Chapter 4
Forgetting the Past; Move to the Task
Yugi was in a lot of pain as they moved him to the coffee table in the living room. Téa managed to find the first aid kit under the kitchen cupboard full of medical stuff that most hospitals wouldn't carry.
'I guess Regan or Jade is accident prone.' He thought.
'I guess so.' Atem thought back as he helped Tea glue the wound close with super medical glue.
"Gah! This stuff stings so much!" He exclaimed as the glue decide to hit a nerve.
"Sorry, but I know that there would be no point in going to a hospital. They probably wouldn't be able to see you until tomorrow anyway and they would only glue it together the way I'm doing it, so stop breathing while I place this on."
"He has to breathe Téa, he needs oxygen to live let alone give the blood cells oxygen to heal the wound." Atem answered as Yugi felt himself trying very hard not to take full breaths.
"I'm done, now I need to wrap this." She stated pulling out the wrap.
"Are you done yet?" Yugi asked about a minute or two later.
"Yes I am and the bleeding should stop any time now." Téa responded as a loud banging sound came from the hallway. Yugi quickly put on his bloody shirt.
The door fell to the ground taking the door frames with it. Tristan was behind it was his leg going back to the ground.
"Tristan, why the hell did you kick the down the door!" Joey yelled at him.
"We need to control the bleeding, she's in shock." Tristan stated. That is when Yugi noticed that Tristan was carrying Regan. Tristan set her on the couch.
"Her arm is bleeding, let's get her jacket off."
Yugi watched Joey and Tristan take off the school uniform jacket off.
"You moron! Why didn't you stop her from going up stairs?" Téa asked as started wiping the blood of Regan's arm.
"This is not the time to be arguing." Atem stated grabbing the same bottle of glue that they used on Yugi. Yugi eyed the scene trying to locate the injury.
"The wound, it's on the inner elbow." Yugi exclaimed seeing the gash.
"The what?" Joey and Tristan asked in union.
"The part of your arm where doctors take blood from you." Tea answered with annoyance and concentration.
"Oh."
"Yugi can you pass me the bandaging, the wound isn't very big so all we need to do is wrap it." Téa instructed.
Yugi nodded and grabbed the bandage roll from the first aid kit. He handed the roll to Téa who snipped some off and started to fold it length-wise.
"I need the Polysporn." She requested in which Atem handed her the tube.
It was completely silent as Téa wrapped Regan's arm.
'Regan's puzzle activated before they headed upstairs.' Yugi thought to Atem.
'Well that would make sense, Regan was stressed out, that would have increase her heart rate, if the spirit of her puzzle hadn't stepped in.' Atem responded.
He turned to Atem. Atem was looking at the ground lost in his own thoughts. 'I wonder who the spirit of the River's Puzzle is.'
"She seems to be getting better, the colour in her face is returning." Yugi stated, looking back at their patient.
"Dark Matter... he still out there." Regan muttered softly. Regan snapped her eyes open and was about to get up when Téa pushed her back into a lying position.
"Regan, I'm glad that you are awake." Yugi said cheerfully. He felt his hopes go up after waiting about a half hour for her to wake up.
"Can I get up please?" Regan grunted under Téa's hold.
"If you are thinking about going after Dark Matter this instant, think again." Téa stated with anger. "You were almost dead and you still followed that demon."
"But-"
"No! He could have killed you in that state, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that, if he wanted to get out of my grasp he could have just used some of his fancy magic!" Regan yelled in return. "There was a reason he used that tactic, in which there was. That bright light gave him the advantage to fill two vials with Yugi's and my blood for his death game that he is planning."
There was silence between the two as they had some sort of stare down. Téa retreated slowly and backed away from Regan.
"Next time just tell us before you do something so reckless."
"That's not all the information Tristan and I retrieved. He is still after someone." Regan replied not bothering to rise into a sitting position.
Yugi felt panicked. He tried to get up from the coffee table, but the pain in his chest made him stumble on his first step. He felt Atem catch him before he landed on Regan.
"Dude, do you need a lecture from Téa?" Tristan asked.
"Dark Matter is after Grandpa." Yugi said standing on his own two legs.
There was another silent moment, as plans started to form through everyone's head.
"Fine, Tristan and I will take you to go and stop DM." Joey answered knowing that everyone, but Yugi had lost to stay in.
"DM?" Atem asked
"It's so much easier to say." Tristan supported. "So are you two okay keeping Regan here?"
"How hard could it be to keep a hundred pound girl here? Of course we can now go, but Yugi don't get your hopes up; Dark Matter has had the last forty minutes to hunt down your grandfather." Atem warned.
'Yeah I know, but there still might be a chance of him still being out of that maniac's hands.' Yugi thought to himself.
Joey and Tristan helped Yugi by holding up his arms and they hurried out the door. They ran across the street, safely. Then, they entered Yugi's home and Yugi called, "Grandpa, Grandpa are you here?"
"Yuuggi..." Someone muffled.
"Grandpa!" Yugi shouted running away from his supporters to go behind the shop counter.
"Yugi... don't lose." Grandpa told the boy as he lied on the floor before he dispersed to dust. Yugi stared to where his grandfather had been and gritted his teeth in rage.
"Yug, are you alright?" Joey asked as he heard Tristan leave the room to check the rest of the house for Dark Matter. Yugi slammed his fist on the counter.
"Dammit, we were too late."
"Of course you were too late and none of you will be alright when this is all over." A low answer came from the centre of the room.
"You bastard, what did you do to my grandfather?" Yugi asked in anger looking at Dark Matter in the eye.
"He is with the rest of my collection." Dark Matter grinned evilly.
"Well you're not getting away for a second time so give it up." Tristan stated as he walked in from the front door.
"Ha! You think blocking all the exits will allow you to capture me? Try again; you would have an easier time catching mist then catching me." With that said, Dark Matter dispersed like his grandfather had.
'Well Regan was right about the escaping part for that bastard.'
"So much for being cornered." Joey mumbled.
"It's not like you tried to grab him." Tristan retorted.
"Please stop arguing, I'm going to change out of these ruined clothes and you too can look for something to eat." Yugi pleaded leaving the two and headed upstairs.
He took off his shirt to wipe off any blood that was left behind by the shirt he was wearing with a wash cloth. When he was done his went back to his bedroom and changed out of his blood stained pants. He placed on a pair dark blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt. He grabbed his duel belt, placed it on and headed back down stairs ignoring the pain in every step. He met Joey and Tristan at the door with two frozen pizzas.
Yugi just looked at them for they looked like they had a sauce fight themselves with their own blood stained uniforms. They headed out of the house in failure and headed back across the street for the third time that day. They walked into Regan's house and walked into the living room to be greeted by nobody.
'We did everybody go?'
"Hey we're home, is there anyone here?" Tristan called.
"Sorry, I was putting the first aid kit away." Téa stated walking out of the kitchen and Atem walked in from the side entrance.
"I guess the mission was a failure?" Atem asked.
"Yes and that bastard got away too." Tristan answered as Joey walked into the kitchen. There was a scream and a bang of him slipping.
"You missed a flipping puddle!" Joey yelled and Tristan started to laugh hysterically.
"Oh you think that's funny, well I think this is funny." Joey stated coming back out of the kitchen with a black magic marker. Tristan didn't notice it until he had a French moustache.
"Hey!" Tristan yelled taking the magic marker from Joey and they started to fight.
"Joey, Tristan quit it we are trying to work together not kill each other." Someone said from behind Yugi.
Yugi turned around to see Regan changed into a pair of jeans held by a gold belt with her boots from earlier on and a white tank top with a black jacket on top. She also wore a silver deck belt that held her own deck.
"You guys should go home and clean yourselves up."
"What about food?" Joey asked with a heart on the side of his cheek.
"We can meet back here and the food will be cook and ready to go." Regan laughed.
"Shouldn't we stay together just in case that creep comes back?" Téa asked.
"I will stay behind, but I don't think that Dark Matter is coming back." Yugi responded.
"I will also stay behind," Atem volunteered. "But just in case you three should stay together that way nobody is alone."
With a bit of thought Téa nodded in agreement.
"Okay, so everyone meet back here in three hours." Yugi suggested holding up three fingers.
"Okay, see you later." Tristan stated with a duck on his forehead.
The three friends left. Yugi sighed. 'Well it's already five in the afternoon so if we are not all back between eight and eight thirty then we will know something happened.'
The remaining three cleaned up the rest of the mess in the kitchen and upstairs.
"How are we supposed to fix the front door of this room?" Regan asked as they stood in front of the shop door which was still on the ground.
"Well, I guess the only thing to do with it is place it in place then board it up." Yugi answered. "Do you have any boards?"
"I'm sure that there are some crates or something in the storage room."
Yugi nodded and they followed Regan to the storage room which was right below the store. With luck there were several large, empty crates. They disassembled the crates and brought the strips of wood back up the stairs. About a half an hour later they had completely hammered the door into place.
"So what else did Dark Matter have to say about his game?" Atem asked back in the living room.
"He told us to meet him in Domino Park at midnight." Regan answered.
Yugi nodded and something clicked in his brain. "Do you guys have duel disks?"
"No." Both answered.
"I should probably go out and get some cloths also." Atem said looking at his blood stained, white sweater and took it off to show his black tank top.
"How much does a duel disk cost?" Regan asked walking over to a shelf on the wall.
"If you don't have your name in Kaiba's system as a six star duellist or higher; it can cost up to 7550 Yen why?" He asked as Regan came back holding a debit card. ($100 CAD)
"Because we are going shopping."
Yugi and Atem looked at each other. 'We do have time to kill, ah what the heck might as well enjoy ourselves before we die.'
They headed out of the house and across the street. It didn't take them long to find the clothing store for it wasn't even half a block away. They entered the shop and started to search the racks.
They probably spent an hour in there making Atem try on different combinations. The three of them had a good laugh when they made Atem try on some goofy spacesuit. In the end, Yugi knew that the pharaoh was never going to try space flight. They finished their shopping with a grand total of ten assorted outfits and five assorted pyjamas and-.
"Two hundred dollars!" Regan exclaimed as they walked towards a game shop that sold duel disks. ($200 CAD = 15094 Yen)
"Well it could have been a lot more money." Yugi stated holding a bag.
"I suppose." Regan answered
"So while we are walking, maybe you can explain when you met Shadi." Atem asked Regan.
"It's a long story." She answered obviously not wanting to answer.
"It's a long walk."
Yugi felt her glaring at Atem, but didn't try to intervene.
"Well about a week ago..."
I was walking down the middle of my quiet, boring road. There was never anyone about so my music was blasting in my ears trying to leave the world behind. The road was a dirt road freshly coated with gravel; this made it hard to walk at a steady pace though it was interesting to look at as I walked.
"Hello."
I looked up from the gravel road to see who had spoken to me. A man in Egyptian style clothing was standing about four feet in front of me.
I stopped. "Hello? Do I know you from somewhere?"
"No you don't." The man answered. "My name is Shadi and your name is Regan."
I nodded not knowing what else to do.
"Do you want to solve my riddle?"
I stared at him and thought about the question, "What is the catch?"
"If you don't answer correctly, you would end up in a place where the sun is never seen and it is a place of pure nightmare"
"And what if I do answer this correctly?" I asked in suspicion.
"The path that destiny has chosen will be revealed to you. So will you take the risk?"
"You really aren't giving me a choice in this are you?" I asked him. 'Asking me if I wanted to answer his riddle was completely rhetorical.'
Shadi stated his riddle, "What is always there, but nobody ever sees it?"
'Well that seems quite simple.' I thought and took another look at Shadi. He made me shudder with his endless void, blue eyes. 'Okay so, it's much more complex... oh I know what it is.'
"I have the answer to your riddle." I said knowing that the answer was completely true about a minute later.
"What is your answer?" Shadi asked with no emotion.
"The answer to your riddle is a soul. A soul gives something a personality and a heart in which to act upon. This is something that is always there, but nobody ever sees it."
Shadi nodded in approval. "You are worthy to go upon what destiny has made for you, go home and the next time you wake up you will be where you need to be."
I looked back at my house, "What do you mean?" I turned back to the man and he was gone.
In confusion I did as what Shadi had told me to do and I woke up in Domino City.
"Shadi does have a record of disappearing." Yugi responded to Regan's story.
"That's interesting. I wonder what Shadi was thinking when he saw you that day." Atem asked to himself as they stopped in front of the shop.
"Hey Atem, do you have a deck?" Yugi asked just before they walked in.
"No I guess I don't."
"Okay well you can go check out the cards; I will handle the duel disks." Regan stated as the heading into the shop.
Yugi watched as she went straight to the counter, while Atem and he turned away and went to the shelf with duel monster cards. Without even picking up a pack he felt a tap on his shoulder. Yugi turned around to see Regan looking a little annoyed.
"You two need to be up there to get the duel disks." Regan explained rolling her eyes. Confused, Yugi along with Atem followed Regan up to the front counter.
"There, I have the other duellist who wishes to get a duel disk and our peer who will be witnessing our purchase."
"State your name and I will check the data base for your level." The shopkeeper stated in mono tone pushing his glasses up. "We will start with the witness."
"Yugi Muto." Yugi answered the shopkeeper.
"Well I am honoured to have the King of Games in my shop today." The Keeper said excitedly ignoring his tone from earlier with Regan. Yugi nodded and in his peripheral vision watched Regan's hand clench into a fist.
"My name is Regan Heartin." Regan stated calmly.
The shopkeeper went from excitement to the expression of 'you peasant get out of my castle.' "Little girl what are you doing here with someone who is much higher ranked citizen? It's not like you can really duel, what are you, like twelve years old and probably a tramp."
Yugi was shocked by a statement like that and was about to say something when Regan beat him to it.
"A tramp, well I guess you have to be one in order to know one." Regan stated in a very dangerous tone, "Well I like to bet you all of your duel monster cards on your shelf; that I am a level six or higher."
The shopkeeper looked ready to strangle the little girl in front of him. Then his expression changed to an evil amused face, "Okay fine, but if you're not, you have to work for me for the rest of the year and I take you rarest card, tramp" The shopkeeper agreed and started to type on the keyboard.
"Was that such a good idea considering the comment you made to Kaiba, also about him not actually getting back to his office?" Yugi asked whispering in her ear.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure." Regan grinned like she just created a plan to take over the world. Yugi shuddered as the shopkeeper interrupted.
"And your level is..."
"So what is the tramp's level?" Regan asked very cockily when the shopkeeper didn't finish.
"It's eight stars... you're an eight star duellist just like the king." The shopkeeper answered quietly.
He reached under the counter and pulled up a box and handed it to Regan. She walked away to the shelf where Atem and Yugi were searching earlier.
"You don't ever call her tramp again." Yugi told the arrogant shopkeeper. "She hangs out with me because we are classmates."
The shopkeeper nodded quickly and nervously turned his head to Atem. "What is you name so I can see you level?"
"Atem." Atem answered with a bit of agitation.
The shopkeeper typed on the keyboard quickly. "You are also an eight star duellist Mr. Destiny. This means the duel disks of you and the other girl are free, I must go and collect them from the back so excuse me."
The shopkeeper walked away from the counter and went to the backroom.
"Bastard." Yugi muttered under his breath.
Atem didn't notice, but still had a confused face on him. "Destiny, why would Kaiba put my last name Destiny?"
Yugi looked at him and tried really hard not to laugh at his question. "Probably because you said that word so many times and decided to get you back."
"I think he did an excellent job." Yugi heard Regan from behind him. Yugi turned around to see Regan place the last set of cards on the second of four shelves.
"Seriously, to make fun of someone and make it sound normal with a five thousand year old name, takes a lot of work and intelligence. Atem Destiny it has a nice ring?"
"Whose side are you on?" Atem demanded, Regan just smirked and stated, "I'm Switzerland."
"Okay I am back with your duel disks, have a good night." The shopkeeper said as he came through the door with two rectangular boxes.
The group was about to walk out of the shop when Regan stopped in front of Yugi and turned to look at the shopkeeper.
"I only took half of the cards. We don't need all of the cards that would just be greedy for other people that wish to buy some cards."
The shopkeeper didn't say anything as they left. They started to walk home in quiet. About half way there Regan sighed, "That asshole. So is this enough to create a deck?"
"Yeah I think there is enough to make a dozen." Atem puffed.
They all laughed and continued to walk in silence. They reached Regan's house about half an hour after leaving the game shop. When they walked into the house Regan suggested that Atem should take a shower and place his cloths in the washer. He nodded and headed upstairs. Yugi watched Regan head into the kitchen and was left alone to sort out the different card packs and tins.
'Well it looks like she got about three to four of each tin which there is four different tins. Also about six packs each for nine different packs. Snap, she grabbed sixteen tins and fifty-four booster packs.' Yugi thought in shock.
He shook his head and his stomach growled at the smell that came from the kitchen. He followed the scent to find Regan sitting on the counter playing with the dragonfly dagger.
"Where did you find that?" He asked Regan.
"In the kitchen, but it is my fault that you guys are in this mess." She continued to play with the dagger. "Hell, the world would be safe if I hadn't completed this puzzle." She answered stabbing the counter with the dagger. "Tabarnak!"
Yugi stared at her blankly not having a clue on what language she just cursed in, possible French.
"We are going to get everyone home in one piece, I promise." Yugi told her as she looked up from the dagger.
"No, I've caused enough damage equal to a hurricane and people have suffered; you have suffered. I don't need anyone else being caught in the after math so stop sticking around." Regan stated getting down from the counter.
'And I don't need any more friends, being trap in the spider's nest.'
Yugi thought Regan stated, but her mouth wasn't moving.
"Did you say something about a spider's nest?" He asked in confusion.
"Uh, no... But I was thinking something along those lines." Regan answered looking at him funny, "Did you hear my thoughts?"
'Yeah.' He answered back in thought form. She looked a bit alarmed like she did when she saw Atem in class, but then she hid her emotions from the rest of the world. "I heard that."
There was stillness in the air as the two of them just stood in front of each other wondering who would last the longest. The oven beeped making Regan jump and losing the stare down. Regan walked towards the oven and pulled out the pizzas. Yugi left the kitchen to give her some privacy and Joey came through the door beside him scaring him half to death.
"Hey we're home; oh that pizza smells good." Joey commented with a bit of drool on the side of his chin.
Téa and Tristan followed into the house as soon as Joey got out of the door way. Joey had a pair of jeans on with a plain red top. Téa was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a Hello Kitty t-shirt. Tristan was wearing a pair of cargo pants and a t-shirt with a motorcycle on it. Tristan and Joey sat on the sofa closest to the window, while Téa sat on the other sofa. Atem came through the hallway that had a door wearing the Domino High uniform pants and a black long sleeve shirt and open vest.
The door that Tristan broke was placed on the wall beside the entrance along with the door frames. Regan came in with the pizzas and set them on the coffee table then asked for drinks. Yugi helped with the ordering and walked into the kitchen to collect and deliver. Yugi sat next to Atem closest to the chair that Regan sat in. Everyone grabbed a slice except for Regan who didn't look to hungry.
"Holy shit! Where did you guys get all these cards from?" Joey yelled with food still in his mouth. He continued to look at the box beside the coffee table.
"Chew, swallow, and then talk." Téa scolded.
"I won a bet against a shopkeeper." Regan answered in monotone.
"What were the bets on?" Tristan asked.
"Well the shopkeeper and Regan really didn't get off to a great start so it was placed on if Regan was or wasn't a six star or higher duellist. If she was she got all the duel monster cards, but if she wasn't then she had to work for the b- guy for the year." Yugi stated almost calling the shopkeeper a bastard. He still was angry about that statement.
"So what's your level?" Téa asked.
"Same as me level eight, though she didn't take all the cards. She left the other half of the cards for people who buy from that store." Atem answered.
"WHAT! Both of you are eight star duellists, GRR RICH BOY'S TOAST!" Joey yelled and then took another bite of his pizza angrily.
After supper everyone started to help Atem build his deck. They spent about an hour going through every card that Regan had collected and putting together a deck. After the deck was completed everyone had a free for all of picking cards from the table.
There were a few arguments settled quickly with a coin and eventually there was another copy of the card that showed up magically so the one who lost had the other card. This process took another half an hour.
"Okay so, in about a half an hour it will be eleven pm, we will separate into teams of two and head to Domino Park. Once there, we will find DM, kick his butt back to wherever in Hell he came from, and bring everyone back home safe and sound." Tristan announced going through a battle plan Téa and him created while Joey was in the shower at Téa's house.
"That is a great plan, but this is my problem that I need to fix. No one should be going to Domino Park, because no one else should be punished for my recklessness." Regan replied strongly disagreeing.
"Ah my young Padawan you have much to learn." Joey stated like a Jedi scolding his student.
"Atem and Yugi have tried that speech a hundred times, even Kaiba has tried it a couple of time also and it NEVER works, do you think that it would work if you tried the speech of 'let me do it alone'?" Téa questioned.
"But-"
"But nothing, we live for dangerous weirdoes with funny magic powers that never seem to make sense, but do. Besides it's been boring in the last six months." Tristan said also defended the other two.
Regan looked like she was going to continue arguing. She looked to the ground then back at the rest of the group.
'They are either going to be a great help or they are so going to get into trouble.' Yugi thought to himself waiting for Regan to make the next move.
"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Regan answered, "We need break up the groups with a way to communicate with each group and find this demon. Téa you seem to be the only one with a cellphone besides me so we will be in two separate groups."
Téa nodded and walked over to exchange information with each other.
'Hey Atem?' Yugi thought to the teenager beside him.
'Hello.' Atem answered.
'There is a major connection between the two puzzles, a lot more of a connection then what Shadi had told us.'
'Really?'
'Yeah. Regan and I can talk the way we are talking now. It seems really strange, but it must have to do with who is inside that Millennium Item.' He told Atem.
He nodded, 'Yes, but I have no memory of who could be in there though the thought of it makes me feel like I know I am staring at that person. Unfortunately there are still several pieces missing in our puzzle.'
The girls return to their seats.
"So there are four duellists and two non-duelists-" Joey started as Tristan interrupted "Hey, Téa and I are duellists just not as qualified to do the job, but we have been practising."
"Oh sorry, so we have four duellists and two non-duellists." Joey mocked.
"Atem and Yugi should go with Téa, they would seem less of a target to thugs on the streets and the park." Tristan finished the plan after smoking Joey off the sofa.
"Which means Regan will come with Tristan and me because Regan looks like anybody's play toy, if she were to the street with Atem or Yugi." Joey finished getting back on the sofa with a lump forming on the top of his head.
"Glad that we had any say in the planning, but it makes sense." Téa replied.
"Well if we are done, I still have to ask you something Regan. Did you notice anything different when you were in the kitchen to when you passed out?" Yugi asked point blank.