Ahem... yes, well, it wasn't 6 months this time, but erm... still.. ah... not good. Yeah, honestly, I'm just going to skip on over to the chapter here.

Things have calmed down in YuGiOh-land, but all is not well, because Lorna is confused, and I'm confused, and I'm betting you guys are, too.

I TRIED to go back to the funnies I used to give you before... idk I think I failed. Honestly I don't even know how you guys find me funny. My comedy consists of dad jokes, sarcasm, obscure references, and weird Disney Channel jokes from 2002 that you used to find funny, but now you only find sad and ironically amusing.

Duke is great, too, isn't he? Super under-appreciated.

Also, before the chapter, I wanted to take the time to reply to my anon reviewers since I can't reply to you normally, and I can't just leave a review without replying.

justfourmisfits: Your review made me really happy! Thank you! It was going to be a parody at first though haha not a short parody, but a parody nonetheless. But I'm terrible at parodies.

LeafeonLover: Your reviews always make me smile :D I'm sorry for all the zombies... but for reasons I can't disclose, zombies do play a part. There will be significantly less zombies now, so don't worry.

Guest: I meant to reply to you earlier in my author's note, but I kept forgetting to do so. I do somewhat know my rulings, but yeah I make amateurish mistakes all the time. I tried duelingnetwork once and ended up making a bunch of people roll their eyes at me, God bless them. Thankfully, the show doesn't follow the rulings exactly either, so I can get away with this stuff hahaa Though it's so cool that someone paid attention to the effort I put to at least TRY to get the rulings right.

Quiet shuffling of feet and an awkward sigh that sounded like it would have been followed by words; those were the only sounds in the corridor leading towards the blimp's kitchen. The metallic walls seemed claustrophobic, but definitely not as claustrophobic as they were when I was wandering aimlessly with Zephyr, my mind barely with me and my vision faltering. I was startlingly awake now and it felt good -better than I had felt in what seemed like weeks and what was actually a single day. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I could only estimate that it had been at least 24 hours since I had last felt like a real live human being.

"Sorry," I told the boy chaperoning me, trying to break the ice between us.

He seemed surprised that I was even acknowledging him. "Huh? Uh... oh, um why?"

I let out a difficult breath and ran a hand through my hair. Something seemed different about it... not that I actually felt like worrying about that when I had... say... a psychopath potentially using an ancient Egyptian artifact to control my mind. "You... should be with your friends." It was a half-hearted 'apology' as I had no intention of getting rid of my guarantee that nothing weird would happen to me, but I still felt a tiny bit guilty.

"Aw jeez," Duke chuckled breathlessly. He looked like he had been expecting me to apologize. "You don't have to apologize. I can't let a lady -"

"Don't give me that," I interrupted him, blushing slightly at being called a lady of all things. "You can cut the act with me."

He grinned, his emerald eyes sparkling. "What act?"

I let out a small huff, and looked away. "The whole chivalry whatever… I mean, I get you're trying to be nice, but I've had enough of people lying to me for one day."

He frowned, twirling a strand of his hair. "Sorry," he replied sheepishly, looking almost like he'd been slapped. "I don't know what happened to you today, but if you need to talk..."

I gave him an incredulous look. "But you don't know me."

Duke looked taken aback and a bit shy, which was somewhat uncharacteristic of him. "Y-Yeah, I know... but you look like you need someone to talk to." It looked like that wasn't exactly what he meant to say; the suave and infallible Duke Devlin seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say, not that I was making it easy.

I felt my gut twist in remorse. I was kinda being a dick to him. Zorc would have been proud of me... Nah, more likely than not he wouldn't give a single solitary fuck, and if I was lucky (if we were all lucky) he was in the Shadow Realm after a humiliating defeat to... Yami... Marik... who... who... who…

Yami. Marik.

Wait.

Waaaiiiit.

My stomach was doing flip-flops (which, given the amount of chub and flip-flop room I had, wasn't such a difficult feat) and my mind went back to the significantly sane Marik that I woke up to earlier. He was supposed to be a sadistic murderer; if I could recall anything in this season, it was that. Yes, I could definitely remember Joey dueling Odion… and something about the Winged Dragon of Ra… and Marik completely losing it… and for some reason this didn't seem to be what happened. Something wasn't right.

A loud squeak brought me out of my bleak thoughts and back to the real world where Duke was trying not to make eye contact with me in fear of invoking my wrath. God dammit, Stomach! I was trying to have a moment of revelation -god dammit. My body wasn't exactly in tip-top shape, however, and my brain, being just as out-of-shape as my body was, wasn't exactly up to running that extra mile, especially not on a stomach so cold, empty, and barren that it felt like having Zorc's heart attached to my intestines instead -ba dum tsss.

"You okay?" he asked. In front of us was a closed metal door, resembling most of the doors I'd seen -nothing very noteworthy aside from the fancy nameplate on the side that read "Kitchen" He pushed the door open, placing his hand on the small of my back and ushering me in.

"In which sense?" I asked, with a nervous giggle. I wondered where all the staff were; the place was completely devoid of human life. Hey, the less people there to see me wolf down twice my body mass in food, the better; am I right or am I right? "Sorry," I told him. This time he didn't answer. "I'm really just... coming off more bitter than I usually am. Normally, I'm somewhat more pleasant."

Duke smiled. "I can tell. I'll try not to be too offended."

"There's nobody in here," I noted, taking a look around. Shouldn't there have been kitchen staff on duty?

"Hello?" Duke called out.

I watched Duke walk over to the long counter sitting against the far right wall, where there seemed to be an assortment of metal containers -you know, the kinds they used in buffets. "I think I can guess how you're feeling in the physical sense. Hungry, right?" he said, lifting the lid off of something that looked particularly tantalizing.

I grinned at him. "How did you guess?"

I had to hand it to Kaiba (and his money… mostly his money); that food was like the fourth of July in my stomach -that is to say… it was colorful and delicious, but my abdomen felt like someone had just detonated several small bombs and tried to send it to the golden land. I only had two refills… maybe three.

"Feeling better?" Duke asked as he put my dishes in the sink, slyly smirking at my slouching form.

I watched him with my head against the table, clutching my stomach in pain. "No."

Like a teeny, traitorous dagger to my bloated gut, he let out a small chuckle, which sounded a lot like a short exhale, but don't worry, guys -I know when someone's laughing at me. "And uhh, what about earlier? You know, that stuff with Marik and…" he trailed off. He was done with the cleaning up and was coming back to my side.

In truth, I wasn't really sure how I felt about that stuff with Marik, and I wasn't sure how to feel. I could have dismissed it as nothing because there was no reason whatsoever to suspect Marik; if he had had anything to do with this, I would have known. I could also have taken it incredibly seriously, suspecting every single voice in my head and every shadow in my peripherals. The latter, however, sounded incredibly stressful, so much so that it made my heart palpitate at the mere thought. Deciding to do what I did best and completely procrastinate thinking about this, I changed the subject completely.

"Listen, Duke," I told him, sitting up straight and letting him help me to my feet. "Thank you."

A warm smile graced his lips. "C'mon now, Lorna. Don't mention it."

I shook my head and the two of us began heading out of the kitchen. "No, Duke I mean it. Not just for this… but for before. When they put me on the spot like that… I honestly felt like I was going to puke. And you completely saved my life back there."

He looked taken aback for a slight moment, but the natural smile came back to his face right after that. "You don't need to thank me for that," he urged. "I know a damsel in distress when I see one."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Are we seriously doing that again?" I looked away from him, hoping and praying to… I don't know… Ra (?) -I was an atheist and my parents were pagans, so I would have to improvise- that I wasn't blushing. "You're telling me that it was pure chivalry?"

"If you want it to be," he offered and I didn't even need to look at the smug bastard to know that he was smirking at me. Nevertheless, I did look at him and my suspicions were right on the mark. One look at my face, however, told him that I was having none of it. He let out a long sigh and clicked his tongue. "Geez…" he grumbled. "If you really want to know… I've had enough panic attacks to know one when I see one."

"But I didn't -" I began.

"You would have if I hadn't said anything," he interrupted. "It starts out small, and then you're hyperventilating and shaking… It feels like everything is ending… like you're falling from a tall building, going faster and faster until…" He trailed off, his hand idly rubbing his elbow as he looked away from me.

I felt my skin crawl at the mental image. "Thank you," I repeated more softly than before, looking down at the ground, the wide, curious eyes of my friends flashing brightly in my mind's eye, and I shut my eyes tightly, as though that alone could make the memory go away. He might have been right.

There was a warm hand on my shoulder, as if sensing my unrest, it seems he meant to save me again. "Don't think too hard about it," he advised, his face looking more serious than I had seen it since we first met, and as quickly as the serious moment had started, it was over and he had the same arrogant leer from before. "Earlier, Téa told me to take you over to her room on the blimp. She said she had some clothes for you to borrow since you can't really stay in that hospital gown all night."

"Huh?" I was still out of it, trying to shake away the weird feeling I had gotten earlier and my brain was struggling to concentrate on his words.

"It's pretty cold out," he elaborated. "You'll freeze to death in that."

"That… sounds like a good idea," I breathed.

It was more quiet on my way to Téa's room; Duke was less talkative than my first impression led me to believe, and I guess that left me and my thoughts more alone than I would have liked. I was forced to confront them in that five minute walk: the doubts, the fears; the revelations, the mysteries.

To start out, my very first mystery was the duel disk. Someone planned this day out for me, and I was completely certain of that. I couldn't remember much about the woman who gave me the duel disk… She had bright green eyes and mesmerizing red lips, and I could still see them in my mind's eye, moving, telling me something.

"Lorna."

She said my name, but she said something else… at least I remembered her saying something else; a warning perhaps?

Those lips, however, I was almost certain I had seen not once, but twice.

Need help with that?

Fuck off.

Nice. What happened to friendship and all that gross junk?

I'm trying to think and you're distracting me.

You did see her twice, though.

See who?

Sun. You saw her twice.

Twice? I thought back to the last time I saw Sun, just before being drugged and sent to the Inbetween…

And the first time was when she gave you your duel disk last week.

That was her? Wait. I remember you had some explaining to do!

Yeah, and that's what I've been trying to do, but you keep shutting me up.

Pfft. Like I have any control over whether or not you shut up. I thought bitterly, trying not to let Duke catch me rolling my eyes at nothing. He already had enough reasons to turn around and walk slowly away from me, and I didn't need to give him any more.

Starting off. You're not the only one fell into a coma and ended up in Domino City. It started with the most obvious bit and I suppose that was the best place to start. There were five others; one for each element: Light, dark, earth, wind, water, fire. You're light.

Light? Is there some sort of criteria for how we were chosen?

If there is, then I'm not aware of it. For now, let's call it random and figure out the Hows and the Whys later.

Right. I nodded discreetly and decided to pay attention to the real world for a couple of minutes as we were approaching a door with the words "Guest Wing" written on the nameplate. We were close to Téa's room.

Duke pointed out the room and gave me a friendly smile, which was a nice change from the flirtatious smirk that seemed to be one of his permanent facial features. "I'll be right outside if you need me," he told me as I stepped inside.

I put on a gracious face and replied, "It's okay, Duke. It's just clothes. They're not gonna try to kill me."

His face went abruptly solemn at those words. "From what I've heard, Marik doesn't need to be in the same room as you to control you. Just be careful."

Looking down at the ground sheepishly I mumbled. "Y-Yeah, you're right. Thanks. I'll try not to die."

"Please do."

I could feel my cheeks darken when I noted just how serious he sounded. "I ah… yes, I will…" I babbled as I fumbled with the door handle and practically lurched into the room as though I truly was possessed by Marik.

Shutting the door behind me, I assessed the area. I suppose not much assessing was needed, though, seeing as it was just like your average one-person hotel room. It wasn't very big, but definitely spacious. Téa had her things in a suitcase on the ground, neatly folded; it didn't seem like she had much time to unpack it with all the dueling and shadow games.

It didn't take me long to find my bag sitting on the table to the side, so at least I could count on Zorc to give me my stuff back. I remembered packing at least two changes of clothes in my backpack when I left the house, so there should have been at least one outfit left in there.

Slipping my arms out of the sleeves, I let the hospital gown fall to the floor. I then put on the simple striped t-shirt and short overalls, silently cursing the fact that my scars would be on display for everyone to see. I wasn't quite okay with seeing them myself, but to have other people look at them made me more than just a bit self-conscious.

Hey, if you squint, they're like badass tattoos… Voice offered, the awkwardness in its tone almost audible.

Not helping.

Sorry.

So where were we? I asked it, deciding to change the topic as I started to slip on a pair of sneakers Téa had left out for me, which were way more comfortable than the boots I had been wearing earlier.

The… ah… elements I guess. I'm not sure what they signify yet, but someone's gone to great lengths to get one of each. Also, for each of you, there's something called an Anchor… or should I say someone. People from this world that you're tethered to in order to remain here.

And mine is Bakura, I finished for him. It made sense after all.

Actually, no.

Well, I'd been wrong before. And I'm aware that's an understatement. Please don't say anything. I suppose I could just shut up and let the Voice do all the talking; after all I wasn't too good at logic apparently.

I'm not entirely certain who yours is yet, but I know the person tethered to Bakura is a young girl. I've seen her around the Inbetween, although I don't believe she's quite aware of what's going on.

So she's not Sun or Zephyr then. I noted.

I don't know much about them. I used to communicate with them, but they haven't been letting me in as of late. Not very wise of them, but it's ultimately their loss. I didn't like that "Doc" nickname of Zephyr's anyway.

Aw, I thought it was cute… Doc.

Don't start with me, girl.

Yeah, sorry. Not gonna happen again.

A surprisingly considerate soft rapping interrupted my thoughts. "Um… Lorna?" Duke's voice passed through the door. "You alright in there?"

Shit. I had taken a bit too long to come back out of the room. "Uh yeah, sorry. I'll be out in a second." I called out to him, rushing over to the mirror to check out the damage. I looked less dead than I had expected, but my hair looked weird for some reason. I turned my head around in different directions and tried see where it had changed. It looked like it was shorter in the back… I felt the edges of my hair from the nape of my neck to my cheek. I mean it wasn't very long to begin with, but I had clearly gotten an impromptu haircut. Could those weird flesh-eating demons have snagged on my hair during my duel? It was the only cause I could think of.

So you got anything else to explain? I asked as I shook off my hair and tried to make it look less weird. I didn't get an answer from it.

It caught me off-guard just how cold it was on the roof of the blimp as Duke and I made our way into the dueling arena. I mean, Duke had warned me, but I didn't realize it would be nine-thousand degrees under zero. We saw our friends standing at the sidelines watching Mai intently. I shivered as I huddled at the back of the group, unsure of what had happened so far.

"Hey, you okay now?" Tristan asked, stepping towards me, a nervous Serenity in tow. He shrugged off his leather jacket, draping it around my shoulders.

I nodded stiffly. How many times had I been asked that? "Yeah… fine." I replied, and although it was the truth at the moment, it felt like a lie. I had been through too much to be just "fine" but what could I say that hadn't already been said? I wrapped the jacket around myself appreciatively.

"You sure you're up to watching this duel? You were pretty out of it before," he told me. "I could walk you back to the infirmary or…"

"No," I shot back a bit too firmly. "I don't want to be by myself. Not anymore."

Tristan scoffed and grinned. "Like we'd let you stay there all by yourself. Don't worry. You're our friend, so you can trust us to keep any eye out for you."

Like you kept an eye out for me while Viola tried to rip my skin off… or in the Inbetween. I kept those thoughts to myself, but they still ate away at me.

"So how's the duel been so far?" I asked, gripping the jacket more tightly and trying to approach the rest of the group. Everyone looked like they were wound up to their limits and then some, so I could only guess things weren't looking too good. Of course, I already knew this. I couldn't have stopped it even if I tried.

"You haven't missed much… They've just finished their first turns, but Mai's acting real weird all of a sudden," he replied more seriously, watching the woman duel intently.

"W-Weird how?" I asked, glancing at the field. Mai had some sort of… winged warrior monster on the field while Marik had his infamous Revival Jam, which I'm sure we all know was his favorite party trick. He also had… I'm gonna say a Revival Jam gun thing? I mean, I knew what it was, but I wasn't sure what its name was… something charming I'm sure, though. Hell, I didn't really give half a shit what it was called, but Marik was definitely going to use it for one of his Dick Moves™.

Serenity answered me this time. "She's not letting us help her and she's shutting us down every time we try to talk to her. It's not like her." She sounded hopelessly lost, and if I could recall correctly, Serenity really looked up to Mai, so this must have been painful for her. She bit her lip and crossed her arms over her chest.

Well, at least all that that fit with what I remembered about this duel.

"Our battle has only just begun and already you doubt yourself," Marik remarked with a chuckle. His imposing stare cast a looming shadow over the field and his sinister smirk made perfectly certain that the word "doubt" sunk in.

Mai may have looked pretty confident up there on that pedestal with her luscious blonde locks blowing in the wind behind her, but I sure wasn't. Her voice boomed out over the field, trying to push back Marik's dark silhouette and almost managing to do so. "You are wrong again! Now, my Dark Witch, attack his Revival Jam with Spellbinding Flux!"

Oh no… Even I knew that was not a good idea. I saw Yugi stiffen; he'd been up against Revival Jam before supposedly, so maybe he and I were the same in terms of knowing useful things that could save Mai but not actually being able to apply these things to the real world. Well, maybe not exactly the same, considering his track record with beating the odds and saving the day was pretty solid, while mine was… let's just say "shaky at best"

Immediately responding to her call, the female monster rose up into the air, crossing her arms over her chest and then unleashing a dark energy blast all at once with a swift motion of her arms. The energy flowed across the field, swift as a bullet, and collided with the amorphous form of Marik's monster, causing the the monster to disintegrate as several clusters of of it were cast off in every direction.

As I waited for Revival Jam to reintegrate, I noted something and that was the fact that the atmosphere was still clear, which meant that Marik still hadn't started the Shadow Game; still its looming threat tied my intestines into knots and brought the bile to my throat.

Calm down, Lorna.

You're back?

I never leave.

Please tell me that, by some miracle, Mai beats this creep?

I honestly don't know… I'm sorry.

I felt a heavy gust of wind ruffle my clothes and rubbed my arms fiercely, while, out of the corner of my eye, two violet irises met my own. He looked down at me inquisitively, his right hand tightly gripping his cards and his other hand idly resting on top of his deck. Uncomfortably, I shrunk into Tristan.

"Is it just me or is creepazoid over there checking you out?" he asked, reaching out for my arm to drag me out of Marik's line of sight.

"Can we not call it that?" I moaned miserably. "I'm probably his next victim. He's got this Ted Bundy look in his eye like he's about to drag me to his terror dungeon."

"Terror dungeon"?

Shut up.

"'Terror dungeon'?" Tristan echoed with an amused look on his face -or at least, as amused as you can be when your friend is in immediate danger, dueling a disturbed individual who has killed before and would totally kill again; Marik probably enjoyed this.

"Shut up," I told him, though my actual voice shivered much more than the voice in my head. Whether it was due to anxiety or the cold, it didn't matter; both were equal threats as far as I was concerned.

Tristan sighed laboriously and rubbed the back of his neck. "N-No, I mean I can imagine him having one of those honestly. Probably in his evil Egyptian underground lair."

I cracked half of a smile. "Probably does. We should ask him."

"And get myself killed?" he asked, startled. "You're on your own with that."

While the two of us conversed, Revival Jam had returned to the field and Marik had a treacherous sneer on his face. "I'll play this: my Pot of Greed!" The magic card materialized on the field behind his monster. I could have sworn Marik glanced at me again before he explained. "It's a magic card that allows me to draw two more cards from my deck."

Well, fuck. That wasn't good.

Marik's head leaned away slightly and his eyes steadily met my own again, causing my heart to skip a beat, and this time, there was definitely no mistaking that these words were directed to your favorite protagonist. "You get all that, Lorna?"

The rate of my pulse was speeding up more and more the more he looked at me, reducing my life expectancy incrementally. "Wh-What?" I wheezed.

Smooth, Lorna.

he hehe hehehe

I've been listening to some Taylor Swift lately...

You know... maybe Lorna should just... take this Marik stuff... and Shake it Off ;)

P.S. This is irrelevant, but happy Pride everyone :D I don't live in the US, but yeah, this is HUGE.

In honor of this, I thought I'd let you know this sweet tidbit about Lorna, in case you didn't guess earlier. Lorna is 100% bisexual.

(makes this whole "guess her love interest" game we've been playing much more interesting, doesn't it?)

P.P.S. to those who are trying to figure out the mysteries in the story, the Voice actually slipped up quite a bit while it was talking in this chapter. I wonder who caught it ;)