Chapter 1

Light glinted off the studs in their collars as one by one they snaked their way through the darkened streets on the hunt for their leader. Their leader was being evasive like always, but they'd been taught never to give up, never to let go, to always to follow their instincts and reach their goal. This was their training. Their way of learning who they really were. Techniques first used by their ancestors to bring unity to the pack now brought the same kind of kinship to them. It was what made them unique even amongst their own kind. It's what made them proud.

Their leader flicked the hair out of his eyes as he watched them crawl along the streets below. A slim smile flickered at his lips as light glinted unnoticed off of his leather and silver cuff bracelets. They had no idea he was right above them, watching their every movement. As his fingers traced along his own collar, he knew things wouldn't remain this way for long. His pack was strong and determined. They would always find him eventually, no matter where he hid or how clever he thought he was being they always found him in the end. Time and time again they proved their worth and made him proud.

A gentle breeze pulled at the light material of his black with gold trim tunic style top and his black trousers made a soft swishing noise as he brought himself closer to the edge of the rooftop. He was counting down the minutes until they found him. They were close now; they had his scent and soon, soon they would join him on the rooftop, ready to begin again.

'Did you come to howl at the moon?' Her voice sounded wearily from behind him. 'It's so pretty tonight, I wish I could howl at it.'

He turned towards her. The cold sweat which clung to her skin made her shimmer in the moonlight. She'd been this way for a while. Pale, weak and unable to recover from the sickness which plagued her; it broke his heart to see her this way.

'You should be in bed,' he took several steps towards her, 'you're not well.'

'I'm tired of bed, I miss the air. Can't I play for a little while?'

'You're too weak; it's too soon for you to be out like this.'

'Weak,' she frowned at the word, 'I'm weak? But I was stronger than you once, wasn't I?'

'Yes, but right now you're sick. That sickness is making you weak.'

'Weak...?' she lowered her gaze. 'Right now I'm weak, but I'll be better soon, won't I?'

'Soon, I hope,' he gently stroked some of the hair back from her forehead, 'nothing would make me happier than to see you well again. But for now you should be in bed. I know you hate it, but it really is the best place for you.'

'Bed,' she nodded, 'but... let me hear you howl first. I wanna hear you howl.'

A grin pulled at his lips as a soft laugh rippled out of him; even in her sickness the charm of her innocence prevailed. Tilting his head upwards he began howling as loudly and passionately as he was able. Down in the streets below the hunters heard their leader's call; they knew where he was now and soon they would be with him once more.

Téa gave a heavy sigh as she stared at the once again empty desk. Joey might have been an insensitive idiot from time to time, but she couldn't help but miss him. It was as though this giant hole had formed in the centre of their group and nothing could fill it. Not that anyone was really trying; most of the time Yugi was preoccupied with trying to locate the still missing Millennium Eye, whereas Tristan was just generally preoccupied. Téa sighed again and tried not to give into the feelings telling her she was slowly losing all her friends.

'He did say he didn't know when he'd be back.' Yugi leant towards her.

'But he also said he'd be back,' Téa turned towards him, 'it's been almost two months now and we've not heard a thing.'

'He'll be back, soon, I know it,' he smiled, 'things are probably more complicated than he anticipated. And two months really isn't all that long you know.'

'Yeah I know.' Téa's gaze shifted towards Tristan's empty chair. 'Think he'll show today?'

'He'll probably be in second period again,' Yugi shrugged. 'He's actually just been late this week.'

'That makes a change,' Téa rolled her eyes. 'At least Joey had the decency to let us know he was leaving.'

'What do you mean?'

'I don't know. I just get this feeling Tristan is pulling away.'

'And you think talking about me behind my back is the best way to stop that from happening?' Tristan's voice made her jump.

'Tristan I didn't mean...'

'Whatever,' he flopped himself down into his seat and shifted his gaze towards the window. 'You guys meeting up with Duke after school?'

'We were planning to; I mean he'll want to be celebrating his clean bill of health, right?'

'His last hospital appointment for the foreseeable future,' Yugi grinned, 'he must be so relieved.'

'I think he said it went beyond relief,' Tristan began tapping a pencil against his desk, 'then he started saying something about things getting back to normal again and I tuned out.'

'You've been spending a lot of time with Duke recently,' Téa frowned at him.

'He needed the help and I needed the distraction,' Tristan shrugged, 'besides he wasn't the only one affected by the Boy.'

'That's true.' Yugi gave a muted half laugh. 'Man that whole situation was one big mess, wasn't it?'

'It's still a mess Yugi. One big, complicated mess and no one's doing anything about it.'

'What do you mean?' Téa leaned towards him, hoping for once he would confide in them.

'I keep telling you and telling you and you don't listen,' Tristan glared at her for a moment, before shifting his gaze back towards the window. 'Things are wrong. Things are very, very wrong. Why am I the only one who can see that?'

Yugi went to say something, but his words were cut off by their teacher entering the room. Téa gave a heavy sigh and shifted back round in her seat; for now at least their conversation would have to be put on hold.

Mokuba stared at the disk containing SK's research and willed his cousin to appear before him. In the last couple of months he'd found himself doing this a lot. He wasn't totally sure why, but he missed SK. He knew it was crazy to miss someone he'd only known for less than a day, but it was how he felt. He gave a heavy sigh and flopped down onto his bed.

'Can you hear me where you are SK?' He played with the disk in his hands. 'Are the dead allowed to watch over their relatives or is that against the rules too?'

Mokuba turned over onto his side and tried to ignore the self-conscious feeling stirring inside of him. He knew if his brother were to come in now and see him still mourning the cousin they barely knew he would not be happy. Kaiba viewed the whole SK situation as an annoyance he could have done without. Mokuba wished with everything in him that for once his brother wouldn't be so black and white about everything. That he would understand the subtle levels of grey which made him miss the cousin he barely knew.

'Can you hear me where you are SK?' Mokuba repeated his earlier words. 'Would meeting you again really be against the rules?'

It was four o'clock and the three of them were stood outside the hospital waiting for Duke. This wasn't the first time in the last couple of months they'd done this, but the thought of it being the last time set Tristan on edge. If Duke was healthy enough to take care of himself now then how the hell was he supposed to keep himself distracted? Plus Duke was the only one of his friends who didn't feel the constant need to find out what was wrong with him. He'd told them what was wrong; it wasn't his fault if they didn't get it.

'Are you sure he said to meet him here?' Téa shot Tristan a look.

'Do you just automatically switch off every time I talk to you these days,' Tristan felt his shoulder's tense, 'or do you just have trouble believing me?'

'He's probably just running a little late,' Yugi sighed, 'he's not been well, remember?'

As if on cue Duke emerged from the hospital entrance and walked towards them.

'Hey guys,' he smiled coolly, 'glad to see you, though I must say I'm getting a little sick of your face Tristan.'

'Didn't take you long to get back to your old self,' Tristan rolled his eyes.

'Maybe not from your point of view,' Duke shrugged, before smirking. 'So where do you guys wanna go?'

'Oh no, you don't get out of it that easily Duke, you said we were going to Burger World, your treat,' Tristan folded his arms.

'When did I say that?'

'Last Sunday when you had me cover that double shift. You know if I'm going to be saving your ass all the time, you might want to put me on the books.'

'Actually I did want to talk to you about that,' Duke studied him for a moment. 'You've been a big help the last two months and I was wondering if you'd be interested in a job.'

'I'll think about it.'

'What's to think about? You deserve to get paid for all the work you've put into the Black Clown. I mean, obviously you'll have to start off on the shop floor, but I'll get you trained up to manager in no time.'

'I said I'll think about it,' Tristan averted his gaze.

He had to admit he was very tempted by Duke's offer. After all, he'd just been trying to figure out a way of keeping himself occupied and one had fallen into his lap. But the feelings of dread which still sloshed around inside of him warned him against committing to anything long term.

'So... Burger World?' Yugi broke the awkward silence.

'Sounds good to me,' Téa started forward and the rest followed.

It was a twenty minute walk to Burger World from the hospital and the other three spent most of their time chatting. Tristan kept enough of an ear on their conversation to know when he needed to respond, but kept his general participation to a minimum. It was the only way to keep Téa from asking her annoying questions; she was like a dog with a bone and he would have given anything for her to just give it up.

'Hey that looks cool.' Téa stopped and pointed towards a shoddy little psychic stall half hidden between shops. 'Anyone want to get their fortunes read?'

'Didn't you learn anything from the last time Téa,' Tristan rolled his eyes, 'that guy's an obvious phony. If you really want to get your fortune read then you should go to Madam Oden's.'

'You mean that creepy little shop with the eye on the front?' Téa shuddered.

'With everything we've seen you're really going to call Madam Oden's shop creepy?' Tristan cocked an eyebrow at her. 'That phony over there is creepy; Madam Oden is actually pretty cool.'

'And you would know this how?'

'I've spent a bit of time there recently,' he shrugged. 'I was hoping she would help me understand a few things, turns out it was just nice to talk to someone who gets it.'

'Gets what exactly?' Téa shot him a look. 'And it's not like you give us a chance to understand. Every time we ask you just get all cagey and angry about it, like we're supposed to just know or something.'

'Whatever.'

'Well maybe we should meet this Madam Oden of yours,' Téa folded her arms, 'if she's really so great at understanding you, maybe she can tell me where I'm going wrong.'

'Why do I get the feeling our trip to Burger World is about to be delayed?' Duke shook his head.

'You don't mind, do you Duke?' Téa shot him a weak smile.

'Of course not. I have to admit this isn't the first time Tristan's mentioned Madam Oden to me and I'm a little curious about her.'

'I guess it's decided then,' Tristan turned off in the direction of her shop.

The others followed and it didn't take long for the dingy little shop to come into view. Tristan headed in without hesitation. In the half light he could just make out a haggard, elderly sage like gypsy stood behind the counter.

'I had a feeling you would come and see me today Tristan.' Her eyes glinted mischievously at him.

'You should think of a new line Madam Oden.' Tristan half lowered his head.

'You've brought friends with you.' Her eyes scanned his companions. 'The girl has many questions,' her gaze fixed itself on Téa. 'She feels as though her friends are slipping through her fingers and she doesn't know why. I know you have a lot on your mind Tristan,' she shifted her sights back to him, 'but your distance really isn't helping. She wants you to open up to her. She needs it. And something tells me you know that.'

Tristan shrugged and averted his gaze. He hated when Madam Oden did things like that. She knew he was having trouble connecting with his friends and she was constantly finding new ways to fix the problems for him. The trouble was he wasn't sure if the problems could be fixed; not whilst everything still felt so wrong.

'I know you and your friends have plans Tristan, but do you mind running a little errand for me?' Madam Oden smiled at him.

'It's about the wolves, isn't it?' Tristan frowned at her.

'What wolves?' Téa flicked her gaze between them.

'Don't you read the paper, ever?'

'I...'

'Are you talking about those reports of howling coming from the warehouses?' Duke tilted his head in thought. 'Isn't it supposed to be a pack of wild dogs or something?'

'It's the or something I'm worried about,' Madam Oden's lips pulled into a thoughtful pout, 'I know I said it was an errand Tristan, but this is as much for me as it is for you. This might have something to do with what you've been sensing.'

'Maybe,' Tristan folded his arms, 'but I guess there's only one way to know for sure.'

'You're a good boy Tristan,' Madam Oden smiled at him, 'try not to forget that.'