Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Lethally Hot ❯ Enter the Maze ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer and works cited: I don’t own YGO, Ebola, or the following references:
Barrett, Susan L. It’s All In Your Head. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc., 1992.
Peters, C.J. and Mark Olshaker. Virus Hunter: thirty years of battling hot viruses around the world. New York: Doublesday, 1997.
Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.
Woods, Michael and Mary B. Woods. Ancient Medicine: From Sorcery to Surgery. Ancient Technology. Menneapolia, MN: Runestone Press, 2000.

//…// is Yami to Yugi; /…/ is Yugi to Yami; <<…>> is Bakura to Ryou; and <…> is Ryou to Bakura. [#] indicates a footnote. Enjoy biological technicalities at your own risk.

End explanations and replies, and roll fic!

Djanil: ‘Roll fic?’

LoneWolf: Whatever. It starts off slow, but picks up later on…

Chapter Five: Enter the Maze

Everyone was silent for awhile. The idea was a bit preposterous. Finding seven items within an ancient pharaoh’s memory to supposedly stop Ebola by unlocking the seven immune system parts was a bit, well, dubious.

Kaiba snorted. "Are you telling me, Yugi, that by fiddling around that other side of yours’ memory will actually stop Ebola?"

Yugi looked down. "Well, it’s an idea…"

"Eehhh…shut up, Kaiba."

Kaiba whirled around towards Joey, who had made the remark. "Why don’t you, Wheeler? It’s not like you have anything worthwhile to say."

Joey glared back. "I got lots to say. Like for one, give Yuge a break. Geez, he’s sick and all and you’re picking on him? And two, I don’t think you’ve got any bright ideas either, CEO and all. And three," his eyes narrowed, "stop calling me a dog. I ain’t one and from the way you’re acting, you’re the dog, all whining about all this."

Kaiba looked down at Joey, and was about to make a reply when Shadi interrupted.

"I, for one, believe that Yugi is correct."

"Oh, you too? Why am I not surprised? You and your magic tricks." Kaiba took advantage of another opening to vent his temper.

Shadi did not back down. "Kaiba, you may bicker and challenge all you want, but you cannot stop the Millenium Ankh’s bidding. There is a reason why the Ankh allowed you to come, which I do not know. But to cause dissention within the group will hinder your return to the real world. If you wish to return to your business, I would advise you to end your childish rants and begin acting maturely."

Joey grinned. For once, it was Kaiba getting the lecturing.

Kaiba began to move towards Shadi, about to give him a piece of his mind. "Look here, you--"

"Can we please stop with the male behavior of egoism?" Tea burst out in frustration.

Everyone turned towards Tea.

"We are supposed to be helping Yugi." Tea pointed out. "Yugi’s idea is the only one we’ve got, so can we get on with it?"

Ryou looked a bit confused. "But Tea, how are we going to find those items? We have to be in Yami’s mind and we’re…not."

"Yeah, why aren’t we, Shadi?" Yugi asked puzzledly. "I thought that the Ankh entered someone’s mind, not the uh, body."

Everyone looked over at Shadi. Shadi sighed. "I, for one, do not understand this either. My Ankh should have taken me to Yami’s brain and allowed me to enter his memories." Shadi looked out thoughtfully, while everyone waited for an explanation. "However, I believe I can speculate. For some unknown reason, either the Ankh or even Yami or Yugi himself called you all here. Since the Ankh is generally used for bringing only the item holder to enter someone’s mind, bringing several could confuse it."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Even magic had its problems, it seemed.

"So, how are we going to get to Yami’s mind?" Yugi asked again. "We’re not even in the right dimension." Everyone stared at him quizzically. "Well, we are in the physical world now. And memories and minds aren’t exactly in the physical realm…"

"Ah. A problem easily fixed."

Everyone looked back at Shadi. He, for once, had a smug smile on his face. "To enter Yami’s mind, it is logical to first go to the brain, where memories are hidden. Once we reach the pharaoh’s brain, my Ankh will unlock his mind so that we may enter and begin the search."

A slight pause, then, "Okay then! We’re off to the brain!"

That would be Joey, high-spirited as ever.

"Uh, Joey? Do you actually know where you’re going?" Tristan called out.

Joey froze in mid-step. He didn’t, actually. But he tried covering it up as quickly as possible. "Ah, I was just going over towards those, those nerve cells over there to get, uh, directions." Joey turned back towards the group. "But if you guys don’t want me too, okay."

Tea looked around. "What nerve cells? I don’t see any."

"Nervous cells are generally hard to locate in the lymphatic system."

Kaiba smirked and was about to say something when Yugi thankfully interrupted.

"So how will we find the way?"

Tristan shrugged. "Go backwards, I guess. We know that back there we saw nervous cells. So, head back, and get directions again."

Joey jumped off again. "All right then! Let’s go!" He turned to a nearby blood cell and hopped on. Like before, he gripped the cell and attempted to steer it back towards the group.

Attempted, that is.

Joey found himself going farther away from the gang, instead of closer. The current was flowing the wrong way, and no matter what he did, the little cell carrier he was on kept going along…in the opposite direction.

"Hey! This thing’s broken!" Joey whacked at the cell. The cell, being a cell, didn’t do a thing. Except continue moving along the bloodstream.

In a flash, Kaiba understood. It was fairly simple, of course. Since they were in the bloodstream, they could only go in the direction where the blood was being pumped. He crossed his arms and considered his options. One, he could tell Joey to get off and stop making a fool of himself. Or two, he could stay quiet and watch a small amusing show.

He elected for choice two. After all, the dog had recently insulted him. A little payback.

Joey was drifting farther. The rest of the gang was yelling at him to get off, but Joey was either not paying attention or couldn’t hear them.

Yugi was going nuts, Tea was crying, Tristan was covering his eyes, Ryou was hiding his head, Shadi was unmovable, and Kaiba was rolling his eyes at the stupidity of it all. Emotional people really got on his nerves. I guess it’s up to me to save the dog, he thought.

Kaiba cupped his mouth with his hands and yelled "Hey! Joey the puppy! Get your tail off that cell and back over here where it belongs!"

That got Joey’s attention.

Joey began jumping from one cell to another, moving back towards the gang. Almost like the game Frogger, in which the player jumps from one moving block to another to get to the other side. One could almost see the rage slowly building up as Joey moved from cell to cell – his face was getting redder each moment, teeth were grinding and the last cell was being squished from Joey’s hand squeezing it in his anger. In a few seconds, Joey jumped back down next to the group again. And immediately stalked over to Kaiba, who had crossed his arms again and had that certain grin on his face.

"I! AM! NOT! A! PUPPY!"

"That’s enough, man!" Tristan grabbed hold of Joey. "You can deal with this later."

"LATER! I WANNA DEAL WITH THIS NOW!"

"That is enough." Shadi silenced everyone (even Joey). Shadi lowered his piercing blue-green eyes at both Joey and Kaiba. "We have wasted enough time listening to you two quarrel. While we listen to your quarreling, the pharaoh is dying."

That shut them up. For a short while.

"So, now what do we do?" Ryou asked.

Tristan scratched his head. "Well, we can’t go backwards. So we might as well go forwards. We should get out of the thymus and back out into the bloodstream again so we can find some nervous cell."

Tea shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Let’s go, guys."

* * * * *

Everyone was now on a red blood cell, and drifting along the bloodstream. They had made it out of the thymus gland and were now looking for a line of neurons.

"Hey! Over there! I see some!" Joey waved wildly. Wildly enough that Ryou felt himself begin to slip and as such he clutched harder on Joey. "Ow! Hey Ryou, calm down, man. You’re not going to fall off."

Ryou looked down. Sure looked close to him…

Well, everyone got off and went towards the line of neurons. Time to get a "map."

"Sooo, who’s gonna do it?" Tristan looked at the waving, white bushy cell.

"I will!" Joey hopped over to the cell and was about to touch it, when another hand brushed it away.

"I believe that if Wheeler does it, we will all become lost in less than two seconds." Kaiba glanced around. "If no one objects, I will get the directions." Besides, Kaiba thought in his mind, the sooner this is over, the sooner I’m away from that wanna-be.

No one, of course, objected. Who wants to make the CEO of KaibaCorp seriously annoyed? Besides Joey, that is. (Tristan had clamped his hand around Joey’s mouth before he could make a reply.)

Kaiba set his hand down on the dendrites and asked, Where the heck should we go in order to get to the brain?

Like before with Yami, the neuron opened up and let Kaiba into the web. Connections flashed and possibilities abounded. Waves of information rushed through that single cell every second and Kaiba also had to deal with the thousands of sensory reports passing through. It was more data processed in one second than he dealt with in an entire day at KaibaCorp. Luckily, Kaiba didn’t have an overload; the neuron gave the directions soon enough.

A little shaken, Kaiba broke the connection. He didn’t show that of course. "Well. That was simple enough."

Tea put her hands on her hips. "So, where do we go?"

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Tea was getting a bit forward lately. "Obviously, we cannot go against the blood flow. We must circulate around the body as would any other blood cell. So, in order to get to the brain, we have to make another circulation." He looked towards Joey, who was obviously confused. "For the simpler minded, I’ll make it clearer. A red blood cell makes a circle around the body. First, it is pumped from the heart to the lungs to get oxygen, from the lungs back to the heart, and from the heart around the body and back again. Once a red blood cell’s ‘load’ of oxygen is gone, it is brought back to the heart to begin the cycle all over again."

"Soooo, that means…." Tea trailed off, expectantly waiting for an answer.

"That means, that we will have to go through the heart and lungs before we can actually move to our destination. All of the red blood cells around us are deoxygenated, and have to go back to the heart now."

"What the heck? That’s like the biggest detour I’ve ever heard of!"

"Considering what you listen to, I’m not surprised, Wheeler." Kaiba crossed his arms. "If we may move along…"

* * * * *

So they were making the most roundabout path they could take to get to their destination. Everyone had gotten on yet another red blood cell, traveling towards the heart.

Ryou was again clutching onto Joey. If only the ride could be smoother; then he could actually enjoy what everyone else was gazing at. When his stomach didn’t roll as usual, he cracked open an eyelid to see if something happened. He peeked around. That was funny; they were moving a lot slower than before.

Joey banged on the cell. "Hey! Red the Fifth! Speed up! Man," Joey whined, "why are we going so much slower?"

Ryou actually looked around. They were, in fact, moving at a very leisurely pace. There were no lurches, no sudden movements forward. Just a gentle, flowing movement down the bloodstream. Ryou peered a bit closer to his surroundings, now that he wasn’t sick. The walls around them were not so thick, were actually transparent in some places, and were also a bit elastic. And, as Ryou recalled, they hadn’t made any changes at all in their course. "I think that it’s because we’re in a vein."

"A what?" Joey turned towards his quiet companion.

"A vein. It’s slower because the blood isn’t being pumped from the heart anymore."

"Say what?" Joey scratched his head.

Ryou’s voice became a bit stronger. Biology was the one class that he enjoyed. "Well, the effects of the heart beating are farther away. Since we just came out of a capillary, blood pressure is reduced. The blood simply isn’t being pumped anymore at this point; it’s just flowing back. That’s why there are the valves on the side of the vein – it’s to keep the blood from going in the wrong direction. Everything smoother, so everything slower as well. And all veins go back to the heart, so that's why we haven't changed our direction. "

Joey simply listened but did not exactly understand it all. He simply nodded his head in the appropriate places. Joey glanced around – was it just him, or was the vein or whatever Ryou called it getting bigger?

"We’re moving into the superior vena cave now. " Kaiba announced. "We’ll be entering the heart shortly…"

* * * * *

Everything happened in a rush appear that. All that Yugi could remember was moving faster and faster towards a wide opening. Faintly, he could hear his own heart pumping. Lub-dup, lub-dup, lub-dup… Then they were sucked into the depths of the heart.

For a few brief seconds, they could look around the interior of the heart. They were currently inside a small chamber, with the blood level rising. It was fairly dark, with only the muscles of the heart gleaming. A flash of electricity flashed across the top of the chamber and then they were moving faster, downwards, towards an ominous circular opening that was currently closed. It looked like a door found in futuristic spaceships, the ones that dilated open instead of simply swinging open. Three round flaps, resembling bumps, kept the chamber they were in closed, and quite frankly, Ryou hoped that it would stay that way. He knew what was coming up and was trying to make his stomach understand that, but he couldn’t just stop a heart from beating. At that moment the heart contracted and they found themselves being slammed into the "door."

WHUMP.

Before anyone could manage an "Ouchie," the door popped open from the pressure and they fell down a waterfall of blood, deeper into yet another chamber. They were, quite literally, in the bottom of the heart. Overhead, they could hear the "door" closing again.

LUB.

No sooner than they had gotten their bearings (they were currently inside a huge pump, waiting to get shot to who-knows-where) and had regained their seats on their cell than the heart contracted again. They were blasted upwards, towards yet another "door." This one had only two flaps, and looked a lot thicker and stronger than the previous one. Ryou braced himself for the impact.

WHAM.

Then the door popped open, and they zoomed out, like being shot out of a cannon. Some of them almost fell off their cell in the rising velocity. Tristan had only half a seat, and Tea was practically hugging the cell beneath her. Behind them, they could hear "door #2" slam shut, this time with more force.

DUP.

The blood around them was branching off. One artery went to the right, one to the left. They were faced with the great pathway dilemma – which one of the two paths before them should they take? One could possibly lead to death and destruction, and the other to life and happiness. Or neither -- they could both be equally fair to take…

"Right or left, Kaiba?" Tristan yelled.

Kaiba shrugged. It was guess-and-check here; the neuron had mentioned nothing about this. "Doesn’t matter! Just go to the left!"

Everyone struggled to steer towards the left. Fortunately, no one was left behind, although Yugi almost slipped towards the right passage. Tristan had grabbed a hold of Yugi’s cell before he was separated from the group.

They were traveling at a quick pace, when they were hit by another wave of blood. Again, they zoomed forward – the heart had beat again, and another fresh load of blood was being pumped to the lungs.

"Whhheeeee!" Joey yelled. This was the ultimate roller coaster ride.

Ryou was hoping he’d shut up. His stomach was rolling, and his face was positively green. Addition of noise or even screams of approval would not help his stomach settle.

<<Oh, such pity. The poor mortal’s going to be sick.>>

Tea was not faring any better. She never did like roller coasters; they made her dizzy to the point of nausea. Thankfully, their speed slowed down as they entered the capillaries of the lungs. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except for Joey and Tristan.

"Awwww, man. It’s over." Joey grumbled as the pace slowed down.

Yugi was looking around, amazed at the millions of things he saw. The lungs, or rather, his lungs, were doing something that the New York Stock Exchange could only dream of. Instead of stocks, carbon dioxide and oxygen were being exchanged for each other, like a massive swap. In essence, the red blood cells were trading carbon dioxide for more valuable oxygen. Yugi and the rest were currently in one of the tiniest capillaries in the body, so thin that a single gas molecule can pass through the thin walls. Bunches of grapes that were actually a group of alveoli, or air sacs, were letting oxygen and carbon dioxide go back and forth. They looked like skinned grapes, the outside gleaming, while being crisscrossed by capillaries. Yugi was pushed aside a little as the red blood cell beneath him gave up carbon dioxide and began to carry oxygen. Yugi could see hundreds, thousands, of little alveoli, all working to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide. Yugi’s body inhaled, and another fresh load of air flowed in. Exhalation and the group inside Yugi’s body rose as the old air was pushed out.

But even then, the wondrous beauty of the human lung was marred. Ebola was also at work here, for it too was eating away at the delicate alveoli. Runny blood was beginning to drip down to the bottom of the lung, to pool in a mess of buzzed blood cells and mucus. To those who looked down, it was enough to make their stomachs swirl again.

Then the lungs heaved up and down. Everyone was a bit shaken; it was so sudden and quick.

"What was that?!?" Joey exclaimed.

Shadi was shocked. Symptoms were occurring more rapidly than he thought. "It was a hiccup."

"That was a hiccup?"

"Yes. Hiccuping is a common symptom of Ebola. It occurs when Ebola begins to attack the lungs."

Ebola is the only known infectious disease to cause severe hiccuping in many of its victims.

Shadi was worried. The ravager was attacking more fiercely than he thought. Ebola shouldn’t have gotten this far this quickly, and from what he had seen in the heart, they did not have much time.

"We should hurry. We do not have much time." Shadi urged.

"Why?" The ever-young question.

"Ebola is moving faster than I thought. The lungs are naturally vulnerable, but I did not expect to see symptoms so soon. Although many of you may not have noticed it, the heart is also feeling the effects of Ebola. It is beginning to bleed within itself as well.

Your heart bleeds into itself; the heart muscle softens and has hemorrhages into its chambers, and blood squeezes out of the heart muscle as the heart beats, and it floods the chest cavity.

"It will take some time for Ebola to truly damage the heart. I believe we have only ten hours left."

Ten?!? That was a lot less than a full 24 hours… over half of the time slashed off, gone…

"We’d better move on, then." They all turned forwards again, back towards the heart, or rather, towards the biggest roller coaster of their lives.

* * * * *

Again, they began to pool together in a gradually larger and larger vein. The funny thing was, this was one of the few veins in the entire body that actually carried oxygenated blood. Every other vein carried deoxygenated blood. Ryou could see the difference – everything was a bit brighter, a bit more red. Of course, he couldn’t ponder over this very long, since in a short while, he entered into the second small chamber, or as he recalled in biology class, the left atrium. Somewhere in here, Ebola lurked, eating away at heart muscle...

Events then occurred at break-neck speed, even faster than before. First the downpour of blood, then the atrium was squeezed, where they were forced out of the left atrium and into the left ventricle – the meaner, bigger, and much stronger brother of the previous right ventricle. Far up ahead, the sound of the bicuspid valve was sealed shut and the ventricles contracted.

This time, Yugi and the gang shot off in a blaze of glory, rockets and blood waves. They slammed through the semi-lunar valve, barely feeling the effects of bashing into hard objects. They surged and swelled forward in a tidal wave of blood into the aorta, the biggest artery of them all. Far behind them, the semi-lunar valves were pulled shut.

Immediately, Kaiba began yelling out directions. "We have to go left! This one!" Kaiba pointed frantically at a rapidly approaching left branch.

Everyone jerked their cells towards where Kaiba was pointing. Well, they would have jerked them, if everyone had been actually on their cell. But for those that did not like or were unused to high-speed moving objects, the recent events caused them to fall off their cell. Tea was hanging on with only one hand; Yugi was only half on his cell, the lower half of him wiggling for all he was worth. Tristan was crouching low into his cell as if it were a motorcycle going at 60 mph. Shadi’s turban had managed to become partly undone, and Kaiba had unfortunately slipped while pointing at the correct passageway. Ryou, the poor soul, was squeezing Joey so hard that he was leaving bruises – both on Joey and himself. Joey was busy trying to pry Ryou’s hands while staying on top of the cell.

No sooner than everyone had gotten back onboard or fixed any of the numerous problems and had made the proper steering adjustments when a new tidal surge came crashing behind them. Everyone lurched as the new wave shoved them forward, luckily into the right artery.

After everyone regained their footing again, Kaiba yelled again. "Right! Right!"

More lurching. After a few hectic swerves and near-misses, Kaiba gave a near-gasp (he would never admit that he was tired) and said, "That’s it. We go straight ahead from here."

A grateful sigh could be heard. No more sudden turns or twists. Now the only thing they had to worry about was the heart behind them sending another "present" of a tidal wave, complete with hugs and kisses. That and the pharaoh they were racing ahead to save…

* * * * *

They reached the brain in a few seconds. The brain was also a marvel to see – it was not simply "gray matter." It was massive amounts of neurons bunched together, around 100 billion neurons, processing billions bits of information every second. Sparks of electricity glittered and went, moving along the trillions of connections at speeds of 250 mph. It was like a cosmic dance of a billion stars, flashing and twinkling. Chemical and electrical impulses transmitted back and forth within the King of Games’ brain. Here, the genius of the pharaoh was locked within the convolutions and twists of the mysterious world of the brain.

It was the brain stem, however, that Shadi lead them towards. They passed underneath a forest of dendrites, feathery hands waving down on them. Everything was not all spectacle and wonder, as Ebola too was leaving its mark. It was attacking the nerve cells, eating away at the connections. They could feel heat and pain beneath their feet as the brain throbbed. Finally Shadi stopped in front of a long, curved part of the brain, and they looked at the end of their physical journey within the body.

"This is the hippocampus. It is where the brain forms and stores memories. It is where we must begin the search for the seven memories of the millenium items."

Shadi held the Millenium Ankh against the neuron and turned the Ankh. Everything swirled and changed, the sights growing brighter and brighter in the brilliant white light…

* * * * *

Hollow footsteps echoed within the hallway. Like before, Shadi emerged from the tunnel of light, although this time he had six other followers. A long corridor lay ahead of them, with two doors to the left and right. Shadi, Ryou, and Yugi immediately recognized them as Yugi’s and his other self’s soul rooms. The others were obviously confused.

"Where the heck are we?" Joey wondered, looking around at the decor.

"And what’s with the doors?" Tristan asked, jabbing at the one towards their right.

Yugi sheepishly rubbed his head. "Um, well guys, you’re in my mind."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. That was an interesting way to put it.

Yugi pointed towards his soul room, which was currently closed. The door was small and light, with a feeling of welcome and happiness beyond it. "That’s my soul room. It’s where I am when Yami’s controlling my body."

"Huh." Joey looked at it, and then moved towards it. "Wonder why it’s closed…" He took the doorknob and turned it. The door opened to reveal bright colors and toys strewn around the place. However, not all of it was pure innocence -- in a far corner duel monster cards were carefully stacked and ordered, and various papers scribbled with calculations and musings. A few boxes were also set aside, labeled with various memories such as "Getting the Millenium Puzzle," "Solving the Millenium Puzzle," and "Dueling Pegasus."

Yugi was a bit embarrassed to see his inner self revealed to all. He quickly moved over towards his room and closed it shut. "Um, yeah."

Tea, however, was looking at the other door on the opposite side. "What’s that door?" It was made of heavy iron, with the Eye of Horus carved in gold on the front. The nearby walls were made of ancient stone, settled and hard to budge. It had a mysterious feel to it, of secrets yet unknown.

Shadi answered her question. "That is the pharaoh’s chambers. We must begin there."

He walked over to the ominous door and opened it with no trouble. He turned his head towards the rest of the group, save Ryou and Yugi, who were peering as far as they could into the darkness without actually moving towards it. "If we may enter…"

Everyone hurriedly crossed over the boundary line and entered Yami’s soul room. Made of aging limestone, it was dank and dark, dreary with the burden of knowledge of five millennia. The group cautiously walked through the room. It was, as Shadi once observed, like the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. Up above, hieroglyphics were etched into the stone walls. In a few places, the walls were scrubbed clean, shining with white luster. But the rest was still tarnished with the dust of time. Here and there, there was debris on the floor, fallen from the unkempt areas.

"Where’s Yami? Isn’t he supposed to be here?" Tea asked in the silence, wondering where the mysterious being was.

"He is currently in the outside world, and will not return until Yugi resumes control." Shadi was not looking at Tea when he spoke, for he was gazing into the darkness.

Yugi was wondering about his darker counterpart. How was he faring against Ebola? And why hadn’t he said something when Yugi and the rest had entered his soul room, the most secret place of his being?

/Yami?/

//Aibou?// The answer was slurred and slow.

/Are you okay? What are they doing to you? You don’t sound too good./

//No, I am not. I have a fever, as you feared beforehand, a pounding headache, and have been vomiting constantly.//

…and the vomiting goes on endlessly. It will not stop, and he keeps bringing up liquid long after his stomach should have been empty.

//Every part of me aches, aibou.// What Yami did not tell his hikari was that his head felt like it was going to split open, the hospital room was swirling around in circles, and his eyes were beginning to bleed.

Ebola attacks the lining of the eyeball, and the eyeballs may fill up with blood: you may go blind. Droplets of blood stand out on the eyelids: you may weep blood. The blood runs from your eyes down your cheeks and refuses to coagulate.

His throat was so sore he could not speak nor eat, which made his hiccups hurt even more. Yes, even the King of Games could be a victim to a bout of hiccups. It took all of his effort to simply lay in the hospital bed. His skin was beginning to show the signs of a severe rash, although Yami had not scratched it at all.

The skin develops red spots, called petechiae, which are hemorrhages under the skin.

Yugi was worried. Even though Yami had not told him, he could feel the suffering that his other self was going through. It was probably why Yami had not noticed them entering his soul room; Ebola was beginning to mess with his mind.

/Okay. That’s it./ Yugi stated flatly. /You wanted to take my place because you didn’t want me to go through the pain. Now I don’t want you to take any more of this. I say we switch./

//No, aibou.// Yami replied faintly.

/What?!? You’re hurt, and sick, and took enough of my pain. I can face it now; I’m fine./

//No…it’s…not…your time…yet.// Yami’s response flickered. //It’s still…my…fight.//

/Your fight?!? We’re partners, Yami! We both have to face this together!/ Yugi realized that he was speaking to no one. Yami had either fallen asleep from painkillers…or had passed out. Yugi fervently hoped it wasn’t the latter.

Yugi opened his eyes, which had closed in the quick mind-spoken exchange he had with Yami. Everyone was staring at him strangely. Yugi looked down. His hands had clenched into fists sometime in the conversation, and his eyes were tearing up. Yugi quickly scrubbed them away, and tried to explain his worry. "Yami’s not doing so good. I wanted to switch with him, but he wouldn’t let me."

"He cannot." Shadi simply stated. "We cannot search his memories if he is here with us, because then his memories would be locked to all except himself. With him in the outside world, we are able to search his memories, because they are open to us."

What Shadi did not say was, Yami must now face Ebola…alone.

Ryou could feel his other self gloating at this unspoken bit of news.

<<Heh-heh-heh…With that nosy pharaoh out of the way, I can search for his hidden secrets and power for myself…>>

<No you won’t, Bakura. We’re here to save him.>

<<Well, you might, mortal, but I care about power, not saving some upstart pharaoh.>>

Ryou closed his fist. <I’m not going to let you, Bakura. You can look for all that power later, but right now I’m going to help Yugi.>

Bakura laughed. <<And I’m going to help myself.>>

Ryou would have responded, but the rest of the group was moving farther into the chamber, beginning to search. He quickly trotted to catch up, trying to ignore Bakura’s last words.

<<And you’re not going to stop me.>>

Yugi and the rest were aimlessly wandering the many hallways and stairs. As they probed deeper and deeper within Yami’s unconscious mind, they found mind-boggling amounts of doors, none of which looked like one that could help them. Stairs went up and down, left and right, defying the laws of physics and geometry. They had entered the biggest, most confusing maze of them all. Joey got frustrated at the confusion of it all, and wanted to see just what was in these millions of look-alike doors anyway.

Yugi turned to see Joey crack open a door. A sense of warning flashed in his mind, a warning of danger, and he screamed, "Don’t do it Joey! It’s a trap!" His little legs churned as he tried to get Joey out of the way.

Joey had gotten the door half open and had turned to see Yugi waving wildly when a colossal weight came crashing down, right in front of the entranceway. He stumbled and fell back, his butt landing on the cool stone floor as he watched something with the weight of a million anvils crush into the ground. His hair flew back from the air that rushed out of the room.

Yugi collapsed next to him. "I…told…you…to…watch out."

Joey’s eyes goggled at the door. It was now closed not by the actual door, but by a big fat weight. If Joey had walked in, there would have been nothing left of Joseph Wheeler except a large red splotch on the floor. That is, if the weight were taken off. "Geez, that’s dangerous. Why does Yami do that?"

"It’s…not…his…fault." Yugi panted.

Kaiba looked down at the two. How sweet and sickening. "If you two are done, may we continue our former wandering in this maze?"

Joey stood up, still shaken. He looked a bit warily at the doors around him. "Are all of these things traps?"

"No. Some of them hold memories." Shadi walked over towards a different door. His Ankh glowed; showing him what was beyond it. "This one, for example."

Shadi opened the metal door, and within they could see Yami, playing a shadow game in defense of Yugi. It was against the bully that had demanded 2000 yen from Yugi. Knives flashed in the middle of the memory-night. The bully lost, and they saw Yami use mind crush to punish the loser, making him believe leaves were worth money. Shadi closed the door, the memory over.

"Well. That was amusing." Kaiba said indifferently. Losers never made much impression on him. "Like I said before, can we move along?"

"But we don’t even know what to look for." Joey whined.

"Oh, stop your whimpering, you whiny puppy. I’m getting sick of it."

"PUPPY! I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE THAT!" Joey yelled and stalked over.

"So what will you take? Mongrel?"

The two began to bicker back and forth. The rest of the group left them behind, deciding to let them battle it out for once. Everyone was getting tired of Kaiba snipping and Joey’s behavior.

"Dog, huh? Then I challenge you to a duel!" Joey whipped out his deck.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. I could finish you off in three minutes."

"Says who?"

"Hey, look at this, guys!" Yugi interrupted the ever-lasting debate. "I think I found something!"

Everyone turned towards the voice of Yugi. The actual Yugi couldn’t be seen.

"Where the heck are you, Yugi?" Tristan yelled.

"Over here!"

"That helps," Joey grumbled as he ran towards Yugi’s voice. "Where?"

"Here!"

Eventually, everyone made it to Yugi. They stood in front of yet another door, but this one was set apart from the others. Like the rest of the doors, it was made of metal, enforced with iron around the edges. But in the center, the millenium puzzle shape was imprinted into it, and filled with gold. Beneath the puzzle, strange markings were carved into the door as well.

Everyone turned towards Shadi. He shook his head. "I do not know what they mean."

Yugi shrugged. "I think this is where we have to start. It has the puzzle on the door – maybe this is the first piece."

"How did you find it anyway, Yugi? You were so far ahead of us, and this hallway was practically hidden." Ryou wondered.

"I, I don’t really know, actually." Yugi rubbed the puzzle hanging around his neck. "I just felt something tugging me this way. Maybe it was the puzzle; maybe its magic brought me here. I don’t know."

"Umm, well then, should we look inside, then?" Ryou pointed out.

"Finally, a good idea, for once." Kaiba reached over, and swung open the door. They never expected it. This time, they did not merely observe a memory play itself. Instead, the memory took them. A burst of intense light, and they were there. Inside. Within the pharaoh’s memory.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was another day ruling Egypt. The same old business, the same messes to sort out. Why must everyone come to the pharaoh to fix it? There are certainly enough capable people around.

I sighed. My father never told me ruling could be this tedious. All that I saw in my childhood was the glory of leading, of whatever I said would be law. I used to dream of the time when I would wear the long, swirling purple cloak, the golden bands around my arms, the golden manacles, the golden headband with the Eye of Horus upon it, the over-adorned golden collar, and yes, the golden Millenium Puzzle. I believe that I was a little obsessed with shiny, golden objects back then. Now, the ornaments are heavy and tiring to bear. Not only must I robe myself like a peacock, but I also must appear regal and powerful while being smothered underneath. Sometimes, I wish that I could somehow return to my younger days, when I was just the little prince and not Pharoah Yami.

The six high priests and I sat in the throne room, dealing with the usual regular business. To my far left stood Priest Karim, who held the Millennium Scales. On the opposite side stood my faithful Priest Mahado, holder of the Millennium Ring. I knew that I could always trust him to do his best. Next to them stood Priestess Isis, who wore the Millenium Tauk, and Priest Shadi, who guarded the Millenium Ankh. Standing on my left stood Priest Akunadin, controller of the Millenium Eye, brother of my father.

On my right stood Priest Seto, my strong right arm. He is always there, honest to the kingdom and to me, the Pharaoh. As usual, he wore his purple robes, favoring the flowing cloak that ran down his back. In his hands he held the Millenium Rod. Self-confidant and occasionally arrogant, he gestured at the groveling merchant before the throne.

"Pharaoh, this lowly one has been charged with stealing from the granary."

"Is this true, Shadi?" I asked, turning my head.

The Millenium Ankh flared, and read the hidden secrets. "It is as he said."

I waved a hand. "Begin the extraction." Those who stole had to be punished, according to the law.

Like the millions of times before, Akunadin used the Eye to draw out the thief’s Ka, or monster. Then Seto sealed the monster away inside a stone tablet, leaving the man helpless. When the Ka of someone is gone, the person is left soulless, unable to do anything.

"Take him away." The servants dragged the body away, to the mines. He would be made to do menial jobs until he died.

I wished that I could yawn, although that would not be fitting for the son of Ra. Suddenly, Isis gasped and placed a slender hand on the Millenium Tauk.

"Evil…"

"What?" Seto turned around to face the woman. I quickly grabbed him before he could make some rash comment.

"What do you see, Isis?" I asked.

"I sense something approaching, of danger, death and revenge…" Isis’ eyes gazed off into nothingness.

Each one of us tapped into our millenium items, trying to search for the threat that Isis warned about. Then my devoted servant Simon burst into the throne.

"Your Highness!" He quickly bowed his old head, grizzled with age.

I hastily dispelled the magic of the Puzzle and looked down at Simon. He once served my father, Pharaoh Akunumkanon, and now serves me.

"What is it, Simon?" I stared down at his quivering form. Something must have frightened him badly.

He lifted his head, his large purple eyes raising, but not daring to meet the living son of Ra. "I have heard terrible news from the villages. People are dying, Pharaoh, in numbers I have never seen before. They die from some evil sickness, some disease that eats away at their bodies before they fall. Blood bursts and splatters; they cannot stop bleeding. They say demons have come back for revenge. The people cry out, Pharaoh. They--"

"That is enough, Simon, good and faithful servant. I thank you for your warning, and I shall take care of the rest." I swept my arm towards the door. "You may go now." He left, leaving only the six priests and myself in the throne room.

I turned towards Akunadin again. "Is it as he said?" I kept my voice calm and unmoving, although fear for my people rose.

He was slightly startled. He most likely expected me to act worried or anxious, considering that I am so young to be pharaoh. But I merely waited for an answer.

Akunadin used the power of the Millenium Eye to see what was happening in the villages of Egypt. Although I could not see what he witnessed, I could see his face slowly become pallid and weak. The images that he saw must be horrific indeed.

Finally, he spoke. "It is as he said, Pharaoh. A great plague has come upon the kingdom. I saw men, women, and children die in front of my eyes. Panic is strewn across the land. And red blood flows within the streets."

Whenever something new and deadly comes along, the worry is that this is only the beginning.

I closed my eyes. Another trial that I must face as Pharaoh – although if this were a trial of my abilities, the gods had no sense of proportion. Wasn’t it enough that my father died so young and left me to take the throne? Wasn’t it enough that I must sustain control over an ever-rebellious group of magicians? Wasn’t it enough that monsters had been unleashed, and only just been sealed away? I regretfully remembered that only a few moments past, I had been thinking that this was all monotone and wearisome. The old saying, "May you live in interesting times" came back to haunt me.

My people were crying out to me for help. I am the pharaoh; I must protect them. But how? What was killing them? Is there a reason for their deaths? And how can I stop this? Not even the Millenium Puzzle has power over life and death…

It was Isis who expressed all of our fears. "What are we going to do? Oh, what are we going to do?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Everyone reeled from the memory. For that time, they had actually been a part of Yami’s ancient past. The intimacy was so close that each one of them shivered from the powerful memory. Would each door do that to do them – bring them into Yami’s world, into the land of Egypt?

Yugi placed a shaking hand on the now closed door. He traced the symbol of the puzzle. He had felt some of Yami’s memories before, but nothing of this intensity. To be a part of his other self’s memory was a wonder and a fear to him…

Kaiba was inwardly denying what he had just been through. What he saw couldn’t have been real. It was a fake, a disillusion, a lie. For he had seen himself, serving the Pharaoh…

Joey asked the all-important question. "What the heck was that?"

------------------------------------------------

Footnotes:

[1] = lymphatic system – part of the immune / transport system. Like how red blood cells travel in the circulatory system with capillaries and arteries and whatnot, white blood cells have the ability to travel through the circulatory system and the lymphatic system as well. The lymphatic system has lymph, or plasma (aka clear stuff), instead of blood, and is linked with lymph nodes. White blood cells gather in the lymph nodes.

[2] = The big fat vein that gathers all of the blood from the top of the body (above the heart) and brings it to the heart. There is an inferior vena cave as well, which gathers all of the blood from the lower part of the body. They both meet at the same place.

[3] = called the right atrium. Whoopee! They’re in the heart! Very, very complicated. I’ll try to explain it as clearly as I can, although I wish I could show you a diagram. *shrugs* Since I can’t, I’ll have to make do. A little info on the heart first: one, the heart is actually made up of four chambers. The four chambers are separated into two sections – right and left. More on the heart later. If you don’t care for technicalities, just skip the next few notes.

[4] = yes, you actually have electricity within your body. That’s why lightning or an overdose of electricity can kill you – it messes with your heart. The flash they just saw came from sino atriol node, a nerve that tells the atriums of the heart to beat. (LoneWolf: Oooh, pretty. Djanil: *whack*)

[5] = the currently closed opening is actually a valve separating the right atrium to the right ventricle. This valve is called the tricuspid valve. The heart has valves so that when it contracts (pumps) the blood doesn’t go the wrong way (backwards). That would be very bad if it did.

[6] = called the right ventricle. Okay what just happened: pressure within the right atrium pushed open the tricuspid valve a little. The blood begins to pour down into the right ventricle, but not all of it. The heart beats to fill the right ventricle up to capacity, and what happened to poor Ryou and the rest was that since the valve is not exactly open all of the way, they hit the "door" while passing through. ^^ (Djanil: So cruel. LoneWolf: Yup. They survived, though. ^^)

[7] = the sound of the tricuspid valve and the bicuspid valve closing. Remember in footnote #3 that I said the heart was divided left to right? The bicuspid valve is the one separating the left atrium from the left ventricle (the other two chambers). So anyway, the sound of a heartbeat is not actually the actual sound of the heart contracting; it’s really the sound of the valves closing. The first part of the heartbeat (the "lub") was the first set of valves closing.

[8] = called the semi-lunar valve. This one, unfortunately, does not open partway…

[9] = the sound of the semi-lunar valves closing. The second half of the heartbeat.

[10] = the two arteries are called the pulmonary arteries. They are the only arteries that carry deoxygenated blood.

[11] = okay, this is just a really cool fact. There are 6 x 10 to the eighth power alveoli in your lungs. That’s more surface area than your skin covers. Alveoli are so thin that it is only one cell thick.

[12] = it’s bigger because it has to pump body to the entire body, not just to the lungs which are right next door. By the way, they have just finished the pulmonary circuit and are entering the systemic circuit. The pulmonary circuit is the one the circles from the heart to the lungs and back to the heart. The systemic circuit is the one that circles from the heart to the body and back again.

[13] = there are actually three parts of the brain. The cerebrum, which is the big, gray part, controls reasoning, logic, intellect-- (Djanil: which you do not have. LoneWolf: *glares*) -- and language skills. The cerebellum, also called the "mini-brain," is like a small brain tucked underneath the big one (cerebrum). It coordinates the muscles and plays a part in emotional development. The brain stem, however, is more like an extension of the spinal cord. It controls your body functions – heart, lungs, stomach, etc. That "right brain / left brain" stuff you learned in school is part of the cerebrum.

Author's Endnotes:

LoneWolf: Can I just say one thing? ^^ SUB-PLOT SUB-PLOT SUB-PLOT SUB-PLOT!!!! ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^!!!!!!!

Djanil: -_-;;;;

LoneWolf: *looks at number of pages* O.O Egads, 22 pages… that’s a lot more than last time…

Sorry this took so long, but I was confined at camp where I was deprived of technology. I’ve been sitting on my butt typing this for a good number of hours and I hope you enjoyed this one.

Random note: To any readers out there that think I’m a sadist for wanting to torture Yugi / Yami / people: That was a joke. I don’t really want to torture Yugi / Yami. However, since Ebola does cause excruciating pain, they will suffer. And for those that worry that I’m going to kill people: I assure you that I will not let both Yugi and Yami die. Now, both MIGHT live, or MAYBE only one will survive…and I’m not telling, because if I tell you, then that ruins the fic. I will not kill main characters (exempting Yugi / Yami). If people die, I have a good reason why.

Oh, and don’t worry, biology fans. It’ll come back. I’m sorry this fic takes a while to move along, but I can’t very well have them jump from the thymus gland all the way to the brain. For one, how’d heck that work, and two, that’s no fun. It was a lot of fun to force the gang through the heart. ^^

Hope I got the right point-of-view for Yami. He’d hard to write – it’s in the past, so it’d be like past-tense, except that this is a memory playing back, so it’d sorta be in the present, and plus, Yami’s inner thoughts are hard to interpret.

Djanil: Are you done rambling now?

LoneWolf: *thinks* *shrugs* I guess so. Oh, by the way, if you've been wondering what Yami and the rest of the world has been doing all this time, you'll find out next chapter! Ebola will haunt again!