As promised, double update. ;) This was meant to be posted on the same day as the prologue but you know I never follow through on my chapter uploading promises :')))))))))))))

[Soundtrack: Song Without a Name (Inst.) - Umineko No Naku Koro Ni]

"Good morning everyone, this is Meggy Leermann with more on Seto Kaiba's press conference last evening. Last night, the mogul announced that he would be taking a six month leave of absence for personal reasons, which he refused to divulge to the press, leaving KaibaCorp in the hands of its board of directors. Could this decision be related to the shocking death of a Battle City Tournament contestant aboard the KaibaCorp blimp during the finals just last week? We have our expert here with us today to discuss…"

The television droned on in the crowded diner with nobody to listen to it. It was early; too early, but we felt like pancakes that morning, and the diner didn't serve breakfast after 10AM, so…

"So you're saying Maximillion Pegasus invited you two losers to some sort of secret project, and I'm not invited?" came Weevil's shrill and desperate cry. "That makes no sense!"

Rex chuckled at his green-haired friend (or blue-haired? Fuck if I know). "Well, we can't all be winners," he teased, turning his nose up and putting his hands on his hips.

"Actually -" I began to say.

And you know what? Let's stop there for a sec. Hi; my name is Sera. I'm fourteen years old and due to some extenuating circumstances, I had to spend a couple of months in Domino City hanging out with Tweevil Dee and T-Rex Dum over here. What extenuating circumstances would force me to hang out with two annoying guys, you say? Well, to put it simply, my house burned down with me in it. I died (I think) and was for some reason given a second chance at life in a whole other dimension. It was a whole thing and I don't want to bore you with the details. Just thought you may want to know this before moving on.

"Don't you guys think that whatever Pegasus wants, it might have something to do with the weird connection that Rex and I have?" This weird connection I had with Rex? Also a thing that I don't feel like explaining, and the reason why I even hung out with those chuckleheads to begin with. Sorry; moving on again.

"How would Pegasus even know about that though?" Rex pondered, leaning back in his seat. Weevil and I had just finished shovelling pancakes into our mouths, but Rex still had a full plate in front of him. Honestly, who even does that? What kind of no-good, rotten, piece of shit can order pancakes and then proceed to just look at them for like five minutes without taking a bite? My bafflement aside, however, he did have a point.

"Well, wasn't he like some sort of archaeologist or something?" I offered uncertainly. "I remember he discovered duel monsters in some ancient Egyptian temple. Maybe this is something like that."

He shrugged. "Maybe? But I'm a hundred percent not Egyptian so it's pretty far-fetched."

"Well, I'm a hundred percent Latina, so same here. But maybe it is Egyptian, but old Tut's not picky so he just used his old godly powers to connect random people together."

Weevil made a face and mumbled. "He's a Pharaoh."

"Huh?"

"King Tut is a Pharaoh, dumbshit," Rex said, leaning into my face as he did. "Not a god."

"Isn't it all the same? Like… technically?"

"No," the boys said in unison. Tough crowd.

"Also Tut wasn't old. He died like really young," Weevil added.

"Well, fuck you guys," I grumbled, swiping a finger across my plate and shoving the syrup covered appendage into my mouth.

Rex sniggered. "Love you, too, dweeb."

"Oh, Rex!" I exclaimed, slamming my hands on the table and sitting on my knees. "How 'bout we ask Pegasus if Weevil can come? I mean, if it's only one person, I'm sure there's room for him, too!"

Weevil, too, sat up on his knees and slammed down on the table, causing the already shaken coffee mugs to rattle. "That's brilliant, Sera!"

"I mean, I wouldn't exactly call it a revolutionary idea," Rex said nonchalantly, taking a bite out of his pancakes.

"Why do you gotta rain on my parade every time I come up with an idea?" I complained, settling back into my seat and crossing my arms over my chest.

Weevil had my back. Did I ever tell you that he was my favorite? Because he was. "Yeah! Why do you gotta rain on our parade?" Rex simply shrugged in response and shoved another bite of his pancakes into his mouth. Something was off about him.

"Hey, what's with you?" I asked him, pushing my plate into the center of the table so I could rest my upper body against the table. "You've been super intense since Pegasus called us. You wanna talk about it?"

"Is it…" Weevil started, but was silenced by a sharp glare from Rex.

"Wha-haaaat?" I nagged, leaning even further into the table. "Rex, talk to meeee."

"There's nothing to talk about, Sera. Drop it."

"No, I won't drop it!" I insisted. "Whether you like it or not, you and me, we're partners. And partners share things with each other! Now, fess up!"

He grimaced. "Fine. I had a freaky dream about the Inbetween again. There were some people there, and they were in danger -"

"Well, so did I, but I have those all the -"

He interjected, "It's not that. The people in it were people I knew. There was this girl I dueled once -I watched her die… It was freaky. I don't know if she's connected or -"

I frowned. That must have sucked. The only people I knew in Domino City were Rex and Weevil, so I didn't really have anyone else to worry about. So whenever I dreamt about people in the Inbetween, they would always be people I didn't know.

"Was there anyone I know?" Weevil asked, suddenly curious about this dream of his.

Rex scratched his head for a moment then replied, "Yeah, I think so. You remember that Mai Valentine chick from Duelist Kingdom? Also that weirdo Bakura…" he trailed off and went for another few bites of pancake.

"Did they die, too?" Weevil pressed.

"Mph mh…" Rex replied with a mouth full of food. His tone and the shrugging gesture he did made it clear he had no idea.

I sighed and put my chin in my hands. "I wonder why we keep dreaming about it even though we've never been there. Like it doesn't exactly look like my number one holiday destination from what I've seen in my dreams, but it sure does seem like we're missing out on one hell of a party."

"Not any kind of party I'd wanna be a part of," Rex said. He put the last bite of his pancake into his mouth and chewed it deliberately. "Mph meh… pfple dah deh."

"Gross! Don't talk with your mouth full!" I scolded, glaring at him.

He made a show of swallowing his bite before speaking again. "I'm saying, if people die in the Inbetween, then why the hell d'ya even wanna go there? I, for one, am glad that we don't gotta put up with all that creepy Inbetween business. The nightmares are enough for me; thank you very much." He took a swig of his coffee, which had long since cooled down. "If what Pegasus wants from us has something to do with all that, then I say we just tell him, 'thanks, but no thanks'"

I put on my most evil face and said in an ominous voice. "If you die in the Inbetween, you die I-R-L."

"Shut up, Sera."

I hummed quietly, electing to ignore Rex at that moment, then looked at Weevil. "What do you think?"

"I still wanna go," he replied. "It's the creator of Duel Monsters! Who wouldn't wanna go?" He shot an accusatory glance at Rex. "Hey, maybe if he doesn't remember what we look like, I could go instead of Rex."

"Hey!" Rex growled. "I ain't letting you go instead. He asked me!"

Weevil sniggered at him. "And what happened to 'thanks, but no thanks', huh?"

"Ya moron! That's just if it turns out he's trying to get us over there because of -" He lowered his voice for this part. "You know." It didn't really have much of an effect; the three of us were being so rowdy, almost half of the diner was already staring at us. "It's probably a dueling tournament, though!" he said, using his normal tone again. "He probably recognized that Sera and I are dueling geniuses! Besides, why else would he be doing this right after Battle City Tournament tanked? He's obviously trying to one-up Kaiba."

[Soundtrack: Movement of DOMA - Yu-Gi-Oh! Sound Duel Vol. 3]

As it turned out, he wasn't trying to one-up Kaiba. Actually, I feel like maybe you guys already knew that. He also didn't want us to participate in a duel tournament, but you probably could have anticipated that, too, but let's not get too far ahead.

Pegasus had made the announcement to us the night before we went to that diner -as it turned out, we were the last to know. As per the instructions on the videotape Pegasus had sent to us, we had exactly a week to pack our bags for this mysterious six-month trip that he wanted us for. The good news, however, was that, after sending an email to Industrial Illusions HR and having it take 4 whole business days for them to answer, we were told that we were allowed to bring Weevil with us -for whatever that's worth.

The three of us were told to show up at the docks at 5AM and we were feeling as one would normally feel when forced to arrive somewhere at the asscrack of dawn. Weevil was leaning against Rex, trying to stay awake, but failing miserably. He had stayed up surfing internet forums reading up on some kind of insect that had either just been discovered or had just gone extinct -I didn't really care either way -and he ended up forgoing sleep.

There were a few other people at the docks as well -around a dozen people other than us, all dragging several suitcases behind them. It was like standing at an airport. Rex even recognized a few of them. "See those over there?" he pointed out. "Those are five Battle City finalists, Ryou Bakura and Mai Valentine; and also Ishtar siblings, Marik, Ishizu, and Odion." The spot he indicated was occupied by a tall blonde woman, two teenage boys, and a girl around my age with copper-colored hair. Standing a distance away from them was a woman draped in white cloth and covered in gold bangles, along with an intimidating looking man with tattoos all over his head.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, pointing in the direction of someone I actually recognized, a boy older than me with long black hair. He didn't seem very well dressed for the chilly morning air as he wore a shirt baring his chest to the elements. "That's Mako Tsunami! I dueled him during Battle City. He beat me, though." Mako was chatting animatedly with an older man, who looked to be in his mid to late twenties. That man had also been with Mako the last time we met -his name was Enzi, if I recalled correctly.

Weevil gasped. "And isn't that Ziegfried Von Schroeder?"

"Most of the people here are duelists. Maybe even all of them," Rex stated, sending a suspicious glance to three people that none of us recognized, dressed in dark robes and obscuring their identities with hoods. "Ya think this might really be a secret duel tournament?"

Weevil looked doubtful. "Why wouldn't he invite me, then?" he moaned.

I stroked my chin. "There were eight Battle City Finalists, weren't there?"

Rex nodded in confirmation. "All of them are here, except for Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, and Seto Kaiba."

"He hasn't even invited Yugi Muto? But isn't he the King of Games?" Just as I said that, I felt a sharp pain on my collar. Inhaling a deeply, I yanked off the necklace I had around my neck and glared at it, letting it dangle by its chain so it wouldn't burn my hand. "What gives?"

Rex frowned. "You brought that thing with you? Ever since we won it in that weird duel, it's been giving us nothing but trouble." He was right of course. The crystal necklace which had just tried to fry my skin off was one that a man who called himself "Hamlet" had given me after I beat him in a duel. He told me some weird shit about me being an abomination, then something about how this crystal would be the key to everything and that I needed to keep it safe. Keeping it safe, however, entailed dealing with more weird people trying to duel me for it. Weirdly enough, nobody considered taking it from me by force. Figures. Understandably, though, I couldn't leave the thing behind with Rex's parents. Rex had been urging me to toss it in the trash or flush it down a toilet, but I could never bring myself to do so.

I saw something flash in the light of the rising sun and turned my head to find the boy known as Marik speaking quietly to the red-haired girl. He had something shiny in the palm of his hand, and it seemed to most certainly be another crystal. He grabbed the girl's hand and placed the crystal within it while whispering to her. They were then interrupted by Mai, who pulled the girl away from him.

For a moment, his eyes met mine and then landed on the necklace I was just waving around in broad daylight (like a fucking fool). I quickly unzipped one of the pockets on the backpack I had on, and tucked the necklace inside. Funnily enough, this backpack actually came from my old home -y'know before all that annoying shit happened, like me dying and my house burning to the ground. I didn't really know why it was revived with me, but it just randomly showed up at Rex's doorstep one day with a duel disk and a deck of cards and really, I just decided not to question it.

It was pretty boring after that, though. We waited for a couple more minutes for something to happen. We were all pretty early, so I wasn't surprised that, at ten minutes to 5AM, there wasn't much going on. It was five minutes before the agreed upon time when we first noticed the sound of a chopper disrupting the serenity of dawn. The sound caused all of our heads to turn. The chopper was black with a K and a C, the logo for KaibaCorp, along the side of it. As far as I knew, there weren't any helicopter pads nearby, so I wondered where they intended to land that thing.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, a large metal structure rose out of the water; from what we could see, it was at least half as long as a football stadium, maybe even longer as part of it was still obscured under the water. It was certainly wide enough to fit a helicopter as well, and each of us watched in stunned silence as the chopper descended atop the structure, spraying us with cold mist.

We all stood with bated breath as the door slid open and one long leg stepped out of the chopper. It was Seto Kaiba, clad in his sterling trenchcoat and black turtleneck top -speaking of which, have you guys ever noticed that the tight fitting black turtleneck seems to be the go-to outfit for all rich IT tycoons? Weird as fuck, am I right? Well, never mind that anyway.

Following Seto was his younger brother Mokuba, who was dressed more casually than his brother, with a stride that seemed less intimidating and more excited. The brothers walked towards the edge of the metal structure by the railing that went along the side and regarded us with a scrutinous eye. It looked like he wanted to say something, but was waiting for the chopper to either turn off its propellers or leave. Once the boys were a safe distance away from it, the chopper door closed and it began to lift off again, thus ending the ridiculously extravagant spectacle that was Seto Kaiba's entrance.

For real though? What kind of rich asshole decides, 'Yo, I'm gonna hire a chopper and a submarine so I can make my grand entrance.'? Like how fucking pretentious can you get. At any rate, it wasn't super important (just like 99% of the things I say); what actually was important, though, was what Kaiba was about to say.

"Looks like you all made it," he told us, and man, could his voice carry. He wasn't using a microphone or a megaphone, but his voice was just naturally amplified by his surroundings.

"Well, not all of them," a haughty voice laughed, "but a great turnout nonetheless." This new voice came from behind us, and I nearly gave myself whiplash trying to turn my gaze to the newcomer. He was tall -taller than he seemed on TV -and he was dressed in a maroon suit, ironed to perfection.

One look at Kaiba's face told me that he wasn't exactly pleased to see Maximillion Pegasus. Seto's face had twisted in disgust and he simply stood in silence as Pegasus made his way through the small crowd and towards the dock. If Seto was here for the same reason we were, though, it was a bit weird that he seemed shocked and appalled at Pegasus's appearance.

"Oh, lighten up, Kaiba-boy. It was just a joke."

Seto scoffed and Mokuba glanced up at his brother in concern. "It wasn't funny," the elder Kaiba replied stiffly.

"Psst -" I felt Weevil's breath in my ear. "Is it just me, or does it look like almost everyone here has a bone to pick with Pegasus." I hadn't paid much attention to the rest of the guests, but upon closer inspection, it was evident that everyone was annoyed at him for some reason and we were the only ones who hadn't really gotten the memo.

Once Pegasus reached the railing along the side of the dock, he spoke again. "Now, I'm sure you're all wondering why I've gathered you all today, and, contrary to what you may think, this is no duel tournament, but it is quite closely related to duel monsters. There's no time to explain now, so I hope you've all packed everything you need, because you won't be seeing land for two months."

"Wait, what?" I couldn't stop the words coming out of my mouth, and all eyes turned to me. Feeling pressured to say something, I quickly spat out a question. "What do you mean? Where are you taking us?"

Pegasus smirked and pulled a radio off of his belt. "All in due time, Serafina." With that, he put the radio to his lips and spoke again, this time, to whoever was on the other end of the radio. "Kemo, it's time. Please prepare for passenger boarding and departure."

A dull thud sounded as the hatch on top of the vessel opened on its hinges and a sturdy looking man, with an odd-looking mohawk that seemed to protrude out of his head like a rhino horn, climbed out and made his way towards what looked like a gate. He opened the gate and got to work laying down a bridge from the submarine's surface to the dock.

In a quick, almost theatrical, motion, Pegasus did that signature 'excited white person on a game show' jog up to the bridge and crossed it, then, without missing a beat, turned on his heel like a ballet dancer and stood beside the Kaiba brothers. "Well?" he called out to the crowd, myself included, who were just standing in their places like statues, staring at the absolute cartoon character that was Maximillion Pegasus. "What are you all waiting for? We have quite the journey ahead of us, and the clock's ticking.

I didn't really know about anyone else on those docks, but Pegasus's words immediately sent a sense of urgency into my mind. I glanced around at the people around me as we all shuffled towards the bridge. I was the first one onboard, nearly tackling Kemo to the ground in an attempt to get off of the bridge as soon as possible. The sight of the water beneath me had made me dizzier than I'd admit in front of Weevil and Rex. Let's just say, me and saltwater weren't really friends after a close call I had at the Dead Sea (AKA the fuckboy of seas) a while back.

I felt my body let out an involuntary shudder as the rest of the guests made their way onto the ship after me. The body heat emanating from their bodies caused bile to pool in the back of my throat. I took another look at the boy who had been holding the crystal earlier -Marik. As my eyes met his, a single red tear fell down his face: blood. Before long, his eye sockets began to sag, revealing the bruised muscles just beneath them. His face slowly melted before my eyes as though doused in acid.

"Sera!" a soft voice called out, and a hand slipped into mine, clenching around it tightly. Marik's face returned to its original state, and he simply eyed me cautiously.

I turned to face the owner of the voice and said, "Hey, Rex. Thanks for that." Rex smiled in acknowledgement, squeezing my hand briefly. Weevil was just a short ways away from us, chatting with Mako.

Rex had a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you okay?"

I sighed and tried to avoid Marik's gaze, distancing myself from him and dragging Rex with me. When I was certain that nobody else was in earshot, I mumbled, "That Marik guy… I think he's one of us."

"One of… us?" he replied, the color draining from his face as all his fears were confirmed.

I nodded and then scanned all of the faces around us. "And I don't think he's the only one."

Before Rex could react, Kemo began to usher us towards the hatch, and we all began to descend one by one into the dark tunnel. I could vaguely hear the sound of the hatch being closed as the last person entered. A sense of curiosity and fear washed over me. On one hand, I did not like the idea of being underwater for a long period of time, but on the other, I couldn't help but wonder what we could possibly need a submarine for. I knew that Kaiba and Pegasus were known for being flashy (as rich people tend to be), but would they really hire a submarine crew just so we could play children's card games underwater?

After being led through several dimly lit passages and ducking under many doorways, we ended up in a room that was lit by several fluorescent lights. It seemed to be a meeting room with several tables lined up in a U-shape with one larger desk at the back of the room (or was it the front?). Pegasus and Seto Kaiba were already seated at the large desk, and it seemed like the rest of us were expected to take our seats as well.

Rex, Weevil, and I were seated at the table at the base of the U-shape, sitting directly opposite of Pegasus's table. I flinched when someone sat beside me, but relaxed when I realized it was just Mako. I smiled weakly and greeted him.

"You look better than you did when we last dueled," Mako remarked with a grin. "Are you feeling better now?"

I nodded, recalling my duel with Mako. That had been the first time I had had one of my disturbing hallucinations. I hadn't put two and two together yet, but after meeting Enzi, I began to suspect that the hallucinations were related to my special circumstances. Now, as disorienting as it may have been, the hallucinations acted like a sort of spidey-sense for anything related to the Inbetween or the mysterious reason I was brought back to life in this universe.

I saw Enzi lean over and give me an understanding smile. "I felt pretty bad at first, too. I think you got it a lot worse than I did, though." Enzi was dead, too, as far as I knew; he didn't really like to talk about it, though, leaving everyone completely in the dark as to how he died, which was a shame, since I could have used someone to confide in about this stuff. Death and being dead… it was all pretty heavy stuff, and although I had tried as well as I could to deal with it with Rex's help, it was still a bummer to really think about.

"Now, then," Pegasus began, causing a hush to fall over the room. "I believe it's time to tell you exactly why you're all here."