Oh, guys please be nice to me! This is my first fanfic I've written, I apologize if you don't like it. I don't own Skulduggery Pleasant or Yu-Gi-Oh, by the way.

Skulduggery Pleasant

Valkyrie Cain turned towards Skulduggery, her mouth curving down into a frown. They sat with a folder laid down before both them, in his house between the cemeteries. A blizzard raged outside, but that didn't matter to them. They'd faced far worse than nasty January blizzards in their time.

The folder was an odd one. Something of a mystery, wrapped in a children's card game, as it were.

"Millennium Items? You're sure? Skulduggery, we have enough going on in Ireland, I don't see why we have to go running off to solve America's problems…."

"That's just the thing, my little Irish puppy-" Skulduggery said, his smooth voice cheerful.

"-I'm not your damn puppy." Valkyrie grumbled, not sharing Skulduggery's good nature at the moment.

"This isn't just America's problem. The Millennium Items have the power to give magic to ordinary mortals. Strong, and sometimes-evil magic, at that. And the people using them-"

"-Are nerds who spend their days playing card games. Honestly. Shouldn't we let the geeks have a bit of fun in their pathetic lives?"

She wasn't trying to be funny, but she could tell Skulduggery was amused by her bad mood. He often said he didn't like to let bad weather get him down. She liked to say that that was only because he was a sorcerer; bad weather couldn't get him down. She, on the other hand, was freezing, since Skulduggery never thought to pay the heating bill, and despite the many blankets wrapped around her, she still considered frostbite an immediate threat.

"Don't all young girls like excuses to go traveling?" He said lightly, but Valkyrie didn't rise to the bait.

"I go traveling often enough, thank you. I'd just rather lay low for a couple of days, and inspecting a bunch of nerdy magical items isn't really top on my list of priorities."

"You don't have to go, if you don't want to."

Valkyrie groaned. Now she had to go. Someone had to baby-sit Skulduggery, after all, and she could only imagine the havoc he'd wreak on the poor Americans whose paths he'd cross.

"I'm bloody coming."

"Excellent. I haven't told Erskine yet, but he won't list this in as official work, since we're going out of country for something that isn't really relevant to anything recent. I bought the plane tickets for us already-"

"You what?"

"And I'm sure you'll be delighted to know that the plane leaves in one hour. The drive will take fifteen minutes, and getting past air port security will take about thirty." He said innocently, disguising a wicked tone of his voice. "If we hurry, you'll have... Oh… Five minutes to pack."

She was already running out the door.

Yu-Gi-Oh

There was fifteen minutes till landing, and Yugi could see the skyscrapers in the distance gleam like shards of glass, rising out of earth next to the blue green glow of the Atlantic Ocean. On the plane with him were at least five frustrated business men- flying into New York on business-, three excited foreigners- much like himself, flying into the big Apple on holiday-and then there was Tristan Taylor, Tea, Joey Wheeler and his sister Serenity. Yugi smiled a little bit to himself, all four of them were sound asleep and from Yugi's seat, he was glad he could keep an eye on all of them. Battle City had just finished and everyone had really needed a vacation. Unfortunately, that wasn't all they were going to New York for.

The Battle City Tournament had been called to halt, because of something very, very peculiar that Ishizu had revealed, only moments after the true identity of Marik Ishtar was known. The retreat had been called quickly, as Marik realized that there was another way, besides Duel Monsters to take the Pharaoh down, and the Pharaoh and Bakura had been oh-so curious about the mysterious "current-day sorcerers" that Ishizu had finally explained to them.

Seto Kaiba, obviously disgruntled but having no choice but to let them go because suddenly all of the finalists had dropped out, he agreed with a bit of whining to let them get back on track with the tournament after they found out more about the mysterious sorcerers.

Yugi stared out the window anxiously. Sorcerers? In this day and age? And if Ishizu was right, then a Pharaoh wasn't controlling them, instead… They worked in organizations called… sanctuaries? Yugi's imagination worked overtime imagining what it might be like. His thoughts varied from Satan Occult groups, to CIA underground men-in-black hideouts.

"Is something the matter Yugi?" It was like a voice spoke inside his head, and he reached down instinctively to touch his Millennium Puzzle.

"Nothing. I… I don't know." Yugi admitted quietly, sure that no one could hear him. "It's just… after all we've been through, I mean… Magic. It just seems so…"

The Pharaoh, his other half, huffed. "I know what you mean. I can't remember much about it, but I'm pretty sure the type of magic the Millennium Items have is an unusual one. When we're here, it's just as likely someone will be looking for us, as we will him or her. Ishizu told us about that, remember? That we'd meet an… uh, skeleton and his partner? It sounds odd, I know, but Ishizu is honest. She wouldn't lie to us. We'll keep our eyes open, don't worry."

Reassured by the Pharaoh's confidence-Yugi let excitement, because this was the first time he'd traveled to America, make his heart race.

Little did he know, on the very same plane, Bakura- still possessed by the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring- smiled.