Chapter Fifteen: I Have To

updated: 12/18/09

ISF: Well, it's Christmas break for me, which means that I actually have free time to write! Hooray! I'm pretty pleased, and I sure hope that I'll be able to pour myself into this fic, because damn, this thing has gone on for like four years. I still have like ten or so chapters to go before the ending will be within sight, so I need to work! Push my nose to the grinder, people!

Now, reviewer comments!

Allison lightning: Thanks for the review! I promise it's going somewhere, and it will have an ending to it, LOL. So keep reading!

MissDomaYuset: Yeah, that part made me tear up a little too. ;_; But don't worry too much, Joey's gonna show up again sometime soon! Thanks for the compliment, by the way. :)

Distant-Moon: Thanks for the review and praise. It's good to hear positive feedback about my OCs, because I really want their stories to jive with the stories of the main characters and not have it be all about them, you know? No wish fulfillment here! And yeah, even though it was hard for me, I had to write Mary how I felt some people would react to being in their favorite anime world, you know, being insensitive, not taking things seriously, etc. But man, sometimes I wanna punch her so bad...hahaha. Since you're worried about Joey, I'll spoil things a little and say that no, he's got a bit more fight in him left, but he's still in mortal danger. But keep on reading! :)

sigourney1636: Whew! And I was worried that I wasn't portraying him correctly! It's hard getting his speeches with the right amount of wisdom and power, LOL. Thanks for the review, and keep reading!

o o o o o

Tristan and Sarah ran into one another as they were walking. They were both walking in the same direction, which was away from Yugi's home. Sarah was walking briskly, with purpose, though she had no idea what purpose it was other than widening the distance between her and that place. Tristan walked slowly, lethargically, without any purpose. He just did not see any purpose in anything anymore.

Sarah saw his lone figure ahead of her, the one other person in the wasteland of a city. She caught up to him and walked alongside him. He looked up and turned his head to her. She saw his ashen face, the strain that was evident in his features and which weighed down his body. He saw her tightly pursed lips, her hands that continually clenched and unclenched, and her unnaturally bright eyes. it was through what they saw in the other that they gained a silent, but mutual understanding of the other, and they began to walk with one another. They continued this way for several minutes before either of them spoke.

"What happened to you?" Sarah said. She was surprised at the rough quality of her voice, as if it had not been used in years. Tristan let out a humorless chuckle.

"I'm just . . . tired of it all," he said.

"Humph. Me too." There was another long silence between them.

"I . . . I have to find my best friend," said Tristan, to himself as well as to Sarah. She looked at him.

"Thought you said you were tired of everything," she said, surly as always. Tristan shook his head slowly.

"I don't mean . . . well, I . . . ." He took a long, shaky breath before beginning again. "I'm tired of this," he said, motioning at the city. Sarah looked at the city. Many of the windows had been shattered, and the glass littered the streets, reflecting angry orange light from the fires. Cars were wrecked, and there was no sign of life in the city other than the two. "Being in danger all the time. It sucks, always being in a state of near mortal peril with my friends, on the sidelines constantly, unable to do anything. I'm not in control of my destiny, you know? It's always in the hands of someone like Yugi or Joey—" Tristan stopped short.

"Yeah . . . I get it," Sarah said bluntly. "So why are you still with them?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"If you're tired of everything that happens when you're with them, why are you still friends with them? There's nothing that obligates you to stay with them. If all they bring is trouble, then there's no point in hanging around."

"I know," said Tristan simply. "But it's not that simple." Sarah looked back at him. His face was contorted as he struggled to comprehend his contradicting emotions. "I . . . I've always resented being saved by Yugi and Joey all the time. I know that's what friends are for. They watch your back. You need that sometimes. But there's nothing much else that feels worse than not being able to protect yourself, and to always have to make sure your friend doesn't screw up by having such a hard head and jumping into things. You have to look out for someone when you can't even look out for yourself."

"Yeah. I understand that feeling," said Sarah quietly. "But then, why . . . ?"

"Because . . ." The longest pause thus far penetrated their conversation. It seemed to make the air ripple with its poignancy and emotional weight.

". . . Because I care about him. I won't ever forgive myself if my best friend got hurt and I just stood aside and let it happen."

And so the two continued on walking together, with Tristan all the more resolute in his decision to go on and help the one that he cared about, and Sarah all the more confused and unnerved.

o o o o o

"I put some food, water, and first aid in my bag," Tea said to Yami. He was placing his extra cards (in a tin box) into a backpack, which also contained a few items that would come in handy.

"Good," he said, wincing as he put on his backpack. His shoulder wound was beginning to hurt again. "Anything else?"

Tea took a quick glance at Mary, who was sitting on the sidewalk with a chalk white face and red eyes, and quickly showed Yami the inside of her bag. Yami saw that she had a handgun. He recognized it as the one Solomon kept in the store, that only the family and Tea knew about. Yami gave a short nod to her.

Turning, Tea walked to Mary. "Are you alright, Mary?"

Mary gave a small shake of her head. "My stomach hurts," she said in a quiet, pinched sort of voice. Her face was as pale as freshly burned ashes. Tea crouched down and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

"I know this is a bad time for you, but we have to go now. It's not safe for us to stay any longer. And we have to find our friends and get out of her." Tea pulled out a bottle and shook an aspirin out of it, then got out a water bottle in a side pocket on her bag. Mary took the aspirin with shaking, tiny hands, and put it in her mouth, and took a small sip of Tea's water.

"Thank you," she said, in the faintest whisper.

Tea helped her up to her feet, and the three began to walk, unsure of where they were headed. Their only choice was to move, regardless of direction.

o o o o o

Seto had spent the past hour hooking up wires and making calculations in his laptop. He and his brother were no longer in Seto's secret study, but a larger, albeit still hidden, chamber in the Kaiba mansion. Mokuba watched silently as his brother tinkered and adjusted the machine that Mokuba figured would fix things. It looked like a smaller, well-built version of the machine Mokuba had seen briefly on the video with the otherworldly monster.

"Seto," asked Mokuba. "If the machine was so dangerous, why did you keep the blue prints for it?"

"I didn't," said Seto, still working on the machine without a break in his pace. "I destroyed all of the blue prints, except save for the ones that Malachite may have had to rebuild his machine. Or he might have been able to construct the machine from memory. I only kept the master plan."

"Will this machine make everything right again?"

". . ." Seto stood up and placed his tools neatly aside, far away from the machine. He looked at his brother with tired, empty eyes. They looked nearly black to Mokuba. "I don't know," he said. To everyone else, his words would have been construed as emotionless, but Mokuba could hear and feel what was in his Seto's voice. "This will only get me into the part of the city that has been affected by Malachite."

"You mean you're going in there? You can't!" Mokuba was horrified. "You're walking right into them! It's too dangerous!"

Seto began to walk into an area behind a glass sliding door. It shut behind him and locked automatically. "I have to," Mokuba read Seto's lips as saying. Frantically, Mokuba pounded on the glass.

"Please!" he begged. "Let me come with you! Don't go without me!" A countdown showed above the door. It read "10".

His brother stared back at him, unmoving. Mokuba looked around the room. He saw a lone, wooden chair on the opposite side of the room. He ran to it as fast as his legs could carry him. Six. Picking it up, he ran back to the glass door. Two. Seto's mouth moved, screaming a demand that Mokuba could not hear. Lifting the chair above his head, he slammed it full force into the glass. It shattered the very moment the countdown ended.

A strange blue, fluorescent light flooded the room, flooded Mokuba's senses. It was as if time itself was slowing down. He felt his body moving through everything, through time, through dimensions themselves. All that existed in this state was him, his brother in front of him falling through infinite space, and the bright blue.

But then he saw something else coming into existence. It was dark. Then it drew closer. He saw a horrible face, long, black claw-like hands reaching out to grab him—

He felt his brother's crushing grip on his wrist, pulling him past his brother's body, flinging him away. . . .

Mokuba slammed into a brick wall. He lay, stunned, on the ground for a minute, stars speckling his vision and feeling his chest burning with every breath he took. The pain eventually subsided and his vision cleared. He got up shakily. He knew that his nose was bleeding.

"Seto," he said weakly. He cleared his throat. He was in a dark alley, a short distance away from the street. This was a part of town he had never been in. The sky was dark.

"Seto!" Mokuba screamed loudly, his voice hoarse.

He was alone.

o o o o o

ISF: It's late, I'm tired, so I know there are probably a bunch of typos in this thing, but . . . meh.

END