"Jacob, we cannot simply sit back an ignore this!" screamed a Goddess with waist-length auburn hair.
"I am well aware of that, Sara!" shouted Jacob, the golden-haired God. "Do not think that we will not take action on a threat as blatant as this."
Sara hung her head, pouting. A black-haired God, who had hung back in the shadows for the majority of the argument, spoke.
"Sara, are there any souls in the world of the living, the Shadow Realm, or Heaven that could be sent to the world of the living to be on guard for this threat?"
Sara closed her eyes, frowning in concentration as she mentally sorted the countless souls in the three dimensions. She smiled at the results. "Peter, there is one soul in level three of Heaven, one soul in the Shadow Realm, and four souls in the world of the living that have the power to resist this potential threat. And one…" she continued, smiling wider, "has already been to see us."
"Bring him here," commanded Peter.
Bakura was sleeping deeply. The only thing he was wearing was his underwear, and he was so tightly wrapped in the blanket that it looked like a cocoon.
"Bakura…"
Bakura turned over in his sleep, figuring it was part of his dream.
"Bakura!"
"Mmm…." Bakura groaned in his sleep and rolled over again, twisting the blanket further.
"Damn it, Bakura!"
With a cry, Bakura fully woke, toppling over the side of the bed onto the carpet, succeeding in giving his shoulder a rug burn. He hissed in pain and annoyance, convinced that the voice he had heard had been part of his dream and it was the fall that woke him. He attempted to untangle himself from the blanket in the dark.
"It's about time you woke up, thief."
Bakura froze. He slowly looked up and jumped to his feet, falling back down again as the blanket was twisted around his ankle, when he saw the Goddess he had hoped not to see again anytime soon standing in his bedroom.
"Holy ass of Ra!" he cried, trying to cover his almost-naked body with the blanket still wrapped tightly around his ankles and blushing deeply.
"Nice to see you again, too," Sara smirked.
"Why," he asked, succeeding on getting back on his bed and covering himself, "are you here in my bedroom at—" he glanced at the clock "—five in the morning?"
"Because you are needed," she stated simply.
"What?" he asked, suddenly fearful. The last time he had been "needed" he had been forced to drag an abusive seven-year-old girl halfway across town all day. "Now? Can't it wait until morning?"
"No," she said. "It must be now." Sara placed the heel of her palm on Bakura's forehead, and the next thing Bakura felt was a horrible, excruciatingly painful feeling like he was being ripped in two. He tried to scream in agony, but his body wouldn't respond to any of his commands. Then suddenly, Bakura was on his feet, fully clothed, and immediately fell to him knees. The pain was gone as abruptly as it had started, but he was still white, gasping, and trembling.
"Don't ever do that again," he growled, shooting the Goddess a venomous look. Then it occurred to him that he didn't know what "that" was. "What the fuck did you do?"
"I separated your soul from your body," Sara replied.
Bakura turned to look at the bed and gasped; there was his body, white-faced and limp, unmistakably dead.
"A body needs it's soul to survive," Sara answered his unasked question. "The body will resume its bodily functions again once your soul is back inside it."
Before Bakura could respond, Sara grasped his upper arm and in a flash of light they were both gone.
Bakura staggered slightly when they reappeared. He had teleported several times with his Ring, but he wasn't used to teleporting, through other dimensions no less, without Shadow Magic.
"Welcome back, Bakura Touzoku," said Jacob with his usual smile.
"What the hell am I doing back here?" Bakura shouted, his voice echoing around the Hall of Judgment. "We had a deal, dammit! I get to stay with Ryo if I escort his kid sister!" He paled. "He doesn't have another sibling, does he?"
"No, Bakura Touzoku, I'm afraid that this is much more serious than a simple escort. We may need your help to stop a threat to the entire world of the living that we have no control over."
"Why?" asked Bakura. "You're Gods! You should be able to do anything!"
"We cannot hold physical bodies, and therefore cannot enter that world in a form that would be useful to you," said Jacob sadly.
"Sara did!" protested Bakura.
"I was a spirit," said Sara. "You could see me and touch me because you too are a spirit. I was not solid."
"Oh." was Bakura's smart reply.
"You and five companions will have to do this alone," continued Jacob. "Two of your companions have already heard what I am about to tell you, and the three of you will, in turn, inform your remaining three companions."
"Okay…" Bakura had the urge to ask who these companions were, but a feeling in his gut told him he'd find out soon enough. Instead he asked, "What is this threat that has you three so worried?"
Sara bit her lip and twirled a lock of hair around her finger; Peter looked at the floor; Jacob spoke. "Zorc has become greedy. He is the ruler of Hell and the Shadow Realm, but he wants more. He has been hinting about wanting the world of the living ever since he missed his first opportunity that arose three thousand years ago. We think that he is finally making his move. We believe that he is creating a demon army."
"Believe!" cried Sara. "Jacob, we know he is! He practically bragged to us about his army!"
Bakura's mouth and throat were dry. He felt all the blood draining out of his face. He tried to wet his lips, but there was no moisture on his tongue to do so. His legs felt weak, and he sank to his knees, trembling.
"No fucking way. Zorc creating an army…just to take over our world? No…we'll all be murdered in our beds. And six people…have to stop him?"
"Your companions responded the same way," said Peter.
Sara hung her head; Bakura thought he saw a tear on her cheek before her hair hid her face. Her voice trembled slightly when she spoke. "We're sorry…to push this on your shoulders."
"Sorry!" Bakura's voice had shot up an octave; he sounded hysterical. "What the hell am I gonna do? This changes everything! Ryo's birthday is in a week, how am I gonna tell him what I want to tell him with this hanging over my head!"
"I know…," said Sara, still hanging her head. "This isn't exactly something you want to be thinking of when you tell someone you love them."
Bakura felt all the blood rush back into his face as he blushed. It was scary how she could read his mind sometimes.
"Who are my companions?" he asked, eager to get off the topic and because he couldn't fight the urge to ask any longer.
"Oh, I think you know them quite well," Jacob smiled.
"Fluuuuuuffy!"
Bakura let out a noise that sounded like a mixture between "ugh" and "oof" when something heavy collided with his back and sent his sprawling from his kneeling position to the floor, the thing lying on his back.
"Marik, get off me," he said in a low voice, blowing his hair out of his face.
Marik let him up. Bakura began to wonder who the other one was. Then he realized that since Marik was here, the only one it could be was the one who had the power to release him from the Shadow Realm. Bakura paled before he even heard the mocking voice.
"Long time, no see, tomb robber."
Bakura's soul reentered his body (with much less pain than exiting) the same instant a bucket of ice water was thrown on him. He sat bolt upright.
"Aug! What. The. Hell, Ryo!"
But his protests were cut off as Ryo threw himself around Bakura's neck, sobbing onto his shoulder.
"You weren't waking up and you weren't breathing and you had no pulse, I didn't know what to do!" Ryo cried.
"So you throw ice water on me? That's not how you wake up the dead." Bakura wrapped his arms apologetically around Ryo when he cried harder at the word "dead". Bakura mentally kicked himself for making Ryo so upset and worried. He hugged the boy close, softly explaining what happened to the body when the soul had a literal out-of-body experience and apologizing countless times for making him worry so much.
Yugi sat on his bed, staring into space with his back to the door.
He heard his grandpa talking to someone downstairs. The shop wasn't open yet, why would that be?
Yugi's bedroom door opened, but Yugi was too zoned out to notice. He jumped violently as he felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his waist.
"Miss me, aibou?"
Yugi gasped and spun around, engaging his yami in a passionate kiss.
Malik's doorbell rang. He opened it and was immediately glomped by someone he recognized instantly.
"Hikari-pretty!"
Malik didn't answer as he crushed his lips against Marik's.
In all three houses, the hikaris were asking what happened while their yami was away. In all three houses, the yami's face fell as the severity of the situation interrupted the happy reunion. In all three houses, the yamis were pulling the smaller one into his lap, whispering, "Hikari…there's something I gotta tell you." not wanting to see the terrified faces of the one they loved that was sure to come, as they buried their faces into the dark's chest and begged them to say that they were lying.
I don't own YuGiOh, and if I did then I never would've sold it to 4Kids. Jacob, Peter, and Sara are mine though.
And in case you didn't figure it out, Ryo, Malik, and Yugi are the other three companions.