This story is set around the Orichalcos episodes; Yugi and his friends have been drawn into the mess against their will [ish]. They've recieved a message claiming to know of a location pertaining to the sect and are travelling there... in Kaiba's private limo. The Yami's don't have their own bodies yet. Yami is Yugi's Yami; Bakura is Ryou's Yami; Marik is Malik's Yami [as of the moment, neither Marik, Malik, Ishizu or Odion are in the story]. The companions know Yami is a Pharaoh, but that's it!

Also: any usage of 'aibou' or 'hikari' is ONLY in a platonic sense. At the moment there are no relationships... this might change, but it's unlikely. WARNING: this is rated for language, as well as much heavier things later in the series. Things that may be alluded to or used: rape, abuse, torture, self-harm, drugs, booze, violence and very bad language. Please don't read if you will be affected! I don't want to harm or hurt anyone's feelings.

Disclaimer: If I owned YuGiOh, would I really be writing fanfic of it?

Reviews are much appreciated, even if they're only a single letter long!

'You're sure this is the right place?' Yugi asked nervously.

'Quite sure,' Kaiba snapped, checking the GPS. 'We're about ten minutes away.'

'Quite sure, we're about ten minutes away,' Joey mimicked. 'That's what you said ten minutes ago.'

'Shut up,' Kaiba growled, crossing his arms.

'Come on, guys, can't you get along for a little while?' Tea asked.

'He's being an arrogant jerk.'

'At least I'm not an immature dog.'

As Joey and Kaiba resumed their fighting, Yugi sighed. A cross-country trip in a private limousine had sounded good to him—free drink, free snacks, and plenty of room for all. If they had to travel to some godforsaken town to solve the Orichalcos problem, they might as well do it in comfort and style, right?

Wrong.

Kaiba and Joey had been bickering for most of the trip. Even Tea's nagging had been unable to stop it, and Yugi was beginning to wonder if they wouldn't have been better off walking.

Six people in one limousine? What were we, crazy? He thought.

He, Joey, Tristan and Tea had been dragged into the Orichalcos mess unwillingly. Whilst they'd been content to let somebody else handle the mess, Yami was pleased for the diversion from "normal" life, and had wasted no time in getting them caught up with the soul-stealing sect. Ryou's dark side had also become interested, albeit for entirely different reasons—luckily, they'd managed to re-banish the Ring spirit before any real damage had been done.

'Shut up, mutt!'

'Bite me, Kaiba!'

Yugi groaned. Ten minutes is ten minutes too long.

They'd been sent a message claiming to have discovered a signal referring to the Orichalcos, and Yami had decided that they would travel there. Unfortunately, none of them had the dough for plane tickets, and so they'd been forced to ask Kaiba for help.

At first he wanted nothing to do with them. However, after nearly losing his own soul to an Orichalcos goon, he agreed to help them. "Limo travel is cheaper than air travel" he'd said. Grateful for a free ride, they'd accepted his offer with no thought to the practicality side.

Which now found Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Ryou and Seto Kaiba in one limousine. Duke and Serenity had wisely chosen to remain in Domino with Mokuba and Yugi's grandfather.

Wish we could've stayed, Yugi thought.

You know we can't. Yami's voice echoed in his head. We have no choice in the matter. We have to fix this!

You mean you have to fix this, he said sourly. None of us would have to be here if we didn't share a body.

Come on. You have to admit you're enjoying the break from school.

Yugi sighed, smiling a little. Yami had a point. As much as he'd been enjoying life without people constantly trying to destroy him and his friends, the adrenalin rush of life-or-death duels was a welcome reminder of the more exciting parts of his life.

The limo ground to a halt, jolting him out of his thoughts.

'What are you doing?' Kaiba demanded. He reached forwards and tapped on the glass divider. 'I said, imbecile, what are you—'

Suddenly the limo shuddered, sending everyone sprawling to the ground. A vague roaring came from outside. Shouts and yells filled the air.

'What's going on?' Tea cried.

'I don't know.' He knocked the switch to lower the divider. 'Driver, what—what?'

The driver's seat lay empty, and the door was open. A low rumble could be heard outside.

'Where'd he go?' Ryou asked.

'Damned if I know,' Tristan said. 'But we need to get out of here.'

'Then drive!' Tea screamed.

'I don't drive stick shift!' he yelled. 'Kaiba, it's your limo, drive the thing!'

'Like hell,' Kaiba said.

Another jolt made the limo shudder, and the roar of bikes was now clearly audible over the yells.

'If you don't drive, we're going to die!' Tea yelled. 'Drive!'

Kaiba dove into the seat. With a horrible grinding noise, the limo started. Then almost immediately stalled.

'What the hell are you doing?' Joey yelled.

'I don't drive!' Kaiba snarled back. 'That's what chauffers are for!'

Tea screamed as the roof of the limo was peeled off like the lid of a sardine can, leaving the companions exposed. Motorbikes tore around the stationary vehicle. Each of the riders wore plain black jackets and identical black helmets. The green circle of Orichalcos was emblazoned on their jackets.

'Orichalcos!' Yugi called.

One of the bikers drew to a stop in front their bonnet and drew a gun. He aimed it squarely at the older Kaiba. But before the man could fire the weapon, something slammed into him from the side, knocking him under the tyres of another biker and causing a chain-reaction pile-up.

'Dark Tornado!' a voice howled, and a mini-twister formed in the centre of the pile-up, drawing bikes and riders alike into a steadily growing vortex.

What's going on, Yugi? Yami asked.

I don't know! Yugi replied. Isn't Dark Tornado a card?

It is. But—

'Dimension Portal!' another voice called. A glowing circle appeared behind the twister. It began sucking the tornado and its contents into its black mass. When the entire mass of swirling wind had vanished into its maw the portal exploded, covering the area in a choking dust storm.

Coughing, Yugi looked up. Two figures were visible in the gloom.

'Guys, two made it!' he yelled, pointing at the figures.

'Drive already, Kaiba!' Joey yelled.

The engine coughed to life, but again stalled almost immediately.

'It's alright,' a voice said. 'We're not with the Orichalcos.'

Tea blinked. 'Wait, what? They speak now?'

'Yeah, we speak,' the second voice growled.

That's the same voice that used Dimension Portal, Yami said.

You recognise it?

I listened. We can trust these people. I'm fairly sure they wouldn't save us just to kill us.

Yugi shook his head. 'Yami says he thinks these people are the ones who used the Tornado and the Portal.'

'Correct,' the first voice said. 'Now come with us.'

'Why the hell would we come with you?' Kaiba asked,

The dust settled, revealing two bikers. One rode a red and black bike, while the other rode a blue and black one. The rider of the red bike sat a little shorter than the blue biker. Both wore unpadded black jackets and plain black helmets.

'Either you come with us, or we leave you to the next batch of Orichalcos bikers who arrive,' the blue biker said.

Ryou pulled at his collar. 'I say we go with these two.'

'What if it's a trap?'

'Tristan, why would they save us if not to help us?' Tea demanded.

He shrugged.

'We'll play along for now,' Kaiba muttered. 'If worst comes to worst, there's only two of them.'

'I hate to agree with Kaiba, but he's right,' Joey said. 'Two strangers are better than the Orichalcos bikers.'

'Then hurry.' The red biker turned and roared off, leaving a dust trail. Kaiba managed to start the limo. Slowly, he followed the red bike, leaving the blue bike to follow them.

'Who do you think they are?' Tea asked.

Yugi shrugged. 'Who knows, who cares? They're not Orichalcos.'

Juddering and shaking, they followed the biker to a ramshackle town. Derelict warehouses filled the space between chain stores and petrol stations. They were led to the other side of the town.

The red biker switched on their left indicator and turned into the garage of a dirty one-storey house. Gears clashing, Kaiba managed to steer the limo in behind the bike, muttering oaths under his breath. The blue bike easily pulled in behind them.

The second biker snapped the stand out and got off the bike, removing his helmet. He was a young boy, about their own age, with brown hair and blue-grey eyes.

'Alright, who are you?' Kaiba growled.

'Kaiba! They helped us.'

'They could just have brought us here to kill us, Tea. Ever thought of that?'

'Shut it, Kaiba.'

'Big words, Moto.'

'Hey! Hey!' the boy called. He unzipped his jacket, revealing a black shirt. 'Cut it out the lot of you. We're not gonna harm you. I'm Valon.'

'Funny, you look a lot like the other bikers that tried to take us out.'

'I say we still should take 'em out,' the first biker growled. They hadn't taken off their helmet yet.

'Why the hell would we do that?'

The second biker shot what they guessed was a glare at Valon. 'It's them.'

Valon's eyes widened.

'Who is them?' Joey asked. 'And who are you, man?'

Valon shook his head. 'She's no man.'

'She?'

The second biker unzipped their jacket, and the four boys instantly turned red. The girl—there was no doubting that now—wore a tight-fitting black tank top. About five-eight, maybe five-nine, she was only a little taller than Yugi, and just as lean… but her chest rivalled Mai's.

Mai noticed, and huffed. 'Boys.'

The girl made no response. In one fluid motion, she ripped her helmet off.

She had a lean face and long black hair, streaked with red, tied in a ponytail. Her eyes were the same violet as Yugi's. A total of seven silver rings adorned her ears, and her mouth was set in a straight line. Two small blue tears were tattooed next to her right eye.

Around her neck was a tight black choker, similar in style to Yugi's; while his was dark blue and buckled, hers was jet-black and had metal studs. A silver hook on each side of the choker linked to a chain. On the end of the chain was a golden sword-shaped necklace.

'I'm Raven,' she said. 'They are none of your business. And you will stop staring at my chest or I'll put your eyes out.'

'I wasn't—'

'Oh, please.'

Leaving the companions open-mouthed, she stalked into the house.

Yugi turned to Valon.

'Look, I don't know about anyone else here, but I have no idea what's going on. Between bikers trying to kill us, those cards coming to life, and now this Raven girl—why don't we go inside and you can explain things from the start?'

Valon sighed. 'That's probably a good idea.'

He led them into the house and steered them to a messy living room. Two grubby couches sat in front of a TV unit.

'Take a seat,' he said. 'I'll be right back.'

The six companions watched him walk into the next room.

'Who the hell are they?' Ryou whispered.

Kaiba shrugged. 'I don't know.'

'They brought those cards to life!' Tea squeaked. 'That's not good, is it?'

'I don't know,' Yugi said. 'I mean, it's not like we haven't seen it before.'

'This is outside of the shadow realm, though.'

He sighed at Tristan's comment. 'True.'

'Why did we have to be rescued by idiots who live in a dump?'

'At least we were rescued, Kaiba.'

Seto rolled his eyes. He considered telling Gardner where she could stick it, but decided against it. 'We don't know who they are, or even why they rescued us in the first place. I completely reserve the right to call them idiots.'

Valon re-entered the room. 'Then maybe she was right. We shouldn't have rescued you.'

He turned to face him. 'I would have been fine with that.'

'I'm sure you would have, cause you'd have a hole in your face and wouldn't be breathing enough to care,' Valon snarled. 'Do you want an explanation or not?'

Grudgingly, Kaiba settled back into the couch. 'This had better be good.'

'Alright.' He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. 'Like you've been told, my name's Valon; her name is Raven. We've been here for about six months. The Orichalcos—'

'Hold it,' Kaiba said. 'Last names? Ages?'

'You don't need any of those.'

'I beg to differ.'

'It's not enough that we saved your asses?'

'Kaiba, enough,' Yugi warned. 'Valon, you were saying?'

'The Orichalcos sect has been in this area for about four months, using a temporary base,' Valon continued. 'So far, Raven and me haven't had any luck in narrowing down their base of operations. We know there's a single leader; his name is Dartz. He's not in this area.'

'Forget about Dartz,' Kaiba ordered. 'What do you know about the group in this area?'

'Not much. We know they've been harvesting souls through duels, using the Orichalcos cards; why and how we don't know.'

Ask him how they managed to use those cards in real life, Yami told Yugi.

'Yami wants to know how you used those cards to save us,' Yugi said.

Valon glanced. 'Who's Yami? On a related note, your names would be good to know.'

Yugi sighed. 'I'm Yugi. The girl over there is Tea; the blond-haired guy is Joey; the brown-haired guy is Tristan and the white-haired boy is Ryou. The guy with the briefcase is Seto Kaiba. Yami is… uh…'

'A five-thousand year old spirit that lives in the pyramid puzzle around his neck,' Kaiba interrupted. 'It shares his body and looks just like him, oddly enough.'

'We understand if it sounds a bit odd,' Tea added.

To their surprise, Valon shrugged. 'Nothing really sounds that odd anymore. To answer Yami's question, Raven's the one you'll need to talk to. She's the one that works with the magic… if you want to call it that.'

'Maybe I will.' Kaiba rose to his feet. 'As soon as you tell me more about you.'

'You don't need to know anything, mate,' Valon said. 'It's enough that we saved your lives. If you want to talk to Raven, she'll be down in her room. I'd suggest you be a bit politer to her than you were to me.'

'Suggestion ignored,' Kaiba said. 'Where's her room?'

He stood. 'I'll take you. Her room's out back. But you'll want to let me talk to her first… she can be aggressive sometimes.'

Seto grumbled, but nodded his assent.

The rest of the house was as grubby as the living room had been; almost every wall had dents or holes in it, and half the doors were missing. Those that weren't were falling off their hinges. Oily rags littered the floors and bike parts filled the shelves next to chipped plates and bowls.

Valon led them to a doorway that was covered with a sheet, and rapped on the wall next to it. 'Raven? It's Valon, I'm coming in. Better be decent.'

'Fuck off,' her voice snarled.

'Don't even try it,' he replied, and swung the sheet to the side. It fell back in place after him.

The six friends moved closer to try and hear what was going on, but soon realised it wasn't necessary.

'They want to talk to you.'

'Why the fuck would I want to talk to them? We saved their asses and all they're doing is asking fucking questions.'

'Raven, they didn't—oh, for Christ's sake, don't tell me you started again.'

'Started what?' Tea whispered.

Yugi shrugged. 'How would I know?'

'What the fuck else do you want me to do?'

'Maybe talk? You got a mouth you know!'

'Like any of those fuckwits would care to listen,' she spat. 'They don't know what it's like, they'll never know what it's like. They've never had anything like that happen to them and they never will. How the fuck could they hope to understand? Nobody fucking can.'

'That doesn't mean you have to do this to yourself.'

'What would you rather I do then?'

A sigh came from the room. 'I don't know, girl. What am I gonna do with you?'

'Do I honestly care?' Raven asked.

'How about we get that cleaned up, for a start. Kaiba wants to talk to you.'

'Tell him he can go stick his head up his ass for all I care.'

'Look, let's get you cleaned up. You don't have to talk to him, just listen to what he wants to say. Who knows, maybe he wants to apologise.'

'Yeah, I'm sure.'

'Alright, alright, I get the picture. Come on, they're waiting out there. Let's fix this up and go get you a coffee. Would you like that?'

Another sigh came from the room. 'Alright then.'

Two sets of footsteps moved deeper into the room, and the voices dropped.

Kaiba shook his head. 'Talk about a bitch.'

'That's not nice, Kaiba,' Ryou said, putting his hands on his hips; a move designed not to intimidate but to increase his own resolve. 'We don't know what might have happened to her.'

Kaiba turned his back, laughing shortly. 'Ask her when she comes out, then.'

'Maybe I will,' he pouted.

The five remaining companion watched Kaiba stalk down the hallway uncertainly.

'He's right, you know. She does seem like a nasty piece of work,' Tea said.

'No, Ryou's right,' Joey said. 'We don't know what might have happened to her.'

'We don't even know her full name.' Yugi agreed.

'Raven,' Tea snorted, rolling the name around her mouth. 'Bet you anything that's not her real name.'

'It doesn't matter for now,' Ryou said. 'Until we have proof otherwise, I say we should treat them both as friendlies.'

Yugi sighed. 'Well, there's no point in treating them bad. They did save us after all.'

'Wish they hadn't,' Joey muttered to Tristan as the five began walking back to the living room. 'Then Kaiba wouldn't still be around.'

End of chapter one... chapter two to come up soon!