"Trust us about it. If I wasn't the fairy of darkness, I would've been in the excat same boat as you" Marcia added.

---

Ashleigh turned towards Melhana. You can see the sadness in her eyes. She jotted something down.
"Says from the one who keeps putting me down from being a cry baby and a wuss" Mahad read. Tears slid down Ashleigh's face.

"Well, you were being a wuss." Melhana said. "You went through all this crazy shit with the rest of us in high school, and you were freaking out like it was your first time. Geez..."

***

I'm down to 2900 Life Points. Yugi thought. And nothing in my hand. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this...

"I play the spell Card Destruction." He said. "Now we both have to discard our hands and draw new ones."

The puppet did so without emotion. That's just creeping me out. Yugi thought as he drew his new hand. It's bad enough that whoever's behind this is manipulating Keith, but after they've killed him...ick. Looking down, he saw something he could use. Perfect.

"I play the monster Silent Swordsman in attack position," Yugi said. "And I'll place another face-down defense position monster to end."

***

What are you doing Yugi? Selena thought. You know Silent Swordsman isn't strong enough to withstand Slot Machine. Then she saw it; an aura, the same dark green as Yugi's, was surrounding the Silent Swordsman. So he's your ka,

Ashleigh jolt something down. Mahad again relayed the message.
"Didn't you forget that I came after everything was said and done? The only reason why I was able to hang out with you guys is to 'keep' an eye out for Ushio. Ushio became friends with me like Yugi and the others except you. You always called me a wuss and always treated like I don't belong with the group because I was a freak. Don't you get it? You were trying to get rid of me because I was the black sheep of the group, magic or not" Mahad read.
"I think she's serious there" he said sadly. Ashliegh cried.

---

Um, Selena? Can you feel that power surge right now? Marcia asked, looking at the direction where the three entered.
Something is wrong here. I hope that Ashleigh is alright she thought seperatly.

"Hey, I'm not proud of it." Melhana replied sourly. "And if you came after everything, then why were you helping out with the Orechalcos all those years ago?"

It's probably partially because of what I had to deal with as a kid, Melhana thought to herself. Compared to me, you were lucky for having both parents. I only got one; dad.

***

'Yeah,' Selena replied. Her train of thought when the duel resumed.

"Well, you're not making things go very quickly." The corpse puppet said. It ejected the magazine from the pistol and replaced it with a different one. "Maybe this will speed things up a bit." It took aim and shot.

Selena hardened the shield again, but it didn't have the effect it should have. Rather than being flattened like the last two, it shattered the shield into shards of violet, incandescent shards which evaporated into thin air. At first she thought the bullet was going to hit her, but it didn't; she heard a thunk and a scream of pain right behind her. Whirling around, she wished she wouldn't see the one thing she thought she would.

She did. Yusei had been hit by the bullet, right in the shoulder. From the looks of it, the projectile had embedded itself in the joint. Yusei was clutching the wound, gritting his teeth. 'Yusei!' Selena shouted mentally, not bothering to restrict it to one person. There was no doubt that Yugi and Marcia would hear it.

***

Yugi was staring at the scene in horror. Yusei was on the ground, his hand clutching at a bleeding gunshot wound in his shoulder. From what he could tell earlier, the teen wasn't doing too well to begin with. "Damn it! What the hell was that for?!" He demanded.

The pupped laughed. "I figured it would do us some good to have the duel speed up a bit." It said. "Oh, and by the way, that's no ordinary bullet; it's got a slow-acting virus in it that'll prevent the wound from closing. In addition, it'll begin to make its way through that young man's body as the duel goes on. The longer the duel, the farther the virus gets; the farther the virus gets, the more likely he'll die before one of us is taken by the shadows."

"You bastard," Yugi growled. "You ****ing bastard! Make your move already!"

There was silence for a bit.
"There is a reason Melhana. There was a group called the dancers. I already explained what they do. What you don't know is that one of the dancers called Michelle was under the curse. We tried our best to free her untill the day before the final battle, we were able to free her. We went to find you guys but by the next day, we were scared stiff. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you earlier" Asheligh finally said, "and for the record, I will never forgive what you done. Because of you, my powers went out of contol. Now go Melhana. Unless I change my mind, you don't deserve to be in the same room as me."
"Ashleigh...." Mahad started to say but stopped.
Maybe for you but not Akatenchi. Those two get along fine.

---

There it goes again. That power. It feels.....ASHLEIGH! Marcia said.
Selena. I'm taking Yusei out of the shadows. This is one part of the realm which is easier to go out. And I know about the power suges. They belong to Ashleigh but where she is, I do not know. she mindlinked to Selena.
"Come on Yusei. It will take some time but for now, you have a wond to patch up."

Yusei nodded. It was all he felt he was capeable of at the moment.

"Oh, you're not leaving." The puppet said, snapping its fingers. Black flames sprung up around the two duelists and spectators. "You entered this place; you get to stay here until the very end."

"Looks like you forgotten that I'm the Fairy of Darkness so that means, I can override what you are doing" Marcia sneered and chanted a spell. It transported both of them.....

........into Ashleigh's room at the Omega Federation.
"Sorry guys. I was going to Martha's place but something pulled us here. I'll try and get out of here asap" Marcia apologuise.
Akatenchi Mahad thought.

((bah. curse writer's block!))

((you can do it! I know you can))

((Part of the reason is that I'm playing zOMG on Gaia.))

((I don't enjoy zOMG...or the Fronteer Skies))

((Just got off there.))

((Even doing something, I was able to post and so can you))

((The tension increases!))

Selena watched as Marcia used her magic to transport herself and Yusei out of the Shadow Realm, but not before a chilling sensation shot through her. The connection she had to Yusei to funnel him strength was cut abruptly, followed quickly by the teen's bloodied hand sliding limply from his bleeding shoulder. She tried to contact him mentally, but she couldn't get through. Opening her mind to the supernatural plane, she saw something that both scared her and confirmed her fears; Yusei's aura--a rich, dark navy blue--was dim and weak. He was unconcious. The virus was doing its job.

'What's wrong.' Yugi asked through mindlink. The world was moving again, and Marcia and Yusei were gone.

'It's Yusei,' Selena replied. 'Right before Marcia got him out of here, his wound and the strain of being in here must've gotten to him; he's passed out. That virus must be spreading.'

***

Well, that's random. Melhana thought, then spotted Yusei's wound. "That doesn't look too good," She said striding over to inspect the wound. As she got closer, she noticed that the younger man was unconcious, his breathing ragged, and his skin was covered in a cold sweat. "We need to get him out of here, ASAP! This kid needs an emergency room!"

((That was lame.))

"Melhana, Mahad. The curse you had. I think it spread to Ashleigh. Look" Aka mindlinked. Ashleigh pull all the tubes off and hopped out of bed. She given a glare at Yusei, smirked and walked away.
"That's no curse, that's Theif Bakura controling her Mahad exclamed.

'You've got to be kidding me!' Melhana replied. 'But still, we've got bigger problems; this kid needs an emergency room, now.'

"What happened to him?" Melhana asked as she draped the teen's other arm over her shoulder.

"Well, some barstard killed Bandit Keith, and using him as a puppet. He forced Yugi into a duel, us two plus Selena followed....and Yusei didn't hack it which leads to this. Yusei got wounded and we ended up here for some reason" Marcia replied, "but what's up with Ashleigh?"

"She's being controlled by Thief Bakura." Melhana replied.

"What? But I though he was killed many years ago. How did he return?" She asked.

"I don't know, and don't want to know, but in case you didn't notice you've got an unconcious kid here!" Melhana said in irritation. This girl was starting to strike her as one thing: dense.

Marcia teleported to an doctor who took Yusei into his care. Then she teleported back into Ashleigh's room.
"I almost forgot. Have you heard the news lately? Madam Butterfly won the Historic Ring Tornament." Marcia replied.
"Who's Madam Butterfly?" Mahad asked.
"No one knows. She was orginally called The Orange Madam Fairy but changed to Madam Butterfly because she duels swiftly with grace, like a normal butterfly" Marcia explained.
((I upload the pics about her later. You be surprise who it is))

"Uh, can we take this to somewhere else?" Melhana asked.

"Ok, but where do you....."
CRASH
The whole gang looked out the doorway and the Theif was there.
"Any idea why he's there?" he asked then slowly disappeared.
"Mahad!" Marcia cried.
"Don't worry about me. My master needs me" he said before disappearing into midair.

Melhana grimaced. "You again?" She asked in irritation. As if my day couldn't get any better...

"Have you even guessed. While you were too busy putting her down, I was able to put a bit of my power into her. Now she belongs to me and there is nothing you can do about it" he said, grinning.
"But the good news is, that his darkness side is completely killed thanks to Atem" Marcia replied, "and like always, to get a person back...."
"You need to face the bad guy and beat them to a pulp, or for us, a duel" said a voice. Everyone turned around and gasped. There stood a young woman who was dressed completly in orange. She wore a mask on her face.
Madam Butterfly Marica thought.
"What do you want?" Thief Bakura snarled.
"Haven't you forgotten?" she asked. Something was familiar about her.