"Ryou, are you alright?"
"I think he passed out."
Ryou could hear the voices of his friends, but he couldn't open his eyes. His limbs felt heavy, and he wasn't sure he could move them if he tried.
"Is Ryou going to be okay?" That was Mokuba's voice, full of concern and hope.
Careful hands found their way around him, and in a few moments, Ryou was being lifted off the ground. Another's hands tucked his limp arms in against his chest so that they no longer dangled loosely.
"He's going to be fine, he probably just needs rest."
Ryou could hear Seto's voice through the chest his ear was pressed to as they started to move, presumably towards the elevator.
"I hope he recovers in time for the semifinals."
"I hope so too. Those will be quite something, won't they?"
Even while being carried, Ryou could feel the slight shift as the elevator began to descend.
"I'm sure Seth is going to have a lot to say when you two finally face off against Noah."
"Joey–" There was a warning in the brunette's voice, but it was too late.
"Who's Seth?" Mokuba asked, and Ryou felt the full weight of Seto's sigh.
"I'll tell you about it later, Mokuba."
Ryou smiled a little as he pictured Seto glaring at Joey for his verbal slip-up.
"How much later?"
"When we get home after this tournament, I'll tell you about it." Seto sighed again.
"Sorry, I forgot he didn't know about that." Joey sounded truly apologetic.
"There's a lot of things I already have to explain to him, like the Millennium Items and the Pharaoh. It's fine, it's just one more thing."
The way Seto's hold on Ryou tightened told him it wasn't fine at all. Yet again, Ryou was forced to question the burdens his friend carried.
The silence that followed made Ryou curious. He tried opening his eyes again, and this time they obeyed.
Ryou couldn't see Seto's face, but he could see the look of apologetic concern in Joey's soft brown eyes. It reminded Ryou that Joey knew more of Seto's secrets than he did, and he couldn't suppress the pang of jealousy that he felt. Hadn't he been Seto's friend much longer than Joey? Hadn't he earned the same trust?
"Hey, he's awake." Joey smiled down at Ryou now. "How ya feelin', buddy?"
"Very tired." Ryou moved one arm experimentally as they exited the elevator and found that he was able to move it with almost no trouble. "The Spirit tried to take me with him."
"To the Shadow Realm?" Seto asked.
"Yeah." Ryou dropped his arm back to his chest. "But that wasn't part of the deal, so I guess the magic didn't let him take me."
"That's not how that works."
Seto's words were confident enough that Ryou tipped his head back, again trying to get a look at his face. What made him so sure? Seth?
"There was nothing in the deal about you, so you staying with us is thanks entirely to your own strength. You fought him, and you won."
Ryou could feel himself start to blush. Seto was praising him, in his own way.
"At least I have one victory over him. It's better than nothing."
He let that sink in for a moment.
"You can put me down now, Seto, I'm fine. I can walk on my own."
"No. I'm going to take you to the nurses first."
"Oh, come on, I'm fine! You don't have to treat me like I'm Mokuba."
"Hey!"
"I just mean that he doesn't have to be so protective of me," Ryou explained, hoping that he hadn't offended Seto's brother.
"Of course I do. You're my friend."
Ryou's previous annoyance with Seto faded away in light of those simple words. Seto didn't consider many people to be his friends, and he seldom felt the need to tell them as much. Hearing him claim their friendship so clearly and unabashedly made Ryou feel special.
"Still, you can put me down. I'm feeling better now."
Seto stopped and obliged, carefully setting Ryou down on his feet, not stepping back until he was sure that his friend was steady.
"Thanks for carrying me." Ryou ducked his head a little, embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it."
"I guess we should go tell the others that–"
"Ryou?"
Marik's voice turned their heads to the other end of the hall, where the Egyptian teen stood outside the infirmary.
"Marik!"
As if they had been separated for years instead of a couple hours, they ran to each other and crashed into an embrace that tempted Seto to cover Mokuba's eyes, but he didn't. He couldn't shield his brother from the world forever.
"When Mai woke up, I knew something must have happened," Marik explained as he held Ryou's tearful face in both hands, the latter's arms loose around his waist.
"Mai is awake?" Joey perked up at those words and walked past the embracing couple to see for himself.
Content that he was no longer needed, Seto turned away, beckoning his brother to follow.
"Come on, Mokuba. We both need to get some sleep before tomorrow."
Each duelist's room was furnished with one bed and a couch. Seto tried giving his brother the bed at first, but Mokuba insisted that he would fit in the couch much more easily than his long-limbed brother, so Seto yielded.
While Mokuba started dozing, Seto went over his deck one last time. He shuffled cards between his main deck and side deck, moving away from the machine strategy that he had used against Duke towards something more focused on supporting and summoning Obelisk the Tormentor. He hadn't used the card at all yet, hadn't even drawn it to his hand in a duel. Even though he was confident in his strategy, he was still nervous about using the card. The god monsters hadn't behaved consistently so far, and his greatest fear regarding the card was that Obelisk would refuse to obey him.
Obelisk should not be your primary concern at this time. He will obey us, I have no doubt.
He's the only part of my deck that I'm concerned about, so if you say not to worry, then I guess I'm done with my deck.
Seto shuffled the cards together and slid his deck back into his duel disk. He should go to sleep, but something was bothering him. He got up to check on Mokuba, who was soundly asleep now, then left their room.
Where are you going?
To speak with Joey.
Joey's room wasn't far, so it wouldn't take long.
Why?
Because I feel guilty for lying to Yugi, Seto admitted. I obviously can't tell him the truth, but he's trying his best and I can see how much he wants me to trust him. He just couldn't handle it, though. It would be cruel to tell Yugi the truth. People like Ryou and Yugi… they take everything to heart.
And people like Joey and Duke? Seth had already sensed the way Seto was sorting his friends.
They'd be upset, but they could handle it. He didn't just mean they could handle knowing what he'd been; he believed they could probably handle knowing the details that he'd never share. They wouldn't fall apart the way Ryou and Yugi would. The way I would have if I were a more normal person.
You've held up under some incredible pressures in your young life, Seth acknowledged. Even without me, you'd still be extraordinary.
That's not quite what I meant, but thanks.
He'd reached his destination.
Seto knocked twice.
"Joey, can I come in?"
"Sure."
Seto entered and stepped to the side, leaning against the wall beside the door the way he had in Yugi's room. Joey had taken off his jacket and had the cards of his deck spread out before him on his bed, probably going over his duel with Yugi in his head.
"What's up?" Joey didn't seem particularly surprised by Seto's visit.
"Yugi wanted to know how I met Noah Kaiba in the first place."
Joey looked confused and put down the cards in his hand. This wasn't the conversation he had expected.
"You told us that you met him when you first tried applying for a job at KaibaCorp."
"That is what I said." Seto was relieved that Joey had remembered his story, because he sure as hell didn't. "But Yugi has figured out that it was a lie."
Joey was quiet for a moment.
"Then what really happened? How did you two actually meet?"
"It did happen at the KaibaCorp building," Seto said slowly.
"When?" Joey propped an elbow on his knee and held his chin in his hand.
"It was about a week before the Monster World incident. We encountered each other in the elevator."
Joey's face took on a thoughtful expression as he tried to place the events in his memories. This would have been well after he and Seto became friends.
"What were you doing at KaibaCorp?"
"I was working."
Seto couldn't meet Joey's concerned gaze and looked away.
"That was the day after I met Ryou's dad. He had already figured out that my cover story had holes in it."
It was better to just continue the story than let Joey think of questions.
"I was leaving KaibaCorp when Noah got on the elevator with me." Staring down at his hand, he curled his fingers into a fist. "He called me a whore, so I punched him in the face."
"That sounds like something you'd do." There was a hint of amusement in Joey's voice, like he wanted to laugh despite his worries.
"That was when I challenged him to the chess game, and we agreed that if I won, I got his Blue-Eyes White Dragon card."
"I was wondering about that."
Uh-oh.
"Before, you told us that if he won, you could never work at KaibaCorp. But if you weren't actually there applying for a job, then that can't be what happened." Joey was giving this more thought than Seto had expected. "What would he have gotten if he won? What did you bet?"
Seto was silent for a moment.
"Him betting the card was my idea."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"What I bet isn't important."
"There wasn't much you could give him that he didn't already have." Brown eyes fixed the brunette with a hard stare that he just couldn't meet. "What was he supposed to get if he won?"
Seto was determined not to tell him, but the words slipped out against his will.
"I bet myself."
Seth, what the hell?!
"Seto–"
"It wasn't my idea," Seto defended, his jaw set. "And I only agreed to it because I knew I could win."
"Could?"
"Yes, could, and I did."
Joey looked angry as he stood from his bed and slowly approached Seto.
"Promise me that you'll never do that again." Joey couldn't argue with Seto about his past decision; knowing the brunette, he'd probably defend it to his dying day out of sheer stubbornness.
"I can't, Joey. What do you think will be happening tomorrow? Noah has to be stopped."
"So, what, you'll make it a Shadow Game and gamble both your souls?" Joey crossed his arms. "And what happens if he wins? He has two Millennium Items and two god cards. What do you honestly think your odds of beating him are?"
There was a pause, and Joey started to wonder if he hadn't gone too far.
"Three to two, against." Blue eyes glinted. "But I think I have better odds than anyone else. Yugi may have Exodia, but his duel with Pegasus proved that he can't stand against the Millennium Eye on his own."
Joey sighed, unwilling to comment on who had the best odds.
"There's something else that you've overlooked."
"What?"
"You said that Noah knows what you used to do." Joey's voice dropped in volume as he uncrossed his arms. "If he was willing to out Ishizu in front of everyone, who's to say that he won't do the same to you?"
Joey watched as terror overtook his friend's features. Seto covered his mouth, suddenly feeling ill.
How did that not occur to me?
I don't know. I'm wondering the same thing of myself. Seth sounded equally regretful.
"I can't let that happen," the brunette murmured as he dropped his hand. "It would ruin me."
Joey put his hands on Seto's shoulders, trying to calm the tremor he saw.
"I'm sorry, Seto." Joey swallowed hard, struggling to come up with an answer.
"I don't think Mokuba should watch me duel tomorrow."
"He'll be disappointed–"
"He can deal with it."
The expression of terror had passed, but he was still obviously distressed.
"Maybe it's time to just tell everyone the truth?" he ventured.
"Absolutely not." Seto looked at him as if he'd just said something colossally stupid. "There's a dozen reasons why I can't tell them. They wouldn't understand, even if I tried to explain that I was forced into it." Seto was about to continue with the many reasons why the truth was a terrible idea.
"Wait, forced?" was Joey's confused whisper. "You never told me that." He'd known that Seto had kept a lot of details from him, and that didn't bother him. But this was significant.
"There's a reason that I didn't." Seto's voice was almost too quiet to be heard.
Joey wanted to ask, wanted to know, wanted to hold Seto close until he had nothing left to hide. But this wasn't the right time. He dropped his hands from Seto's shoulders.
"You could try warning them, then." Joey couldn't accept that the situation would have no solution. "Remind them that Noah twisted the truth about Ishizu to make her look bad and will probably do the same to you."
"Maybe, but still…" Seto sighed. "I need to think on this more. Thanks for warning me." He stepped away like he was about to leave.
"Hold on."
Seto stopped and Joey went back to his bed and surveyed the cards, plucking one from the spread and returning to hand it to Seto.
"I want you to have this card. No matter what, you'll be facing some tough duels tomorrow. Just remember that you're not alone."
Seto accepted the card from Joey and offered him a small smile.
"Thank you. I'll remember, Joey."
The blond hesitated and hugged him.
"Even if Noah spills all of your secrets," Joey whispered into his ear. "We'll all still be your friends. I hope you know that."
"Thank you." Seto didn't sound assured, but he did sound grateful. He released Joey after a few moments. "I need to get some sleep before tomorrow."
"Of course. Goodnight, Seto."
"Goodnight, Joey."