Seto

My head throbbed in long, thick pulses. Each pulse felt like it grew larger and bolder. I could count my heartbeats just from the vein on my forehead. None of the grogginess from the past week had faded. My head was going to explode.

"I feel fine."

"You still look sticky, Seto," Kisara said. She reached out and pressed her fingers against the side of my face. Mokuba shouldn't have taught her how to feel for a fever.

"You can touch my face all you want, but it isn't going to change the fact that I'm feeling better."

Kisara smiled, one of the first real smiles I had seen from her in a while. She turned her face away to hide it, but ended up looking back before the smile disappeared.

"I can touch your face all I want?" she said.

I leaned back against the wall. My head felt too heavy to support. It put me on the same level as Kisara, who hadn't left my side in the last five days. Whatever Mokuba had told her made her more tolerable. It also made her different, although I had yet to decide if it was a change for the better. She never looked happy anymore, and I could tell that she was miserable, even though she didn't mention it to me once. But her depression followed her like a cloud.

"That's not what I meant."

"It's what you said."

"Have you heard from Kray?"

Then Kisara lost her smile. "I don't want you to leave today."

"It's Wednesday. I'm allowed to leave today."

"They don't just come out at night," Kisara said. She grabbed a blanket from the pile and tucked it around her feet. "It isn't safe to walk around on your own."

"I'll be in the hospital. You don't have to worry."

Kisara looked at me and frowned. She turned her entire body to face me, thumbnail in between her lips. "You just lied."

"Which part did I lie about? The hospital or worrying?"

She set her expression. "Both. It's why I can't go with you today, right?"

"Kisara-"

"I won't tell them."

I tried to read her face, looking for any reason she might defend me to her siblings. From what I had learned about the dragons over the past several months, I didn't think that Kisara would choose to cover for me when it meant lying to her siblings. I wondered if they were able to tell when each other was lying, or if they knew how to keep their own secrets.

"Why? I'd be breaking a rule."

"I don't want to make your decisions."

"But you don't want me to leave today."

"I don't want you to. I'm not stopping you. Mokuba doesn't want you to leave either."

"Mokuba almost got eaten," I said. "Are you worried that will happen to me?"

She picked at her fingernails for a moment before returning to chewing her thumb. She looked down at the blanket instead of at me. "Kray can't protect you in public. If you run into his group, he will have to let them have you."

I checked my watch and got to my feet. I put my hand against the wall to steady myself when my vision began spinning. It took several seconds to regain my balance. In those seconds, Kisara stood and stepped forward to stare at me.

"You're still sick."

"This is normal."

"Lie."

"I'm fine."

"Lie."

"You can't stop me from leaving."

"Lie, but also true."

I smirked. "It's both?"

"I could stop you, physically. But I won't."

"You would have, in the past."

With a careful hand, Kisara reached out, placing her hand flat on my arm. She waited a second, as if testing to see how I would respond to her touch. She looked at me with her head tilted down. We were the same height, but the head positioning made her seem shorter.

"I love you, Seto."

"Is that the only thing that hasn't changed?"

She pulled away. "You've changed too."

"Have I?"

"You used to pretend."

"I've never been particularly good at masking my irritations."

Kisara's eyes widened. She chewed on the bottom corner of her lip while tapping her fingers against her hip. I waited for the usual small bursts of lightning, but they never came.

"I know," she started, pausing to redirect her gaze straight into my eyes. "-that I'm an irritation to you. All of this is. We are trying to work with you."

"I have to go."

Kisara nodded and took a step out of my way. I grabbed my coat from its spot on the door handle. The temperature had taken a drastic fall since I had gotten sick the week before. Autumn in Domino normally hovered in the low reaches of the seventies, but this year the days just touched sixty-five. It was the wind. The wind cooled everything.

I stopped at Mokuba's room. He sat on his bed, staring out the window. The book he had borrowed from me sat by his feet, a bookmark resting on the cover. One hand idly ran through Kuriboh's hair. Kuriboh seemed to be asleep.

"I'm going to leave for a while."

Mokuba blinked and turned to me. "Do you have to?"

Nodding, I stepped into the room and closed the door. I made sure the movement was as quiet as possible. I held up a palm and tapped out with my finger, "Is he asleep?"

Mokuba shrugged.

"We are going to look for the cards," I tapped.

"It won't," Mokuba started, but pausing his speech to glance at Kuriboh whose eyes were still closed. "-handle the ones from the other night."

"Maybe it will. We don't know which are which. Or if it will work. It's why we need to test it today." I spoke all of that. Nothing I said was too incriminating.

"What if they grab you?"

I wanted to walk to Mokuba in an attempt to comfort him, but didn't want to alarm Kuriboh. I dropped my palm.

"I'm careful."

"I should have been careful," Mokuba whispered.

His voice shook as he bounced forward and back. The movement woke Kuriboh. Kuriboh growled in my direction, but it was otherwise quiet. From the months of experience dealing with Kuriboh, I could tell a difference between his anger and annoyance.

"I'll be back and I won't let anything happen to me."

Kuriboh growled more in a tone that sounded similar to mocking. He scooted closer to Mokuba.

"Please come back."

"I will. Don't worry if I'm late, okay?"

"I'm going to worry the whole time."

"I'm coming back, but I do have to go."

Mokuba went back to staring out the window. There wasn't a view for him to look at. Our house was close enough to the neighboring home that all Mokuba would only be able to see was the tan siding and untrimmed shrubs. If today didn't work, I wouldn't have to leave anymore. There would be nothing that we could do to stop the monsters. I would have to tell Krin about my agreement with the government in order to escape the inevitable destruction of the city. If today did work, then we would be preparing for the long, dangerous home-stretch. Either way, we were nearing a finish.

I forced myself out of the room. Taking a single step out of Mokuba's potential sight line, I leaned my forehead against the wall beside his door. He wouldn't be okay until we reached a resolution. He could learn to live with the dragons, away from any possible threats. But he needed to be safe from everything relating to the portal.

"If your head is hurting you shouldn't leave," Kara said, peering down the hallway from the kitchen.

"I'm leaving," I said. I pushed myself from the wall and walked into the living room. I flexed my fingers to stretch out my knuckles. Mokuba shouldn't have to go through anything like this.

"Where are you going?" Krin asked. He blocked the front door by leaning back on it.

"Out."

"Be specific."

Since it was Wednesday, I should have been able to use the hospital as an excuse. But I wouldn't be going to the hospital at all, so I couldn't lie and say I was going there. Krin and Kara would never let me leave if they knew.

"I'm going to meet with Yami."

Krin's head tilted. "How come you two never visit here?"

"Because I would get cabin fever."

"What's that?" Kara asked. She propped her elbows on the kitchen's breakfast bar.

I checked my watch. Talking to Mokuba had taken longer than I meant to wait, putting me two minutes behind schedule.

"It means I would go insane being stuck inside. I need to go."

Kara snorted. "You would be hilarious crazy."

"Now may I go?" I looked at Krin, who still blocked the exit. He crossed his arms and stayed where he was. I crossed the room to get to my keys that I left on the side table by the door. Krin still didn't move, so instead of waiting, I pocketed the keys and walked back down the hallway. The back door worked just as well as the front.

I managed to get it open before Kara's hand collided with the door. The force wasn't enough to close it, but did keep me from opening it enough to squeeze through. Kisara walked out of the bedroom.

"I thought you were leaving," she said.

"I'm trying."

"He hasn't said where he is going," Kara said.

"I don't have to," I said, giving the doorknob a small tug.

"If you don't come back, we need to know where to look for you."

All three of them hovered around me. Kara continued putting pressure on the door while I pulled against the force. If she wanted it closed, she would have closed it. She was planning to let me go as soon as they received an answer. My arms grew too heavy to pull any harder, becoming heavier with each passing second.

"I'm meeting Yami at the square downtown. We are going to walk around."

"You shouldn't be outside that much," Kara said.

"I know. We're going to make it fast."

"What will you be doing with the Magician's kid?" Krin asked.

I hadn't prepared an honest excuse, but I thought of one I thought would be acceptable.

"We are meeting with Wheeler, who you met in the hospital-" I said, looking at Kisara. "-and trying to find something he lost. Apparently it is important for him to find it."

"Where are you looking?" Krin asked.

"I don't know where he left it. I can't tell you where we will be going."

I tugged on the door again, but Kara didn't move her hand. I would have released my hold if I was confident that she wouldn't slam it closed. Instead, I waited out their questioning. Eventually, she would let go of the door.

"You shouldn't wander," Krin said.

"There are a lot of things that I shouldn't do. I need to go."

Kara slammed the door. The movement jerked me forward since my hand was still on the knob. I let go and took a step backward. They still surrounded me, leaving my only escape a narrow opening between Krin and Kisara that lead to the bedroom. I pushed through them and walked into our bedroom. I went over the mound of bedding to the window. They didn't know how to work the window, so the locks were the simple flip ones. I reached for them, but had to catch myself against the window when I was hit by a dizzy spell. It took only a second to recover.

"What are you doing?" Kara asked. They followed me inside.

"Am I a prisoner in this house?"

I forced open the window. Whoever had owned the house before us must not have opened it much, because it stuck several times on the way up. I had a harder time opening it than I should have. Spending so much time in bed over the past few days made me lethargic.

"No," Kisara said.

"Then stop stopping me."

I got the window open enough that I could step through. We still had the screen, so I felt for the side tabs. Getting out through the window would be awkward with my height, but as soon as the screen popped out, I was leaving.

"You just aren't listening," Kara said.

I set the screen against the wall by the window. "I'm leaving. Do I have to go out through a hole in the wall, or will you move to let me walk out the front door?"

Krin and Kara looked at each other while Kisara stared at the window. After several shakes of their heads and aggravated sighs, Krin and Kara each took a step backward. They opened a narrow path for me to walk through, which I did, edging through a valley of their arms' reach. They let me pass, wary.

I made it back to the front door without them following. It took me setting a single foot outside for Kisara to call out, "Please be careful!"

Someone swung the door closed behind me, shaking the entire house. I glanced back, expecting Krin to change his mind and follow me out. If the house didn't have windows, I would have run before Krin decided he had made the wrong choice. I had to tell the truth about where I was going. They would be able to find me if we stayed there long. As soon as I caught up to Yami and Wheeler, we had to leave that spot. Kisara wouldn't come for me, but the other two might.

I took the first street I came to, turning left to get out of sight. I shrugged my coat higher around my neck. October was getting too cold too quickly.

The clouds above me seemed to grow thicker the farther I walked. Rain would not be conducive for what we had planned.

While I walked, I rubbed my fingers around my temples and down to my nose. The pressure from my fingertips didn't alleviate the swelling sensation like I hoped it might. Most of the flu symptoms had gone away with the worst part of the illness, and left me only with the remnants reminding me that I had been sick. The remnants were just as frustrating as the flu itself. There were enough things wrong with my world without lingering traces of an illness.

There were people out. Not just the few people who failed to remain unseen, but actual groups of people walking down the sidewalks as if our world hadn't been overrun with monsters. I slid past them and tried to keep my distance. The presence of a few soldiers did not erase the past year of horror and fear. None of the danger had left, but the government, and people like Fredrick Moore wanted people to believe otherwise. Things would make a dark turn with Kray's group roaming. There might be no way to stop it and people weren't doing themselves any favors.

Yami and Wheeler sat on a bench in the square. Wheeler's foot tapped against the sidewalk and he rubbed his knuckles against his palm. Yami's eyes were closed, his head tilted back toward the sky. Wheeler saw me approaching and elbowed Yami. They stood, but didn't walk forward.

"Where is your deck?" I asked before I had reached the bench. I checked the sky, just in case Krin had decided to follow.

"I told you. I lost it."

"When?"

"At that meeting ages ago. Y'know, one of the boring ones."

Yami adjusted his jacket and turned to Wheeler. "Where would you have lost it?"

"I couldn't tell you. I haven't seen it since before all this craziness."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "It has to be easier to locate than mine or Yami's. Think."

"At least we know where you guys's are! Even if we would have to brave a mansion of monsters or a pile of rubble."

"Are you listening to what you're saying?" I asked. "You lost your cards. That means that they are most likely misplaced, at your home, where there aren't hundreds of monsters trying to kill us. Where did you keep them before?"

Wheeler shrugged and held up his palms. "At my dad's old place? Maybe?"

"Then let's go. Now."

I waited for Wheeler to start walking in the right direction, but he didn't move. He popped his knuckles with his thumb and stared at me. "I don't like your plan," he said. "Even if we can find the cards, what if we're wrong?"

"Then I will sincerely apologize. Let's go."

Wheeler shook his head. "I can't just hand myself over without knowing how this works, if this works. It'd make more sense to test it with you guys first. You're already trapped."

Yami put a hand on Wheeler's arm. Wheeler shook it off.

"Don't. I haven't agreed to this. What's to stop him from dragging me off to the depths of nowhere?"

"He lives with us," Yami said. "He won't drag you anywhere."

"Yeah? And if the Magician gets jealous like he did with Yug'?"

Yami's face turned downward. I could see him collecting himself, but Wheeler didn't give him a moment to. He spun on Yami and tried to force his gaze upward.

"No answer? What if me moving in with you guys makes the Magician go crazier or makes Red Eyes realize that I need to be hidden away? Kuriboh didn't even have an attachment to Mokuba and look how that turned out." Wheeler turned to me. "You can't expect me to just overlook th'fact that I might be handing my life away for your stupid test. Try it on yourself."

"You go get the Blue-Eyes cards and I will. I'm sure Yami wouldn't mind ripping the Dark Magician card into several thousand pieces. Why don't you go dig down to the basement of the Game Shop for his deck? Better yet, go to Keith and find his Zoa card. Anything to keep you from subjecting yourself to our pathetic existences."

Wheeler took a step from Yami. "Sorry for bringing up Yug'. But y' can't blame me for worrying about this. I don't think I can deal-"

"With what a good majority of the world is going through? You're not special."

With a shake of his head, Wheeler pointed a finger at me. The finger quickly moved into a fist which he tapped against his own forehead several times.

"Y'know, with all this monster stuff, I had almost forgotten what a prick you really are. You're asking me to throw my life at a passing chance. You're not always right, Kaiba."

"I'm the one he will kill if this doesn't work."

Wheeler opened his mouth, but Yami spoke before him. "Where is the house, Joey?"

I watched Wheeler's expression as he stalled his answer. His mouth remained open, his tongue pushing out his cheek. His eyes didn't meet either of our gazes.

"You know where the card is," I said.

"I might have a vaguish inclination of its whereabouts," Wheeler said, avoiding eye contact. He shoved his hands into his coat pocket and stared at the building behind me.

"Where?"

"I'm not doing this," he said. "This is going to get us all killed."

Wheeler's left hand was moving in his pocket. I could see his fingers twitching through the material.

"Do you have it with you?" I asked.

Wheeler pulled his hand from his pocket. "Nah. Of course not. I'm not going to go along with this, so I didn't bring it."

I exchanged a glance with Yami, who must have notice Wheeler's obvious lie. Yami had a better angle than I did, so I nodded my approval for him to reach out and slip his fingers into Wheeler's pocket.

Wheeler stepped back as soon as he felt Yami's hand, but Yami came out with the card in between his index and middle fingers. Wheeler reached for it, but Yami took several quick steps away from him, holding the card behind his back.

"I'm not consenting t' this."

"Then you're condemning me. We are going through with this plan," I said, gesturing from myself to Yami. "Red is going to kill me if I say that I will take him to you and I can't deliver."

"Then just rip the card! No one says that you have to burn it."

"Ripping the card didn't kill Kray. Fire is the only sure method to destroy it," I said.

"Red won't get close to you," Yami said. "I'll light the card before he can make it over."

"And if he doesn't let go of Kaib' until he reaches me? What if he just decides to kill me to be done with it?"

"Then I'll rip the card in half and you run. Joey, we have to try this."

Wheeler faced me square on, crossing his arms and looking nothing like the street punk that I had gone to high school with. I had seen him a lot in the past months, but I hadn't paid much attention. Our world was not one for the minor details. But looking at Wheeler now, I hardly recognized him. His jaw had grown tight, along with all of his other facial features. He had just always seemed so careless before. His eyes had gotten dark.

"Kaiba," he said, almost losing any traces of an accent. "Can you promise me that I won't get whisked off into some hidden corner of Domino?"

"No. I can't promise that."

Wheeler threw up his hands. "Then why-"

"I can't guarantee anything. Look at the world. The best I can do is promise that we will do what we can. But if we try to just burn the card now, the Magician will watch Red die. We can't risk him finding out this soon."

"You're sick," Wheeler said, pointing at me with a shaking hand. "You can't run. Why would you want to do this today?"

"I'm recovering from the flu. I'm not an invalid. If I have to run, then I will."

Wheeler's hand fell. "Don't ask me to do this. I'm not too big to admit that I'm not as strong as you two. I can't do this prisoner thing."

I squeezed my fingers into a fist and refrained from taking a swing. The plan wouldn't work without Wheeler's participation. We had to get him to agree before anything else could be done. If I hit him, I doubted that he would be keen on assisting us.

"And we can't just wait until Red is alone? Follow him and burn the card when he's away from everybody?"

"Joey," Yami said. His tone sounded like he wanted to step forward, place a hand on Wheeler's arm and tell him that everything would work out for the best. It was the tone he used when ranting about the heart of the cards nonsense that made much more sense now that it ever had before. But Yami didn't step forward. He still held the Red Eyes card, so he kept a safe distance, outside of Wheeler's reach.

"Red basically lives with us. He is always with us. He needs a reason to leave. And I'm sorry that it has to come to this, but you're the plan."

"It'll kill him?" Wheeler asked.

"If I'm right," I said.

"Then I guess I should be comforted in the fact that you're you, and just about always right?"

"Yes. I know that I'm right."

"And if I was Mokuba?"

The question caught me off guard. Because I hadn't been expecting it, my answer was delayed. It didn't give me a chance to lie convincingly.

"You're not Mokuba. I swore to myself years ago that I wouldn't risk Mokuba, even on foolproof plans."

Wheeler exhaled heavily. "He won't touch me?"

Yami answered. "No. I'll rip or burn it before he gets close."

"As soon as Kaib's far enough away not to get burned."

"Yes. Of course."

"Okay," I said, checking my watch to make sure we hadn't run too long. "You two go to the Game Shop. You-" I pointed at Wheeler. "-look busy. Yami, you stay hidden. I don't know how long it will take me to get Red there, so just be ready."

They nodded, and as they started to walk away, I added, "And Wheeler, you can't back out. I will be with Red, who will kill me if you aren't where I say you will be."

Wheeler didn't stop.

I watched until I couldn't see them anymore, looking for any indication that Wheeler would make a run for it. I often missed access to technology, but my fingers twitched, wanting a cellphone to make sure that I wasn't walking into my death. I felt that I knew Wheeler well enough to know that he wouldn't just leave me to die. It still took me several minutes to leave that spot.

I had just healed from the last time that I ran into Red.

Shaking out my hands, I began to head towards Yami's house. It was back in the way that I had come, past the old meeting location and Keith's shop. The street that I walked down was the same one that I first saw the wolf pack transform into their human forms.

I kept my hands in my pockets, trying to stop the shaking before I met with Red. The shaking didn't feel like anxiety so much as it felt like a recovery symptom. I hadn't been this active in a week, and accompanied with the stress of the situation, maybe even a bit of the colder temperature, my hands shook.

Red might interpret the shaking as telling a lie. With each step, I told myself that the shaking would stop when I reached the next shattered street lamp, when I reached the next street sign, when I reached the next doorway. By the time I reached Yami's front door, I had decided to keep my hands out of view. The touches of my fever made them shake, nothing more.

I brought out a hand just to knock, hiding it away after three quick taps. The black flecks of paint on the door kept my attention until it opened.

"You're a fool," the Magician said.

"Probably. Where is Red?"

Red stepped out from the hallway behind the Magician. His eyes narrowed when he saw me, but it seemed to be more from confusion than anger. His right arm was wrapped in a sling made of bandages, covering everything from his neck down to his waist. I remembered Kray's claws clenched around Red's shoulder and realized that it might have caused permanent damage to his arm.

"Why are you here?" Red asked. He walked up to stand with the Magician in the doorway.

"It isn't fair that you feel pain and we don't."

"You expect me to believe that?"

I shook my head. "No. But the person you're looking for is six blocks down from here. There's a collapsed building, a lot of brightly colored rubble. That's where you will find him. Go or don't, but you can't hold it against me anymore."

I didn't even turn halfway around before the Magician stuck out his staff to block my exit. Although I expected and anticipated that action, I still felt off-balance when I had to stutter backward.

"You were willing to die before to keep me from finding him."

"And now I'm not. I've done you a favor. Now let me go."

"No," Red said, looking behind me, then at the Magician. "You wouldn't have just changed your mind."

I lifted my hands in surrender, now just an unnoticeable tremor. "Look. He's half a mile from here. If you want to be with him, go get him. You don't need me."

The Magician angled the staff to bring me closer into the doorway. They both grabbed one of my hands, pulling back to keep me from leaving.

"It seems an awful lot like you're leading us into a trap," the Magician said. "I'm not exactly a supporter of yours, dragon boy."

"You can't go with him," I told the Magician.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because he's with Yami."

"Aren't you supposed to be with Yami?" the Magician asked.

"The three of us meet up once a week. I just left the two of them."

"Why?"

"Why is Yami with him?"

The Magician nodded.

"You remember Yugi?" I asked. The Magician snarled, which I took as my answer. "Yugi and Joey were best friends. His name is Joey, or Joseph, by the way."

The Magician dropped my hand, which made Red squeeze my wrist even harder. I moved the hand the Magician had released out of reach to keep it from happening again.

"He's right. I can't be a part of it. Yami would never forgive me."

"You know if he's not there, I will kill you. I don't care who you belong to," Red said. His grip on my wrist grew warm.

"He's there. Go see for yourself."

Red pushed me out the door, keeping his grip on my arm while shoving me back onto the sidewalk. "Lead the way."

"You don't need me to go with you," I said, just to try to further convince him. I didn't expect him to go with me so easily.

"I told you," Red began, dragging me alongside him. "I will melt you if he isn't there."

It occurred to me for the first time that this plan might not work. Not because I wasn't sure about the cards and the souls, but because Red was a fire monster. What if burning the card didn't actually kill him? If I had been right during my conversation with Pegasus, destroying the card might just release the soul. Red's body might not burn.

"He really will kill you, dragon boy!" the Magician called from behind us. "Don't test that."

Red didn't speak while we walked. I wanted to make sure that Yami knew we were on the way, which meant that he needed to hear us coming. I asked the first question that came to mind.

"What do you want him for?"

"What?" Red asked.

"Joey. Do you just want to find him to get rid of the pain, or are you looking for a slave?"

"Not everyone has to want a slave."

"No-" I said, trying to keep balanced and paced with Red. This might not have been the best day to carry out the plan. My head spun every time Red tugged on my arm, which made it increasingly difficult to carry on a conversation.

"-But you must want him for something."

"Him. I want him."

We had gotten about halfway to the Game Shop. In a hundred yards, we would be within earshot of Yami and Wheeler.

"Explain that to me."

Red shook his head. "I don't want to want him. If I wanted a slave, I'd go to the market. Same with a companion or pet. I can get those anywhere. I just need him so I don't have to live with this anymore."

"You're fine with the compromise?"

"I am."

"We're getting close to him. Does it hurt as much?"

Red shook his head. "It stopped hurting yesterday."

He pulled me around a stop sign.

"What?"

"It's been off and on since yesterday."

"Is it hurting now?"

Red nodded. "It just started back before you showed up."

We were just a street away from the Game Shop, too late to call abort. I should have realized much sooner that there was a way to make the pain stop without killing the monsters. They didn't look for us until we lost the cards.

"This was a bad idea," I said. I tried to stop walking, but Red wouldn't slow down.

"Just stop. I can make sure that it doesn't hurt you anymore. You don't need him."

Red almost laughed. "Why should I believe that?"

"You just have to trust me."

Red held up my hand and shook it. "I clearly don't trust you. Are you saying that he isn't where you say he is?"

"No. He's there. You just shouldn't go."

"You can't back out of this now," Red said, stepping into view of the Game Shop.

Wheeler was there, moving away pieces of the rubble and kicking fallen bricks from the pile. His back was turned to us, but I was certain that he heard our steps. I looked around to find Yami, but didn't see him anywhere.

"Joey?" Red called. He kept his grip on my arm and took a few steps forward.

Wheeler turned and froze when he saw Red. He glanced from Red's bandaged shoulder to me, then back somewhere behind him, likely where Yami was hidden.

"What are you doing, Kaib'?"

I didn't want to play along anymore. "You should hear him out."

Wheeler had been pretending to be confused before, but now actually looked it. He wouldn't have been expecting me to try to convince him to go with Red, but just to get the exchange over as quickly as we were able.

Beside me, I heard Red taking a long series of deep breaths, like he had done back on the day he had attacked me. He had been able to smell Wheeler before. He must have been confirming that I brought him to the right person.

"We should all hear him out," I continued, speaking loudly enough that Yami could hear, wherever he was hiding.

Wheeler took a half-step back, looking ready to run. At that moment, I could see how little he trusted me to follow through with our plan. I didn't know how to explain to Red that as long as Wheeler kept the card on him, Red wouldn't feel any pain, but I wanted to try. If they didn't feel the connection to us, then they might be fine leaving.

Red let go. He started to walk away from me and toward Wheeler. There wasn't a way for me to stop the plan, not without shouting everything and telling Red what the plan was all along. He made it three steps away from me before doubling over and screaming.

His body burst into flame seconds later. Wheeler and I both took a few jogged steps away to distance ourselves from the fire. Red had fallen completely to the concrete, with his arm wrapped around his head and while his scream continued. Pieces of his bandages floated into the air, being carried up by the fire.

Yami stepped into sight, holding the burning card, but letting it drop to the ground in the middle of the street. The wind caught onto it, and it fluttered in a loose, flaming spiral before reaching the ground.

Red's screams ended, but his body continued to burn.

The ashes from the card blew away with the next gust.

We didn't move for what must have been three or four minutes. The fire died down as it lost fuel. I stared until Red's body became a blackened corpse still visibly kneeling, facing Wheeler.

"It worked," Wheeler said after the long pause. "Just like that."

Yami walked over to Red, nudging his body with his foot.

"I need to find the Dark Magician card."

I heard Kisara's scream when I imagined finding the Blue-Eyes cards. It echoed in my head, even when I looked away from Red and tried to think of anything else. Yami looked ready to start digging through the pile of building remnants in front of us at that moment.

"Why'd you want me to hear him out?" Wheeler asked.

"It doesn't matter. It worked."

The smoke coming from Red's body smelled of death, and being around it was bringing back the nausea from the past week. I covered my mouth and said, "I've got to get back. They're expecting me."

"We could just go find the cards now. You won't have to go back to them if we can get to them now," Yami said.

"They have Mokuba. I'm going back."

Wheeler hadn't stopped staring at Red's body.

"We killed him," Wheeler said. "We killed someone."

"He's not someone," Yami said. "He's a monster. They killed Yugi."

"That was the Magician," Wheeler said. His jaw shook and he forced his gaze to me.

"We killed him," he repeated. His head bobbed, nodding, like he was looking for my agreement.

"We killed him," I said.

I didn't stay any longer. Shoving my hands back into my coat pockets, I started for the house. Kisara's imagined screams played on a loop in my thoughts. I kept my eyes on the sidewalk and counted each crack that I passed. My pace had me stepping on every one.

Would it have made a difference to Wheeler if he had known what Red wanted – No, don't think that.

Would I have done anything else - Stop, Seto. It's over. You can't change it.

Could I still go - No. This isn't about Red. This is what is best for everyone.

I should have known - You had to do this. Someone had to be the test subject.

My wrist felt warm where Red had dragged me to meet Wheeler.

The past week of recovery felt worthless at that moment. My entire body was heavy, like I was being weighed down with a comforter drenched in water. The chills had returned within the last ten minutes and everything inside felt colder than my skin.

We figured it out. There was a way to kill some of them, or in Pegasus's words, the more powerful ones. We could kill them.

Kisara's screams grew louder. I wondered if I would be able to tell her screams apart from Kara's when it came to it. They didn't sound much like when speaking, but I couldn't imagine Kara screaming in the way Red screamed. They would probably all sound similar, having their souls burned from their bodies, but I could only imagine Kisara.

I stopped and leaned against the nearest building. It had been a local deli at one point in time, but now, all the windows were shattered, and the inside abandoned.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that this was what I had wanted. I wanted a way to kill them, to go back to normal. I wanted to get Mokuba away from the dragons and Kuriboh. I wanted to be in control of my own life again. I had been waiting for the solution that we just found.

But the uncontrollable guilt creeping through me surprised me. I didn't want to recognize it as guilt. I knew what I was doing when I led Red to the Game Shop. That had been a conscious decision. I killed a monster who had attacked me and attempted to kill me.

Wheeler would have been fine with Red. He just wanted to be with Wheeler.

I shook that idea from my head. My thoughts encroached a topic that I didn't want to consider. Stepping away from the building, I went back to counting cracks.

It took me a hundred and fifty-four to get back to the neighborhood. Any time I heard the screams, I whispered the numbers out loud, distracting my brain from the image of Red's charred body. It shouldn't have affected me so much. I had seen the Slaver in the same state as Red, and that didn't leave me with the sense of guilt that had engulfed me.

I wasn't paying attention and bumped into Kisara, sitting on the edge of the sidewalk outside our house.

"I wasn't waiting for you," she said. She spoke too quickly and gave herself away.

I tried to look at her and ended up staring at the front door. Sleep, I needed sleep to get the images out of my mind.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Kisara stood and kept a safe distance from me.

"I'm going to sleep," I said, rather than try to lie with a half-truth.

She followed me in the house. Mokuba sat on the couch with Kara and Kuriboh, reading one of my books. He paused mid-sentence and stared at me, wide-eyed.

"How did it go?" he asked. He spoke each word with precision, carefully being vague.

I just nodded. Mokuba set down the book and started to stand.

"I'm just going to sleep," I said, gesturing for him to sit back down. "We can talk later."

The look Kisara and Kara exchanged did not go unnoticed, but I chose to ignore it. I knew that I was being obvious that something had happened. I would have to play it off as still being sick. They could gloat about how I shouldn't have left the house, and I could agree without lying.

Hello, Lovelies.

I'll post my apologies for the delay on my blog, as well as some other information. Review responses will be there as well. I've got a new theme for 2015!

Special thanks to AyaseFanGirl for the motivation needed to finish this chapter!

Preview: The Magician finds Red's body.