The Battle City tournament was finally reaching its final stages, having passed through the preliminaries and finally getting the four duellists needed for a final. It had not been an easy ride, as the tournament was plagued with cheaters, thieves, cultists and more than a few murder attempts. Considering all that had being going on any sane onlooker would wonder just how Seto Kaiba was coping so well, or even how the entire tournament hadn't been called to a close before they had even reached this stage. However, anyone who might be considered important enough to pass any judgement was either unconcerned or indisposed. A large number of the still conscious duellists from on the Kaiba Corp Airship had just been abducted into a digital world, including the CEO of Kaiba Corp himself, leaving the Blimp feeling decidedly quiet. Ishizu was doing all she could to avoid conflict with the menacing figure that was the dark personality inhabiting Marik Ishtars body, while the crew tended to themselves, determined not to involve themselves with anything important, lest they become wrapped up in the sad state of affairs. The other important players still alive were unconscious in their beds, helped occasionally by staff but otherwise left to themselves. The most recent casualty to this was Ryo Bakura.

Already left bedridden twice in this tournament, Ryo had thought the torment set upon him by the spirit that possessed would have finally been over after being knocked out of the tournament and put once more to sleep, but Ryo was never considered a lucky person. A few nights ago the spirit of Marik entered his body, calling the dark spirit that called Ryo's body home to action. The next moments that led to his body being found on the duel deck, minus one valuable gold necklace, were still played back to Ryo in the form of a nightmare.

He didn't move at all in his bed as the terrible scene played out again and again. The dark figure with wild hair standing opposite him, power and evil shining from his eyes and the darkness began to overwhelm. The duel played out part by part, until the blazing phoenix appeared and covered Ryo with flame. The burning sensation filled up his body. If anyone were paying attention they would have noticed his physical forms temperature flare up too. The fire burned him, purging his soul and leaving him in darkness, his spirit almost completely destroyed.

No, not his spirit, but something just as familiar to his form.

As the nightmare played out once more there was, for the first time since it was put back in this room, movement in Ryo's body. It shifted uneasily, as though it were finally catching up to the fact that it should probably be doing something in response to the dream. His entire body seemed to move in small ways, even his hair becoming stiffer and more defined. It was as the fire reached his body in the dream that a brilliant light shone from his chest, a sort of a golden eye. The light filled the room for a few seconds before finally stopping. Then he opened his eyes.

No, he didn't open his eyes, but something else did.

The figure laid there in the bed, surveying the room and piecing together facts it its head. It was not long before it finally sat up to get a better look, the sheets sliding off its chest, before clutching its head in sheer agony.

"It always hurts so much to come back," said not-Ryo, finding slight comfort in stating the obvious in this weakened state. The clutch around the head loosened. "But I am back."

A wide grin grew across his face. "I'm back!" he roared triumphantly, thrusting his arms in the air and instantly regretting it. His arms burned, and he retracted them.

The memories and mind of the body's current inhabitant were still returning, and the strength was slowly plodding back into the body. The dark spirit that had plagued Ryo so much before, the one that had been purged from the body not days before, was already back. He didn't know what he was going to do, but decided anywhere was better than the stagnant air of his current lodgings.

He slowly shifted his legs from under the covers to the side of the bed, gingerly putting pressure on them in his first attempts to stand up. While it didn't feel dignified to the spirit to have to be taking such pigeon steps to freedom, it occurred to him that collapsing to the floor would probably be even less dignified. Which is a shame, because that's exactly what he did so immediately after standing up.

The grin vanished. "I should be stronger than this," he muttered as he dragged himself back onto the bed for another try. "Even now the Ring should help me compensate..."

He looked down to his chest, of which there was a white and blue striped shirt, but no Millennium Ring. "Oh. Right. Bugger."

The memories still filtered through into Bakuras mind, allowing him to put together a possible location of his most precious possession. "Well, if Marik has it then I really am screwed, but it's not like I have a choice," He announced to no one in particular.

It would take a few more tries and a lot of swearing before Bakura finally steadied himself in an upright position, even managing to make it to the door of his room. He stood at the closed door in the dark, covered in nothing more than a t-shirt and small pair of shorts, and opened it. The unnatural light inside the Airship blinded Bakura for a second, before his eyes could adjust, and shone on his thin, pale body and long, spiky, silver hair. Finding strength in the light guiding his way he shuddered through the grey and white corridors of the blimp, taking particular note of just how empty it was. On his passage to the duel deck he didn't encounter a single other person. He didn't particularly care, in the end, as he was sure someone could shed some light on it later.

After he had half dragged, half walked the stairs leading up to the open air stadium at the top of the blimp he was left overwhelmingly confused and curious. Rather than the sky, with either sun or moon, his gaze was met with a huge metal roof, with industrial sized ceiling lights. He finally drew his attention from this new sight to scan the deck, catching a glimpse of the massive hair over the raised duelling platform that could only mean someone important was there.

He slowly made his way round, owing less to his lack of strength and more as to not alert the individual whose company he was about to engage in. He stood behind the raised platform and took a peek, spying the tall and menacing figure of Marik. Bakura prepared himself to make an appropriately powerful entrance.

"Are you going to be all day, there's only so long I feel like waiting for you to get the balls to come over here," boomed the demonic voice of Marik, catching Bakura off guard and thoroughly ruining any kind of dramatic entrance. Bakura sagged, touched with pangs of disappointment, and made his way towards the bronze skinned man before him.

"How did you know I was there then?" Asked Bakura, careful not to walk too quickly towards Marik.

"Besides the fact your massive spikes give you away over the top of that million dollar monstrosity?" Marik gestured to the duelling platform, and Bakura took care not to look embarrassed by this revelation. "Well, you don't exactly hide your presence very well without this." He pulled out the Millennium Ring on a chain from underneath his purple tank top.

Bakura stopped dead in his tracks, and stared at the golden necklace. Again, he attempted to keep his composure in face of the fact that Marik had all the answers and all the presence and, without the ring, he didn't. "You just carry that around with you?"

"I'm hardly going to leave it in my room. Its power adds to the Rods, and to mine."

At the increasing realisation that there was no way that he was going to win in a conversation involving the items, Bakura decided it was best to change the subject and continue movement towards Marik. "Fine. Now, on a slightly more pressing note, where the bloody hell are we?"

"What can you work out from what you can see?"

Bakura took a brief scan of the outside area. "We're inside a giant metal container."

"Then you know as much as I do."

"Fat load of help you are."

Marik gave his devilish grin that he used so often. "I'd watch yourself if I were you. I'm sure you're not forgetting that I now have two Millennium Items." In the same way that someone would cock a gun to show that they meant business, Marik pulled out the Millennium Rod from the backside of his trousers and held it at his side.

It seemed like any line of conversation was going to lead to them anyway. "It's not like they'll do you any good. All the power of a God Card and you can't even finish off a single spirit."

"Yes, though I could always try again. Even so, I wonder just how you managed to survive complete destruction."

"You're not the first to try, you know. I've built up enough back up plans for my spirit to continue time after time."

"That's not answering my question, that's just being a cocky little bastard."

"So glad you noticed." Bakura gave off a small laugh, before continuing. "The shadow game could only take one spirit, so I hid part of mine in Ryo's to regenerate later. And so here I am."

"Though for how long is up for debate."

Marik began to walk towards Bakura, throwing the silver-haired figure off guard as he tried to slow and stop. He was still clumsy and couldn't avoid the hand that grasped him by the throat and lifted him slightly off the ground. Marik had an evil and excited look in his eye.

"You have no idea just how boring it is here without a decent play thing, but then you come back." The voice gained a darker resonance in the background. "You're a spirit. I can torture you all I want and no one will care. I'll take you elsewhere, feed you to the shadows." The smile on his face grew larger, and hungrier. It was the first time the spirit had ever felt fear. "In fact, why wait? You're mine now."

Marik raised the Rod in his other hand and concentrated, as the eye glowed golden and bright. Bakura's eyes began to turn black, while the spirit inside failed to resist the entry. Bakura's body began to contort, while Marik closed his eyes and entered the others mind. Neither of them got the chance to notice the glowing eye on the Ring that hung from Mariks neck.