S: (does her Mushu [from Mulan] impression) I LIIIVE!!!

Onyx: (eyeroll) Speak for yourself, Hikari.

S: Yami humor – hahahaha! Get it, she's a spirit… never mind. Okay, now yeah, I know, not what most of you were looking for, honestly, I WILL get back to HNLL, I actually have the next chapter all written, I just have to proof and type it. And I will do it! Promise!

Onyx: (yawns)

S: And just to prove I haven't killed you, Hawkgirl, would you mind terribly?

Hawkgirl: Gladly… Onyx and Sarah do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. Nor, thankfully, do they own Justice League, or Gollum from Lord of the Rings. All characters are copyright to their creators and all rights are reserved. The names for the monsters that are used in this story are theirs and please request their permission before using them. Also please request their permission before archiving this story anywhere.

Yami Bakura: (leaps out of nowhere) And if any of you pathetic, weak mortals try to flame them for this being yaoi, I will set my Man-Eater Bug on you! (laughs manically)

S: Ooh, I almost forgot! SLASH AHEAD!!! YAOI! GUYS AND GUYS!! GUYS LOVING GUYS!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

LIVES TO LIVE

Chapter One: Bringing

It had been two days since Seto Kaiba had come to Yuugi with a request to borrow his deck.

"It's to test my latest holoprojection system," the chestnut-haired teen had explained, a surprising eagerness showing in his narrow blue eyes. "I've already run all of my own cards through it, but I'd like to make sure it reacts to the remaining card types in the same fashion. I assure you, no harm will come to your cards." Since the two master Duelists were on friendly terms, Yuugi saw no reason to deny the young CEO his request. Therefore, his deck had left with Seto and he had heard nothing since. Until the phone rang that afternoon. Yuugi, trying to take inventory in the back room, tried to turn towards the door and tripped over a carton of booster packs as a result.

/Yami, could you - ouch – get that, please?/

Aibou? Are you hurt?

/This storage room is a little – OW! – cluttered./ Rubbing his forehead, the small teen sent a mental image of a box of plushie Duel Monsters toppling onto his head to his dark in explanation.

Shaking his head slightly, Yami retrieved the phone and tucked it between his head and shoulder before retrieving his manga from the counter and opening it again. "Turtle Game shop, how may I help you?"

"Yami, get down here."

"Seto? Is something wrong?"

"Just get down here! And bring Yuugi." The line clicked and went dead before Yami could press the matter further. Flopping the manga back to one hand, he pulled the phone away from his ear with the other and stared at it, utterly perplexed.

/Yami? Who was that?/

It was Seto, and he wishes us both at his home immediately. I get the impression there is trouble.

/So much for a quiet morning./

Twenty minutes later, a black-and-crimson Kawasaki Ninja skidded to a halt outside the Kaiba mansion. Two riders swung off it, peeling helmets away from remarkably unharmed hairstyles, and dashed for the house. Mokuba met them at the door, his large grey eyes wider than usual and his messy hair in an astounding state of disarray.

"Hi, guys." The greeting was remarkably calm, considering his appearance, as well as the sounds coming from the interior of the house. "Come in, please." Leaving the door open, he dashed back inside, vanishing into one of the rooms off the hall. Becoming more confused by the minute, Yami and Yuugi slipped in, shutting the door behind them. Mokuba, it seemed, had disappeared entirely, but the pair could still hear what seemed like a low conversation going on, as well as what they now recognized as furious shouting.

"..miserable beast, I aught to send you right back to where you came from - "

"Is that Seto?"

"I do not know, Aibou… It sounds like him. I wonder if he's gotten a dog?"

"Dog," cackled a voice quite close to them, making both jump and turn, facing the gangling figure in the doorway slightly behind Yami's left shoulder. "No doggies here, none at all! Woof woof!" And the figure bounded away with a harsh, grating giggle that left the two teen duelists staring after it in utter disbelief.

"Yami, wasn't that…"

"Saggi the Clown? It did look like him, certainly."

"It sounded like Gollum."

From the back of the house, another tirade of curses, insults and threats to the life of the yet-unnamed 'beast' exploded, coupled with a very loud splash. Exchanging glances, the two spike-haired teens began walking – quickly – to the back of the house. The room that they eventually entered was somewhere between a living room and a greenhouse. The entire rear wall was glass, with sliding doors set at regular intervals. Comfortable wicker chairs and glass-topped wicker tables were settled around the room on top of the grass-green carpeting. The ceiling was painted blue and dotted with fluffy white clouds. Plants, suspended in hanging baskets or overflowing planters on the floor and various shelves and pedestals, were everywhere, with no particular sense of order, making the room a riot of color.

However, it was none of that that drew their attention. Because leaning against one of the glass-topped tables was a tall, pale-skinned man with waist-length indigo hair, chatting with a casually reclining blond who was lounging in the chair next to him. Two helmets, one conical and dark-purple, the other fitted to the head, made of leather and steel, were resting on the tabletop. A tall teal staff with a gleaming emerald in the top was leaning against the unoccupied chair. A sword, heavy and gleaming in the filtered sunlight, was resting against the chair under the elbow of the blond man.

It was the dark-haired man that looked up first. Ice-blue eyes locked with Yami's bloodred ones, and the former Pharaoh gave an astonished gasp. "Dark Magician!"

"Master Yami!" Springing to his feet, the tall Spellcaster bowed deeply from the waist. The blond man rolled instantly out of his chair, swinging his booted feet onto the floor before standing up and bowing also, although not before Yuugi caught a glimpse of the triangular black tattoos and catlike amber eyes.

"Celtic Guardian!"

"Master Yuugi, Master Yami." The Elf's voice, deep and smooth, fell like silk on their ears, ringing with tones of the Earth itself.

"We must apologize for this, Masters. It was not our intention to leave the cards without your permission, we assure you. In fact, it was not our intention to leave them at all…" Looking confused, the alabaster-skinned magician trailed off. His own voice, not so deep as the Elf's, still reverberated with power and strength, and was no less pleasant on the ears.

"I do not blame you, my friend, nor am I angry.." Yami paused as another explosion of profanity burst from the outside. Looking through the glass doors, he found, much to his surprise, that an Olympic-sized swimming pool occupied a large portion of the backyard, and even more to his surprise that Seto was busy chasing a swift purple horse around the pool, cursing it out at the top of his lungs. The horse, with its golden mane and tail swirling in the wind, dashed easily away from the enraged millionaire, tossing it's magnificent head.

"Isn't that Gaia's horse?" Yuugi queried, glancing back at the two monsters.

"Hai, Master Yuugi, it is. That is Zephyr." The Dark Magician's mouth quirked up at one corner as Seto lunged for the playful animal and wound up in the pool again as a result.

"Zephyr? You mean you have names?" Bewildered, Yuugi stared from one monster to the other, before realizing belatedly that he might have offended them. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean - "

He was cut off by both the monsters laughing. "Do not fear, Master Yuugi," chuckled the Dark Magician. "You can do nothing to offend us. But yes, we do have names. The words upon our cards are only titles. My name is Damus." The mage bowed once again, then straightened and flicked a strand of indigo hair back over his shoulder.

Smiling, the Celtic Guardian stepped forward, bowing as well. "And my name is Celtos. The horse, as you know, is Zephyr."

At that point, Mokuba poked his head into the flower room, dragging along what looked like a bundled up brown shag carpet. "Do you think maybe someone could help Seto? Before he tries to kill the horse?"

"Certainly," answered Damus, pulling open the sliding door. "Celt, you had better come as well. You're the only other one that can handle that horse."

Mokuba stopped short three steps into the room and dropped his shaggy bundle, which squeaked indignantly. "All this time, you've been able to handle the horse, and you didn't tell us?"

"Nobody asked," came the casual response. Mokuba shook his head in disbelief, grabbed the squeaking carpet again, and dashed out of the room as a loud crash echoed from the general vicinity of the kitchen. Unthreading his belt, the elf calmly walked out onto the patio, clicking his tongue softly. Immediately, the horse trotted to his side and began nuzzling his shoulder, allowing the elf to slip the wide leather belt around its neck. Meanwhile, Damus and Yami calmly clasped Seto's wrists and, between the two, the trenchcoat-clad teen was easily hauled out of the pool. Sitting dripping on the cobblestone side of the pool, the CEO fixed his icy glare on the elf.

"This entire time," he hissed through gritted teeth, "you've been able to click your tongue and have that damn horse come running over to you?"

"Yes." Calmly patting the animal's neck, the warrior grasped the belt and led the horse outside the pool patio before releasing it into the outer backyard before returning to Damus' side.

"Would anyone care to explain precisely what is going on here?" Yami, his patience beginning to wane, snapped the question out through clenched teeth.

"I can," answered Seto in equally short tones, and marched back into the house, hurling his trenchcoat off as he did. Celtos dodged to the side to avoid being struck by the sodden garment and quickly followed the others into the mansion.

"My latest attempt at creating a thoroughly realistic HDMS - Holographic Duel Monster System – was to include aspects of the monster's personalities in the projected characters." Moving ahead of them at a quick pace, the young CEO began undoing the buttons on his ice-blue shirt as he continued speaking. "When I programmed my own deck into it, I was fairly careful with the amount of personality I injected, mostly because of the comparative sentience and strength of my monsters - "

"In other words, the strong and stupid types," interjected Celtos from behind Damus' shoulder. At Yuugi's astounded look and Yami's badly muffled snicker, he shot a faint grin at them. "I've dueled them, remember?"

"Haven't we all," added Damus cheerfully.

"Back to the point!" Stripping his shirt off completely, Seto hurled the still-wet garment behind him, this time forcing Yuugi to dodge. Yami raised an eyebrow and stared appraisingly at the long, pale back in front of him before clearing his throat slightly.

"…however, when I worked with your deck, Yuugi, I allowed a far greater degree of independent thought and personality into the projections. My calculations seem to have been a little off, though, as they," here he jerked one hand over his shoulder, pointing at Damus and Celtos with his thumb, "are not projections!"

"I have noticed that much," Yami countered, trying his best to hide his smirk. Seto, pausing at the foot of the main staircase, spun around to glare furiously at the diminutive former Pharaoh. Yami, not in the least put off, glared right back at him.

"Uhm, Seto…?" Yuugi's timid voice broke the concentration of the two glaring boys, and four sets of eyes swiveled towards the tiny Duelist.

"What?!"

"What do you.. uhm, plan on doing about this?"

"Fixing it, what else?"

Yami opened his mouth to make a reply, but was quickly cut off from a piercing shriek that emanated from the top of the stairs, followed by a long series of yelps and squeals, as whatever had shrieked in the first place began toppling down the three stories worth of stairs. After a moment, a blur of pink, blue and gold came into view, still bouncing painfully down each individual stair, until it finally skidded onto the floor and rolled to a stop against Damus' armored legs. A familiar conical helmet in shades of pink and blue soon landed on the floor next to the now-stilled blur.

Damus, with a rather weary sigh, reached down and dragged the whimpering 'blur' to it's feet. "Masters, Kaiba, may I introduce my sister, Mirai."

Sheepishly, the blushing Dark Magician Girl stared back at them, her enormous blue eyes blinking rapidly and her cheeks pinker than usual from her extended fall. "Sorry about that!" Her voice was light and innocent, without the same degree of power and danger that Damus' had, although still the voice of a magician.

"My less-than-entirely-graceful sister Mirai."

"Less than graceful entirely would be more to the point," offered Celtos teasingly, picking up the fallen helmet and plopping it back on the girl's head. She gave a cheerful giggle and hugged him around the neck, nearly knocking the helmet off again. "Thanks Celtie!"

"Celtie?" Seto's echo was incredulous.

"Oh, don't start, Dragon Master!"

"Ooh, I forgot my staff!" Flinging her hand toward the staircase, the girl shot a few sparks from her fingertips and instantly, a pink-and-gold staff came flying down the staircase toward her. Damus, reacting quickly, threw out his own hand, halting the staff a half-inch from his sister's nose.

"One of these days, little sister, you are going to cause yourself some manner of exceptional injury." Plucking the staff out of midair, he handed it back to her and poked her in the nose, causing the girl to blink sharply.

"I know, big brother, that's why I try to have you teach me!"

"My lessons would be far more effective if you listened to me, sister…"

"Kuri kuri kuri!!"

"Kuriboh, get back here!"

Conversation was somewhat interrupted as a Kuriboh sailed past, squealing at the top of its lungs, and Mokuba dashed after it. The flying furball glided up the staircase and out of sight, with Mokuba directly on its nonexistent tail.

"You brought my Kuriboh to life?!"

"Damn it, Yuugi, it wasn't intentional!"