Hello Readers, new and old...I extend my welcome! And my gratitude to the old. I figured I might as well keep you in suspense a little longer and some things have changed. I'm very surprised at myself to tell the truth. Oh well! I'm already working on the second chapter.

Enjoy the revised version of Black and White Roses!

When Black Petals Fall
Chapter 1

Remembering the Legacy

"Why are we here?" Bakura asked quietly, his fists clenched at his sides, face turned down. No one could see his face as it was completely hidden by the mane of hair covering his face, but everyone could tell that it was a mix of being pained and furious. So when the group glanced at Bakura's shaking figure, they knew why his countenance was such, but not a single one of them answered him except with almost pitying looks; it wasn't necessary after all, they knew why they were there. Especially on this day, they'd have to be an idiot not to know why.

Seto, Marik, Malik, Bakura, Serenity Isis were all standing at the front of large, iron gates and hesitating around the entrance on the morning of that not really autumn but not quite winter day, not going in but not leaving. With the exception of Isis, their expressions were dark and distracted, haunted with painful and terrifying memories each time they glanced up at the house and it only detained them further which made it harder and harder for them to go in.

Like it had been before, Seto leaned against the iron gates and then nodded towards the others with a grim look on his otherwise cool face. "Let's stop wasting time, we need to go in." The rest of the group looked up and nodded before going in as a small little mob. Their expressions were pained but they went in, nevertheless and continued on the stone path, the path that hadn't changed even though it had been a year surely, when they had walked it like this last. The stone was still rough and unpolished but devoid of marks and the path was still traced by the weeds that had overrun the once green lawn. Biting winds came flying down at them and nipped at their noses and cheeks mercilessly and they shuddered.

Everyone's faces grew more and more somber from the unwilling expressions that they'd had before as they approached until finally, at long last, they reached the heavy door. The group looked around at one another, and then nodded towards Bakura, who sighing, removed a key from his neck and placed it into the keyhole and turned it before pushing the door open. The door opened with a thin, high pitched creak while swinging in to present a large hallway with a living room right next to it. Everything was finely layered with dust and when they walked in, they left their shoe marks imprinted in the grayed wooden floor.

After the last one of them had filed in which was once more Serenity, they left the door wide open and propped it as it was with a brick that they'd brought with them. They didn't want the door to be closing on them again…they never wanted that door to close while they were inside ever again.

After they made their way into the empty and uninviting house, they were still for a moment in the middle of the hallway, and it looked as if they were going to go their separate ways…but then they decided against it and stuck together but didn't move. It was better that way…there was no telling what might happen when one of them went off on their own. It was the best thing for their sanity if they managed to stay together so that they could be comforted and feel at least a little safe.

They continued to stand still, not knowing where to go, what to do, or where to go…until Bakura finally broke the silence with a sharp 'Fuck it!' and stormed into the living room and sat himself down on the gray carpet of dust. No one said anything about his strange behavior since they knew that out of all of them, it was he that had suffered the most severe of repercussions because of what had happened in this house. The rest of them slowly followed suit and soon all of them were sitting on the floor somewhere, leaning forward or against a sheet covered couch and everyone had lapsed into silence once more like quicksand, disturbed by a commotion for only a moment.

Finally it was Isis who spoke and split the heavy silence, a gentle and warm knife in the heavy butter of stillness. "I wasn't here to know everything that took place…" She said gently, taking her brother's hand and holding it between her own warm ones comfortingly. "Would you please tell me?" The others glanced at each other with almost pained looks, then at Bakura who just shrugged and then looked back down at the ground.

"There were more of us back then." Serenity said first, her arms tightly holding her knees to her chest. Her grip on her triceps were strong as if she didn't trust herself to speak without them and she blinked almost furiously. Her reddish brown hair was cut to her shoulders, compared to how long it had used to be. "There was me, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Duke, Mai, Yugi Yami, Marik, Malik, Seto, Bakura, and of course…Ryou. We didn't think we'd be here that long." The silence grew again as they began to remember…

"Well, looky here. Kaiba's here ta crash da party again." Joey fairly spat out, his expression clearly showing the dislike he had for the CEO. Kaiba only rolled his eyes, spitting out a puppy remark in return before nodding towards the others.

"Are all of us here?" The question was asked sharply and insistently, clearly impatient. "I need to get back to the company as soon as possible. So we're going to have to go inside, see whoever it is and then come out as soon as I can. Honestly, if they didn't have one of the files I needed, I wouldn't even bother with this." Seto shook his head, looking exasperated.

Jou looked like he was going to snarl something but everyone else stopped him, Tristan's hand covering his mouth and Malik yanking up beneath his shoulders. Tea slapped him across the head and yelled at him to shut his trap and then they resumed normal conditions. Yugi shook his head though and spoke, looking around carefully.

"Not everyone's here Kaiba, we're missing Ryou and Bakura." Yugi rubbed the back the back of his head carefully and blinked. Yami scoffed contemptuously and rolled his eyes.

"I don't even know why we're waiting for that tomb robber." Yami leaned back against the iron gate, his hands interlocked behind his head. Yugi turned barely narrowed eyes towards his yami and scolded him, along with Tea.

"Yami! You're forgetting Ryou. We're waiting for him too!" Tea nodded.

"Ryou's our friend too you know, and it wouldn't be a good thing for us to leave him behind. And it's not like he's going to be that late!" Marik raised an eyebrow looking very…skeptical. He found it all too amusing how no one defended the tomb robber and shook his head with a little bit of a smirk on his face. Thos idiots…

"Sorry we're late guys!" The group turned and saw the white haired pair running towards them, one a little more enthusiastically than the other, waving their hands. Tea grinned widely and flashed Yami a sideways smile as if to say, I told you so! Ryou arrived in front of them only seconds later and bent double, gasping for breath with his hands on his knees.

Bakura arrived along after them, looking fairly bored and blinked at seeing everyone there. "Oh boy, everyone's here, aren't they?" He sounded less than pleased with the bit of news and crossed his arms before deciding against it and leaned his head on Ryou's shoulder. "Can we go back now Ryou?" He looked annoyed and that was a clear understatement.

Ryou shook his head. "Come on, we only have to go in." Yugi nodded, smiling and glanced at his yami.

"Hey Yami, you want to go in first?" Yami looked up slightly and shrugged nonchalantly though everyone could tell all too clearly that he wouldn't allow anyone else to go in before he did. After all, it was Yami…he always had to do things first or best and as it was impossible to go through a door best, he'd have to go in first. Marik snorted softly which earned him a whack on the shoulder, courtesy of Malik and Bakura blew out through his closed lips and shook his head. Meantime, Yami pushed off the wall and then walked inside the gates and headed towards the door.

The other followed suit but Serenity, who followed after all of them, froze as soon as she entered through the gates and shivered, her arms crossing over each other to hold her shoulders. The others looked back once they reached the door and Joey called for his sister to hurry up. When she didn't, his eyes narrowed up in worry and he called out to her again.

"Are you alright Serenity?" He looked like he was going to go towards his sister but the girl looked up and smiled at him weakly and shook her head at him.

"It's alright." She yelled towards him and smiled. "It's alright Joey, I just sort of felt…cold all of a sudden." She straightened up and started walking towards them again, though her brow was furrowed tightly and she looked worried. "It's just…I feel like something bad is going to happen." She looked a little nervous but then smiled, though she didn't look very sure of herself. "But I'm being stupid, aren't I?"

"Nah, it's just the atmosphere of the house." Joey reassure his sister gruffly and motioned for Yami to go in who had found the iron key hanging on the knocker.

Tristan and Duke nodded, almost falling over each other to agree with her brother and comfort Serenity.

"Yes, I suppose you're right." Serenity said as the others walked inside and she took a last glance out. "I mean, it's not like we're going to be in there for a long time…"

Serenity took a deep breath and Bakura looked up at her through his hooded garnet eyes. "Heh, guess I didn't know what the heck we were getting ourselves into."

Small chuckles reverberated throughout the room though they were completely devoid of actual amusement. Isis raised an eyebrow and nodded. Malik looked a little sad as he stuck in his input quietly. "We thought it might be just another duelist and that we'd end up with our fairy tale ending again."

Then the laughter from everyone else faded and the hoarse laughter that came from Bakura was almost like a rough sob. "We were so fucking wrong though, weren't we?"

Yeah, not the greatest, but I think it's pretty good. At least I know what I'm doing with this.

Please leave a review! It's very discouraging when I only get a few loyal fans...