I have a presentation and a paper due on Tuesday, so the logical thing to do is to write fanfiction. Set after Mai and Joey's duel.

Mai has never regretted winning a duel before, but as she watches Joey collapse across from her, she regrets every decision she's made that led her here. She rushes over to Joey, tries to prop him up, and pleads with him not to go, to stay with her. She reminds him that she didn't call her attack, so he couldn't have lost the duel, but in her heart she knows that it's useless. The seal is no longer surrounding them with an eerie green glow, and it never vanishes without taking something with it. This knowledge doesn't stop her from trying everything to try to wake Joey up. Why had she ever thought that getting rid of him would help her at all?

Memories flash unbidden through her mind—memories of Joey, who had always been able to make his ways past her defenses, to make her lower her guard. He'd always tried to be there for her, and if she'd just tried to reach out to him, none of this would have happened. Joey had been one of her first friends, and how had she repaid him? By throwing away their friendship in her pursuit for power, and by sealing away his soul. She had refused to take the blame for her own failures, choosing instead to blame him, and her anger had nearly destroyed her. Mai's been a fool this whole time. Joey deserves so much better than this. "I'm so sorry, Joey," she whispers.

Of course, he can't hear her now, can't hear the apologies he deserves to hear. And Mai needs to get a grip, and come up with a plan to fix the mess she's created. Nothing is going to stop her from getting Joey's soul back, and while she's at it, she'll take down Dartz and any of his cronies that stand in her way. But first, there's something she needs, something that will help her finish what she's started. She crouches next to Joey, rifling through his cards to find what she needs. She grabs the legendary dragon, and tucks it in with her own cards. She glances hesitantly at Joey's prone body, before standing and slowly, awkwardly dragging him over to the chain-link fence. She props him up as much as she can, guilt flooding her at his silent, still body. She allows her eyes to linger on her for a few more seconds, before turning and striding over to her motorcycle.

Joey will be fine until she gets her soul back, she reassures herself, zooming off into the night on her motorcycle. After all, he's always had more faith in her than she's ever had in herself. Even when she had insulted him and spit on the precious bond they shared, he hadn't given up on her. He still had fought for her, fought to remind her that no matter what happened between them, he still cared. Now it's her turn to fight for him. She refuses to fail this time; she won't rest until Joey has his soul back and the mess she has created is cleaned up. Dartz won't know what hit him.

Please review! It's my first time writing for this fandom, so please go easy on me.