Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Crimson November ❯ the hallway ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my crudely spelled words, and even those I don't own.

The thing in the hall

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Noa was sleeping peacefully in a spare room, curled up in a large overly stuffed blue and grey-checkered blanket, finally able to explore the world of reality. He had never felt so alive…

This was something to enjoy, seeing as he hadn't technically existed for years.

He yawned, rolling over in his warm cocoon of blankets until his head just barley poked up from under the top of the blanket.

A loud banging noise had woken him from his slumber; a harsh grating hissing noise.

A noise that didn't sound human or man made for that matter…

He opened one eye slowly, the darkness of the room slowly fading away into a dull blur of black, then began to lethargically pull the blankets from his sleep riddled limbs. He would have given anything for a few more minutes of sleep, he thought, yawning again.

He crept to the door, avoiding the various dressers and tables that had been placed around the room to give it an aesthetic feeling and grabbed the door knob, yanking the silver round knob so hard that it nearly ripped itself from the wood.

Then, growling annoyed to himself, he walked out into the hall to see a large half human creature lying with its back and tail facing him, looking more like a monster from the movie Alien then anything he'd seen before in his life. Before he could even drop his jaw from shock, the creature swivelled its body, its face a handsome yet gruesome feature of flesh that mismatched itself horribly. In one movement, the creature swung its tail, nearly clipping his cheek and Noa only escaped when Joey Wheeler flung himself out into the living room like a wrestler trying to pin his opponent. The blond was followed closely by a rather bored looking Yami Bakura, and both had to struggle to keep the creature from launching another attack, grabbing it by the tail and by the head in a vain attempt to hold it still while Noa slowly backed his way into his closed door, eyes wide and terror filled, looking like a cornered rabbit.

" Stop trying to kill Noa, you freak!" Joey shouted, clawing vainly at the creature's tail, wrapping his arms around it, thought its full width was that of his entire middle. The tail fell limp in his grasp and the creature hung its head, ashamed by its rash decision.

" I'm sorry… it's just, I didn't think someone was going to come out of that room… it's sort of a bad reflex…" the creature rasped.

Yami Bakura jumped back from its face, dusting himself off as if he had been rolling in garbage.

" alright hten. I suppose we should explain to Noa what this thing is…"

" you mean, WHO I AM." The creature snarled, snapping its teeth at the Yami.

Joey smiled sheepishly to Noa, trying to coax him out of the corner.

" Noa, this is the former Joey Wheeler- not that I killed him or anything, its just that he was my past me, which I don't really understand-" Joey stuttered, turning to Yami Bakura for help.

Yami Bakura shrugged.

" you pretty much covered everything there with the whole, former Joey Wheeler thing. Only, I'd have added that it's really going to be in this body for a few more measly days- rather then just saying that it will always look this way." He dodged a whip attack from the creature's tail and sneered sarcastically at Noa, who sheepishly looked to the creature.

He couldn't believe that something that horrible and disfigured could exist. It made his stomach turn with the very thought of its presence, like undigested food trying to force its way back up his throat in a whirling torrent of bile that burned and scraped its way in an attempt to be free.

He gagged, covering his mouth.

The creature stared blankly at him, as if having picked up the thoughts then turned away, looking to Joey who seemed somewhat scared and sheepish.

The blond wrung his hands, looking away from the creature's glance.

It crossed Noa's thoughts that perhaps something had happened between the two… some strange mind link that had breeched the distance of their very separate minds…He shuddered as Joey shrugged at the creature, as if listening to it.

Yami Bakura scowled bitterly at the three, stalking out of the hallway and back into the living room with a militaristic stomp that made the floor boards shiver under foot.

Joey shrugged again; he motioned to Noa, trying to get him to move closer.

" come on Noa. Move your ass. We need to explain something to you… it's probably important that you know everything about this. Seto's working on another body… this time, it's a replica of mine… an' this is my Yami… I guess…" he sighed, trying to wrap the idea around his head when Kaiba appeared in the end of the hall, a screw driver tucked behind his ear, grease smudged across his cheek disappearing up under the front of his bangs just short of his eyebrows.

It appeared that he had been trying to move his hair for some reason, which mystified Joey because he doubted that Kaiba's bangs even reached the length to cause a person to want to move them out of the way.

Kaiba's cerulean blue eyes locked on Joey's honeysuckle eyes. A frown edged its way across his face, concern making its presence noticeable in an instant.

" I hate to say this, but I need some help to finish this project quickly… I've already got all the parts I need ordered and they'll be here in a couple of hours… I just need…" he blushed a little, then regained his composure in a blinding look of absolute fury aimed at himself.

" I need measurements."

Joey snorted, nearly laughing. He had to hold his gut to keep from falling over laughing, but he kept his giggles inside, watching how the expression on Kaiba's face seemed to dip from anxiety to real fury.

" eh… sure. You got any problems with that… er… Yami me?"

the creature snorted a small ball of flames, singeing the carpet.

" sure, go ahead. But it you make any measurements that you know are untrue… I'll be forced to take things into my own hands…" it hissed.

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Joey sat quietly on a workbench in Kaiba's workroom, a bathrobe wrapped around his nude body. He shivered, wishing that Kaiba had picked a less drafty place to take measurements.

He won't get correct lengths, Joey mused lightly to himself in a vain attempt to keep his thoughts on the present situation. It was hard to think that he was more then a little embarrassed to be sitting on a bench with nothing more then a cotton bathrobe between himself and the outside world… what was more embarrassing was the fact that he would be putting himself under much more scrutiny then he would have liked.

It's wasn't that he was ashamed of anything…

Sure, he had some insecurities… no one liked having themselves put under a microscope for anything… and sure, he'd love to walk around naked with Kaiba in the room just as much as he would have loved seeing a red hot poker inserted into someone's nose…

It wasn't ashamed fury…

It was the simple fact that he wanted Kaiba to love him for himself, not for measurements…

He shook his head.

No.

Kaiba wouldn't be like that.

He wouldn't just make his measurements and then dump Joey like a sac of potatoes just like that.

He shook his head again, feeling the cold nip at his body through the frail fabric of the bathrobe.

Kaiba stalked into the room holding in tailor's measuring tape, a soft flexible tape that would bend to curves and provide a much more realistic measure then any metal ruler could.

He nodded to Joey once, motioning for his Koi to take off the robe then frowned when Joey glared at him, as if accusing him of something.

" What?"

Joey bit his lip, turning away to stare blandly at the light fixture glowing up on the ceiling.

" Nothing."

Fearing the worst, the blond dropped the bathrobe, keeping his back to Kaiba in an attempt to keep his terror from plain view.

Unfortunately, Kaiba knew well how to read the body language of anyone, especially Joey.

" Joey… what's wrong?"

He walked forward and tentatively wrapped his arm around Joey's waist, hugging the blond to his chest, feeling his lover breath in and out in shallow nervous breaths.

Joey shrugged him off, wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to cover a small portion of himself.

" It's nothing, I just… I just…" he trailed off, looking Kaiba straight in the eye.

" I don't like someone looking at me like I'm some piece of meat…"

Kaiba raised an eyebrow, a smile curving his lips.

" You seriously think I look at you like a piece of meat… sure… I look at you… but your not a piece of meat. A piece of meat can be cooked until it's burned out and charcoal… I wouldn't dream of doing that to you." He moved forward again, reaching out to take Joey's face in his hand, looking his lover in the eye.

" but… if you're afraid I look at you like that… I'll just…" he pulled back, pulling the screwdriver from behind his ear.

" I'll just fake it. He won't know the difference. He hasn't been human for a while, I doubt that he even remembers what it's like… a few centimetres or milimeters won't matter to him…"

He turned away, starting toward the half finished mechanical creature that partially resembled Joey, disappointment fighting through all of his senses. He had thought that Joey was past the petty quibbles that they had had.

Joey scowled, standing still.

" It's not that… it's just… it's embarrassing standing bare ass naked in a room where someone's got a tape measure ready to measure the whole package. You try standing naked in front of a ruler and you see how much you appreciate it." He shifted his weight from foot to foot, freeing one hand to run his fingers through his bangs.

Kaiba turned around slowly, a dark look spreading across his eyes.

" You're afraid of the truth? That's sad Wheeler. I'd do it… anyone with half a brain and half an I.Q. point would do it if it were for the greater good. Or perhaps you don't have that I.Q. point to spare…" he growled, holding the screwdriver so tight in his hands that his knuckles turned an ugly shade of snow white.

Joey raised an eyebrow, not letting Kaiba's insult get the better of him.

" I don't see you standing here bare ass naked, so you don't have an opinion that counts at the moment. But I'm still gonna do it… even if I'm embarrassed. I never said that I wasn't going to."

Kaiba's gaze fell to the ground and his grip on the screwdriver loosened.

He looked past Joey and turned back to the marionette he was building.

" Fine. Then no more of your damned whining."

Joey turned around, burying away his horror.

He'd stand there as naked as he wanted. He didn't care any more about being measured by a thousand rulers with cold metal bodies-ha!

He collected himself, wrapping one arm around his chest; once more running his fingers thought his hair. He saw Kaiba motion toward him, his back turned to Joey as if he were some elderly man in a geriatric ward of a hospital.

A frown papered his lips for a moment, and then he made a plan.

If he had to be naked, the least he could do was make his Koi extremely embarrassed.

Cautiously, he walked past Kaiba, making sure to just barley touch his hand to Kaiba's arm as he walked past. Then, throwing caution to the wind he batted his eyelashes at Kaiba.

" so, where do you want me?"

Kaiba's facial expressions turned to stone, hiding everything. He grabbed the tailor's ruler and then fished a notepad out of his pocket, finding a pencil tucked behind his ear.

" there is fine."

Joey nodded and locked eyes with Kaiba.

" Fine then… lets get started… "

He crossed his arms and faked a look of total superiority, lifting his chin up so high that he was staring blankly at the ceiling until Kaiba sighed, shaking his head.

" Alright. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. Now just, start acting normally. I'll get this over with faster if you stop your blasted pouting."

Joey felt a flush of anger tear its way to his cheeks.

Get this over with? What was wrong with having someone you'd already had sex with standing naked in front of you? Was Kaiba suddenly not interested in him?

Yet, instead of thinking badly of Kaiba he decided to think about him on another level.

It was probably because Mokuba was gone…

Kaiba didn't want to do anything that would be like wasting his time when he could be out saving his little brother…

He shouldn't have reacted so harshly to Kaiba's words…

He was just being protective of his little brother.

All at once, an embarrassment thought battered away his anger.

He was probably making it all worse for Kaiba…

He should have tried harder to protect Mokuba when he'd had the chance.

He vowed that he would do whatever it took to save the younger Kaiba. It was a vow that would be in commemeration of Serenity's death… he would do it for those killed by Tristan and Gozaburo Kaiba.

Kaiba touched his cheek gently, locking eyes with the blond.

" I'm sorry… alright. I'm just worried about Mokuba…. He's all I've got left."

Joey nodded, feeling as if a chunk of ice had stabbed him through the chest with one brutal strike.

So that was the reason…

Kaiba didn't think he had anyone left in the world…

His first impulse was to grab the C.E.O by the shoulders- to shake him roughly shouting, " What am I? Chopped liver?" but he repressed his emotions.

If he wanted to protect Kaiba he had to be strong…

He wasn't going to get emotional about just a silly little statement.

He loved Kaiba, and no matter what Kaiba said in the way of being alone he would always be there to help.

" I understand." He said emotionlessly, taking Kaiba's hand in his own.

" you don't have to worry. We'll get him back. I promise."

Kaiba snorted, shaking his head.

" Wheeler, there's no way to promise that. It's up to fate now…"

Joey smirked suddenly.

" but I thought you always thought that you could make your own fate? What happened to that?" he asked, chuckling.

Kaiba shook his head again.

" That old philosophy was blown apart by a bullet."

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Joey sat quietly in his room, half hanging out of the windowsill; His legs dangled lifelessly against the trim as he stared out at the stars.

It was midnight now…

Kaiba had been working ever since he had taken his measurements…

Yami Bakura had been guarding the creature in the hallway the entire time, obviously not quite trusting the thing. Noa had simply vanished into the woodworks, keeping out of sight. Bakura was sleeping like they all should have been; but somehow Joey didn't feel like sleeping anymore.

He leaned against the window frame, half closing his eyes as he watched the starlight bounce off the surrounding plant life, moon beams stroking the luscious leaves of the trees as if they had together forever.

The darkness had swallowed up the surrounding street lights like a velvet cloak thrown over a flashlight.

Everything seemed somewhat depressing in Joey's eyes now that all that was left was waiting.

There was nothing to do to keep him busy; no floor to clean, no food to cook…

It seemed as if time itself had stopped for an instant that was stretching out forever…

His eyes felt dry, he mused, rubbing them.

It was strange…

Living in a home that wasn't your own…

Eating food from someone else's pantry…

He felt the weight of the millennium puzzle bearing down on him from inside the room.

It sat twinkling in the moonlight on the dresser beside his bed, untouched ever since Noa's body had been made.

He hadn't had the heart to touch it since then.

It was the last part of Yuugi that he had left… other then the duel monster cards that he took with him wherever he went.

Somehow the item made him feel as if he had betrayed Yuugi…

He shivered lightly, wrapping his arms around his body in an attempt to regain some warmth.

He wished that he had been able to save his best friend…

He wished that he had known about Tristan's state of mine… perhaps he would have called the police, sending them a warning…

Perhaps he would have gone into the school by himself with a gun…

He would have killed Tristan if he had known what was going to happen that day…

He could feel it in his blood…

He would get revenge… he would get peace for Yuugi… somehow.

A light knock on the door made him turn slightly in his place.

" Come in… it's open."

The door swung open and Kaiba stepped in, plastic safety goggles stuck awkwardly on his head like a bandana.

Joey turned away, looking back out to the moon, wishing that it would comfort him instead of making him depressed.

" It's almost done… I just finished putting the hair and eyes in… it looks…just…like you." Kaiba murmured, standing stock still in his place.

Joey nodded to himself.

" Of course it does… you always were the perfectionist. I remember telling that to Yuugi once… he just laughed and told me it was a sign of sensitivity…" he smiled, feeling a little of the darkness float away from his heart.

Kaiba nodded, moving forward. He grabbed a rolling chair from the desk beside Joey's bed and wheeled it over behind Joey, sitting down.

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, looking out the window to the moon just as Joey was.

" Do you… do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

Joey didn't turn around; thought he was curious at why Kaiba would be asking his opinion about anything that involved decision-making.

When Joey didn't respond, Kaiba repeated his question again, this time almost painfully.

" Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

Joey sighed, closing his eyes to shield himself from the darkness.

" What does it matter what I think… if you think it's the right thing then it's the right thing… you shouldn't second guess yourself. But if you must know… I admire… I admire your ability to bring all of this into life… I don't think anyone else would be capable of building a body from scratch.."

He felt Kaiba reach out, slipping from the windowsill and onto Kaiba's lap, the fabric of his shirt rustling against the cotton of Kaiba's.

Kaiba breathed out a sight of relief, making the hair on the top of Joey's head dance in the moonlight.

" If you think it's alright then it's alright."

He squeezed Joey lightly; resting his chin on his lover's head, eye half closing.

Joey leaned back into the embrace, feeling yet another wave of darkness leave him.

Kaiba's warmth lulled him into a light dreamlike state…

He felt peaceful at long last…

Kaiba pulled him closer, looping one arm around Joey's waist, stroking the muscles in the blonde's stomach lightly.

" I'm sorry about what I said before." He murmured.

" What about?" Joey mumbled back, trying to ignore the sadness in Kaiba's voice.

Kaiba fidgeted in his chair; reminding Joey of a elementary school student who had said a bad word in front of the principal.

" It's not important what I said… it's just… I felt I had to say it… With all of this craziness going on, I just… I wanted to spend some time with you. Besides, I don't have anything else to work on now…"

" Alright."

Joey yawned, nuzzling against Kaiba's chest.

Kaiba frowned.

" What do you mean by that…?"

Joey sighed, straightening up, reluctant to leave the warmth of Kaiba's chest so soon.

He sat turned himself completely around, legs turned to the side as he leaned in, taking Kaiba's face by the chin.

" I mean exactly what I said. All right. But you don't have to apologize for anything… I understand completely what you feel… loosing Mokuba to those creeps… I feel the same way… about… Serenity."

Kaiba reached up, stroking Joey's cheek lightly wiping away tears that Joey hadn't even realized he'd shed.

He wrapped his arms around the blond, hugging him close to his body; every bone in his body welling up with a protective power that emanated from his heart.

" Joey…"

Joey buried his face in Kaiba's neck, tears streaming down his face in crystalline droplets of salt.

He hadn't realized how much it hurt…

How much it hurt now that he had no one left…

Now that his family was gone and dead…

He wanted to scream in anger…

He wanted to cry…

He wanted his family back…

He had held it inside of so long now…

Not wanting to succumb to his pain…

He wanted to be strong…

Kaiba stroked his shaking Koi, not speaking a word. He knew in his heart what it was like to come to terms with having an entire family torn away in one single shot…

In his parent's case, it had been a car accident…

He'd never told anyone about it…

Mokuba had been at home, sleeping under the babysitter's care, when it had happened…

Kaiba had been in the back seat…

It hadn't been something that he had ever dreamed of occurring…

The noise, metal grating harshly and shrilly across the black empty asphalt.

He remembered the feeling of his stomach soaring up into his throat as the car had rolled, thirteen times… over and over and over… until he had thrown up all over the seat, being held in only by his seatbelt…

He remembered the screams and shouts of his mother… the one single wheeze escaping his father as the car had come to its final resting place…

Upside down in a ditch…

The drivers side ripped apart from a tree and the ground below, solid granite, that had come up berthing from the land unsuspected. It had been there… lurking in the darkness…

He flinched.

No…

He didn't want to remember it…

But it was all coming back to him as brightly as it had been on that fateful night…

He remembered crawling his way out of the back seat; having broken his way through the glass window…

Blood had been dripping…

He remembered the crunch of the glass under his fingers… the feeling of razor sharp pieces of glass digging into his palms…

He remembered seeing his mother, half thrown from the car. She had been hanging onto the seat when the accident had happened… and she was in the windshield… the glass escaping through her middle in one jagged spike of glimmering cold…

His father was stuck on the steering wheel, the metal protruding rudely from his neck, the wheel itself having ripped free during the rolling… the spinning and turning…

He remembered seeing the crimson leeching its way into the ground, emptying his mother and father like a river of blood…

He closed his eyes, squeezing Joey closer in an attempt to throw the images away and turned his attention back to Joey, trembling and crying in his arms.

At least he had been able to see his parent's demise; he thought sadly.

Joey hadn't been able to see their bodies…

Because there were no bodies…

At least not in their world…

" Joey… it's alright… everything's going to be alright…" Kaiba murmured softly, rocking Joey back and forth.

" How do you know…? How do you know…?" Joey moaned, tears leaking from his eyes. He clung helplessly to Kaiba's shirt, as if struggling to make Kaiba prove what he had said.

" I know its going to alright because you're here with me… I know its going to be alright because your not alone… because you're here… because… because I love you." Kaiba whispered softly, holding Joey to his heart.

Joey quieted, still crying softly into his Koi's shirt.

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Morning had come at long last; the sun was peeking through the windows, casting shadows on the sleeping form of Bakura.

Yami Bakura was siting beside his Hikari, half yawning.

He had spent half the night wandering the halls in an attempt to find Noa, wanting to beat the living shit out of the boy for his unwillingness to help out.

He knew that he shouldn't have let the boy out of his sights…

Bakura rolled over, yawning and stretching, eyes opening to greet the morning sun.

The teen cursed profanities, smushing his face into the pillow that had been faithfully lying beneath him all night.

Yami Bakura smirked, crossing his arms, proud of his Koi's cursing.

" I knew you weren't such a goody-goody." He growled, making Bakura start.

Bakura looked up, a terrified, yet relieved look on his face. The pirate patch was pushed up slightly and a dull red line was etched beneath it, as if a vein had sprung up over night.

Yami Bakura motioned to the eye, running a finger down the bridge of Bakura's nose as he did so, smiling.

" I see you've got pirate patch face this morning.." he mused, chuckling lightly.

Bakura flipped him off and sat up, stretching.

" It hurt… again last night. I think something bad is going to happen… something soon." He murmured.

At that, Yami Bakura frowned, pursing his lips.

" Really?" he asked, pretending to be only half interested in what his Hikari had to say, but really was more interested then he let on.

Bakura nodded dully, a dark twinge pulling at his cheek.

" Yes. And it wasn't all that nice… dare I say, it was rather vicious." He pulled himself up out of the bed and stalked around the mattress, seizing a t-shirt that was lying on the floor. He pulled off his pj's and pulled on the shirt so fast that Yami Bakura never even saw the pale colour of his flesh.

He hurried to the door and the turned, expectantly to his Yami, rolling his eyes when Yami Bakura didn't move.

" you do realize that they're probably expecting us, don't you? They'll be wanting to transfer the Joey-dragon thing into a real body as quickly as the can… Besides, we have to get Mokuba back." He tapped one foot in annoyance, eyes narrowing in a rather un-Bakura like manner.

Yami Bakura nodded deviously, a light sneer budding from his amusement.

" Lead the way old bean."

Bakura glared at him.

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Joey stared in amazement at the Marionette replica of himself.

It was terrifying, seeing himself in such detail…

The mannequin looked almost as if it were Joey himself, dead and stiff like some stuffed animal filled with wires that held its limbs in place.

Kaiba was watching him with a steady gaze, watching Joey gazing at his creation.

Joey walked around the inanimate object, taking his time to examine every detail that Kaiba had caught on himself and it was hardly flattering. He could see the thinness of his face, the freckles on his neck that he hadn't even though Kaiba hand noticed and was frankly shocked at his Koi's attentiveness to detail.

He wondered if Kaiba had gotten everything underneath the Marionette's clothing to exact perfection.

He tapped his lip softly, drumming the digit on the soft flesh of his lip until Kaiba cleared his throat loudly, signalling that he wanted an opinion then and there.

" Well?" the C.E.O asked sharply, a hint of apprehension alive in his voice.

Having never heard anxiety in Kaiba's voice, Joey had to pause to collect himself again before he could even begin to sort out his thoughts about the synthetic creation.

He plucked at his white and blue t-shirt, shuffling in his socks. He felt a current of static electricity dance about underfoot when he finally decided to raise his voice from silence.

" It's … freakishly like me. I didn't think you could actually have that good a memory to make something this… this lifelike." He said.

Kaiba beamed in his proud way, eyes hardening into orbs of glee.

" Of course. You expected less? I made sure that it's absolutely stunning! It took me four hours to get the freckles on your neck, not to mention getting its eyes to match yours. The human eye is quite a masterpiece, but for someone like me… it's a piece of proverbial cake." He moved toward his creation, lightly touching its cheek, running his fingers through its honey coloured hair.

" It doesn't have quite the same feeling as your hair does, but it'll do. Besides, it's not like anything synthetic can match the real thing. Even virtual hair has to be tweaked to have the same consistency."

He turned back to Joey, the light catching his face for a moment and at that moment Joey realized the amount of stress the entire operation had taken on Seto Kaiba.

In Joey's eyes, it was as if the life had been siphoned from him a little bit at a time; there were dark lines beneath Kaiba's eyes from nights spent sleeplessly fine tuning a creation that was so important and vital to his brother's life that he would have died to make it possible. No more was Seto Kaiba dressed in finery; no expensive trench coat was hugging the contours of his body, no Italian shoes on his feet. He was the perfect image of slobbery, wearing tight old jeans with holes in the knees, wearing a baggy white grease stained shirt that looked like it could have belonged to a beggar on the street. His face looked drawn and tired, perhaps more so now that Joey had finally looked at him with an interest in detail.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow at Joey, still touching his creation with the gentlest touch that could have rivalled the protectiveness of a new mother.

" What?"

Joey shrugged, looking away from Kaiba to simply stare unabashedly at himself.

He reached out, touching the smooth skin of his marionette mirror, surprised that its flesh felt almost like his own. A shiver traveled its way sporadically down his spine, unwelcome and unwanted.

" Your sure it's really here? Because I don't think I believe it's real…" he stated firmly, suspiciously eyeing Kaiba, who chuckled and pulled away from the machine.

He gestured to a pile of spare bits lying on a side table like they were car parts instead of artificial human bits.

" It's all plastic and fabric, every bit of it. Mind you, I don't expect you to understand how much this little bit of work cost me. I'll have to find some way to get a couple more thousand dollars- since that's what it set me back. You'd never think that building someone could be cheaper then going to the moon or to the farthest reaches of the galaxy."

Just then the door snapped open, an air of briskness leaking in as Yami Bakura paraded in, Bakura walking slowly behind him. They both stopped dead in their tracks upon sight of the second Joey Wheeler standing frozen in place like a child's life-sized toy.

Yami Bakura whistled.

" Nice. I've never seen Wheeler look so neat and tidy… but if you were going for a life like version of him, you should have messed the hair up some, and stained the clothing. That'd be more realistic." He chirped, snorting when Joey glared at him murderously.

Bakura seemed just as stunned as Joey had been.

He gaped at the mechanical invention, looking from it to Joey, who uncomfortably shifted his weight from foot to foot.

" Well?"

Kaiba snapped his fingers at Yami Bakura to get the message across.

" Are we going to do this or not? I'm not going to wait all god damned day just to watch you three buffoons staring at it like it's some sort of museum piece."

He gestured to Joey, motioning for help.

" Help me pick this damned thing up. But watch out, it weights a small ton." He growled as Joey frantically looked around it to see where he could pick it up from.

" Just grab it under the arms, you won't break it." Kaiba grumbled, latching onto his side easily, obviously not concerned by the fact that Joey was a tad uncomfortable about lugging around a life sized corpse of himself.

Luckily, Yami Bakura took Joey's place, hiking the metal android up into the air easily, to everyone's surprise.

He pulled it free from Kaiba's grasp and started out toward the door, ignoring the looks of shock that were being cast his way.

" Oi, Get off your ra-damned lazy assess and open the friggin door, unless you'd like me to throw it through the nearest wall." The Yami snapped.

Bakura obliged, yanking open the door and the procession began; Yami Bakura in the lead toting the marionette with the others following along behind him like a flock of baby ducklings.

They reached the hallway where the half dragon half Joey creature was waiting and Yami Bakura set down the contraption, grumbling to himself.

Joey pulled the millennium puzzle out of his pocket and held it out to the Yami, who smiled despite himself and began to gaze fondly at the item. The dragon creature snapped viciously at the Tomb Robber, clearly not pleased with the idea that Yami Bakura should be even in the same room as the millennium puzzle.

Cautiously, Bakura grabbed Joey by the arm, leading him to the side of the wall where they were joined by Kaiba, who kept nervously watching his marionette as if expecting it to be destroyed at any moment.

Yami Bakura nodded once to the dragon, holding the shining Millennium Puzzle up over his head, closing his eyes.

He cleared his throat and began to chant, the ancient Egyptian echoing down the halls like a rampaging bull tearing down the streets in a festival.

Unlike the first time when they had been transferring Noa's essence from the computer database in Kaiba's personal computer, the room swirled a faint glowing red black gold, a mirage of overwhelming colours that seemed to paint themselves to each person in the room.

Kaiba grabbed a hold of Joey and Bakura at the same time, as if trying to keep them from getting sucked into the colours.

Yami Bakura continued to chant and as he did so, the floor boards began to shake and tremble with the strength of a small earthquake, knocking the small end table at the end of the hall over where it lay abandoned and floundering on its side as the world around it began to thrash.

A dull silver thread wormed its way from the bottom point of the millennium puzzle, working its way quickly across the area that separated Yami Bakura from the dragon creature, bridging the gap in one split second where it began to wind itself bandage like around the creature enveloping the scaly beast like a giant mummy.

The motionless cyber body trembled and fell over, wriggling and twitching as if a thousand volts of electricity had been suddenly pumped through its veins. It writhered, a black smoky substance escaping all available orifices; while the creature's body began to spark and flare with a thousand tiny lights that seemed to be melting the creature to bits in the hall. At once, the smell of burning flesh gagged and choked the people in the hall; Yami Bakura almost paused in his chanting, looking nervously out of the corner of his eye to Bakura, who was watching painfully from the sidelines, trapped in Joey and Kaiba's grasp like their illegitimate son.

Perhaps five seconds later, a jet of cobalt blue tore from the mummified body, striking the writhering body which had taken on a much more human lustre. The machine's mouth opened and closed, it's eyes blinked and began to focus and unfocus at the same time. Its limbs clenched and unclenched while its spine curved of its own accord, forcing it to curl into to the fetal position; it became horrifically more human with every twitch and flail, the rebirth of a creature who had died centuries past.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped.

The whirling lights vanished.

The body stopped twitching in one jolt, its body freezing then unfreezing at the same time.

The old body began to smoke and melt, the flesh tearing from the bones of the carcass like a bowl of fat dripping down on the carpet where it jellified like a poor attempt at making instant pudding. The melted flesh turned a lime green crimson, leaking out across the hall till all the flesh had melted from the carcass, leaving the skeleton a bleached mass of bone. The mess oozed mysteriously across the hall, moving toward the once marionette, then it froze and turned to ashes, the black flakes vanishing like salt in the wind.

Yami Bakura eyed the pile of bones warily, the millennium puzzle still held above head.

He turned and found that they were all staring at the skeleton and the body.

Quickly, Yami Bakura tossed the puzzle to Joey, who caught it lightly; nearly burning himself from the heat the gold seemed to be radiating. The Yami took a step toward the fallen body-

The eyes opened slowly and dopily, as if it had just woken from a long sleep and in one instant, the amber eyes turned a startling shade of deep maroon. A smile played itself for the first time across the lips of the creature and it stood up easily, unshaken, unphased by the process.

It smiled at Yami Bakura, and then tossed a playful glance to Kaiba, who protectively pushed Joey behind him.

" What say we just cut the crap ne? You can call me whatever you like… but I prefer being called Maroon. That's what Priest Seto calls me… oh and by the way…" it turned, bearing fangs at the three huddled against the wall.

" we need to get rid of that mess over there… or else the High Priest will come… and then, well… you're all as good as dead."