just been introduced to, was a veritable godsend.

Immediately, I felt Téa's arm retract, and as my muscles began to relax, I realized how upright I had been sitting. "I'm sorry," I whispered, feeling like an idiot. I could have told them to lay off myself… I should have told them myself; yet here was this guy I didn't even know stepping up for me like I was some silly little girl. I'll have you know I was at least one year older than every single person there except for maybe Mai… So why was I always like this?

"Nah… I'm sorry…" Tristan replied, giving me an apologetic smile and a chuckle. "I saw first-hand what happened and I should have known better than to force you to talk about it."

I sighed and shook my head, grinning wryly. "Apology accepted, ya stupid dickpimple," I teased, wringing my wrist.

He flailed dramatically and let out an exaggerated gasp, leaning back in his seat and gripping the arms of his chair tightly. In a choked voice, he protested, "There are children here!" His other hand swept over to Serenity, narrowly missing her face.

It took Joey a minute to realize that his sister was being talked about, and after a comical moment's pause, he snapped at Lorna. "Oh, yeah! Be all polite and stuff around my baby sis! She's delicate, y'know." Despite his harsh tone, he gave me a cheeky grin and I couldn't help but giggle at the look on his face; he was a master of facial expressions. He pinched his shy sister's cheeks, making her let out a high pitched complaint and shove him away.

What an adorable fucking goober…

A loud squeaking noise infiltrated the silence and the quiet giggles, and with it, came a searing pain travelling from the bottom of my gut to the top of my gullet. I winced sharply and felt myself lose my balance for less than a second. Needless to say, if they didn't know who the source of that noise was, my less than subtle reaction tipped them off.

"Lorna?" That was Yugi's soft voice -it seemed like the Pharaoh took his leave. "You didn't, by any chance, forget to eat today, did you?"

I bowed my head pensively, trying to recall the last time I ate, and what immediately came to mind were the granola bars I had put in my bag before heading out in the morning, which I hadn't actually gotten a chance to eat, if I even intended to eat them. I had skipped breakfast that morning, too. The thought of having breakfast at the Muto residence made my stomach cry out in anguish, maybe even breaking into its own soulful rendition of "Rolling in the Deep" to mourn its loss.

"Mmm… I drank a mocha latte a few hours ago?" I offered sheepishly -and subsequently upchucked yesterday's dinner, I wanted to say; however, I was in the presence of Joey's delicate sister, so I tried to contain my vulgarity.

If I were to be completely frank with you, though, I was just as surprised as anyone that I hadn't eaten at least enough food for the entire population of Domino City that day, as was my usual serving size. I guess going to hell and back was a bit more time consuming than I had originally estimated. Go figure...

"Hey, then we oughtta ask the staff if there are leftovers from that buffet they had a while ago," Joey suggested, getting to his feet and flexing his arms. Those arms…

God dammit. Lorna, you dirty old man.

"Um, Joey," Yugi's voice called out, snapping me out of whatever the fuck I was just doing. "Mai's duel is about to start. Do you think we'll have time?"

That was when Mai finally spoke up. "Oh, you guys! I'll be fine!" she protested with a humble smile on her face. "Unlike you, I don't need the 'power of friendship' or whatever you guys do for Yugi." she mocked, miming air quotes. Then, pointing a finger at her head, she added, "All I need to win this duel is right up here."

All aboard the bullshit train straight to the Shadow Realm! None of her friends looked convinced either; in fact, the bullshit was so strong with this one, we could've start an organic fertilizer brand supplied by Mai alone.

"Mai, we know you're a great duelist, but you're going up against Marik and his Egyptian God card. That won't be easy," Yugi told her earnestly. "We're not going leave your side."

Joey relaxed his stance and leaned forward, resting his arms on the top of the chair he had been sitting in. "Yeah, Yug's right! We're not letting anything happen to you."

Right… So this was hardly the time to mention this, but I had completely forgotten about Joey's less than subtle crush on Mai. I have no real reason for mentioning this; I just thought you should know.

Ahem. Moving on.

Yes, please!

Shush, you. You're getting talkative.

What of it?

If I didn't know any better, I'd say you enjoyed my company. It's okay to admit that we're kinda friends.

I detest that accusation. Besides, I'm a non-physical entity. I don't need friends.

Right. Keep telling yourself that. Everyone was still discussing Mai's upcoming duel, so I figured why not antagonize Voicey a bit. It didn't answer me after that, though. Asshole.

When I tuned back into the conversation, Duke was speaking. "Y'know, I'm not a close friend of Mai's like you guys," he said, twirling a strand of his hair in between his thumb and forefinger. "I could show your friend, Lorna, to the kitchens and get her taken care of while you show your support during the duel. And we'll be back just in time to see her bring that Marik creep's life points down to zero." Ahaha, getting your hopes up a lil' bit high, aren't you, Dukey-boy? I kept my mouth shut, for as long as there was the prospect of food, then I was on board with anything they had to say.

Still, the fact that I would be keeping him from watching Mai's duel ate at me. Mai was going to need all the help she could get, and rather than help, as I had originally intended, I was only making things worse by giving her one less friend to support her. Circumstance was turning out to be the biggest hindrance for me as far as using my foresight was going. I could've probably found the kitchen on my own if I asked the staff, so really, nobody had to go with me, but I couldn't bring myself to voice that. As selfish as it was, I wanted to have a familiar face with me, some kind of guarantee that I wouldn't fall unconscious and end up in the Inbetween again, away from the people I trusted.

Everyone seemed to be considering this option very carefully, and with a nod, Yugi, the apparent spokesperson of the group, replied, "Are you sure, Duke?"

Duke flashed me an effortless and genuine grin, almost as though he could sense the two hungry and angry Lornas shouting at each other in my head. "Hey, I'm not about to let a lady starve," he said smoothly. "Besides, I need a break from all these duels."

Ah, I may not have remembered this guy too well, but I was starting to like him more and more…

"Try not to miss me too much, Serenity." He winked suggestively at Joey's sister within ass-kicking distance of Joey, which was one of the boldest things I had ever seen a person do, but it also reminded me of which character he was.

Well, this was going to be pleasant.

So yeah, it's filler-ish... and sort of the fanfic equivalent of a clip show, but hey, 25 chapters have passed and I'm sure you needed a slow chapter. Lorna tried to figure stuff out in this chapter -maybe you guys can, too. (and maybe leave theories in your reviews?)

Oh, oh and I passed 100k words. Technically a couple thousand of those words are author's note, but STILL. I've never gotten to 100k words on annyyything

Also, you can still guess who Lorna's love interest. That's still a thing. Love interest hasn't actually been revealed.

I'll give you a hint though: For all of Lorna's blatant fangirling, it's not Joey. I mean, that would be too easy. C'mon, what kind of author do you take me for?

PS. If you don't know this song already, look up Cristina Vee's English cover of "Bad Apple" I've listened to it so many times that certain lyrics from it have actually influenced the story... a teensy bit (not to mention the lyrics that accidentally fit with half of the things I wrote -I mean don't you love it when you find a song like that?)