The Thief frowned as Kaiba made his way outside; he leaned heavily on Pegasus, and even though he insisted on wearing his white trench coat with the Rod tucked in the belt of his pants, his typical menacing appearance was lost. He looked like he belonged in bed. Despite that, the Thief knew he was still necessary. The Rod had ownership now, and despite Seto Kaiba's physical deterioration, his mind was still sharp. Taking up a Millennium Item tended to push away any nagging doubts about the validity of magic. He wondered if Kaiba had accidentally taken control of anyone's minds since he took it up. If not, it would be something to look forward to at least.

Marik was talking animatedly to his sister. Pegasus had gone with Rishid to rent a second Jeep since there was no way they could all ride out to the Ceremonial Chamber in the single vehicle; unless they wanted to pile in like before. Rishid was apparently the worst at haggling however, and both of his siblings were exchanging snide comments about which of them should have accompanied him. The Thief rolled his eyes and settled his gaze on his shoes, Ryou's shoes. He felt a nagging in the back of his mind. Ryou was still back there, waiting to be dealt with.

When the Thief had first entered Ryou's body again, he had thought he had been thrust into someone else. Anger flowed through it like an unstoppable lava flow and he felt a keen bloodlust that was entirely opposite from the calm and timid teenager he had known years ago. His horror at finding that it was indeed Ryou only intensified when he saw Marik beneath him with a knife to his throat, a knife held by his hand. Panicking, he had thrust Ryou to the back of his mind then, pushed him into a distant, dark chasm and shut it off completely from the conscious body. Then he had stepped forward, taken full control, and dropped the knife to the ground. It was strange, being inside the boy again after being a bound spirit for so long. His senses had threatened to overwhelm him. He was solid, he could feel the blood pumping through him and sweat made his shirt cling to his chest. His breathing was ragged and the blood on his hands was bright crimson against his pale skin. It had taken a moment for him to remember how to use vocal chords, and he choked out Marik's name with more effort than it should have taken. Marik had hugged him, and the Thief couldn't stop Ryou's body from shaking. There was something else inside his mind. Something other than Ryou had been shoved back into that dark chasm. He felt it moving and waiting like a coiled serpent. He needed to take care of it, to help Ryou, but not until the body was safe. He needed a quiet place where he could think and focus, which was difficult to find at the Ishtar abode.

"Hey Bakura!" Marik slipped warm hands around his arm, and pulled him away from the driveway. "You trying to get run over?" Marik smiled at him but Bakura merely blinked. He hadn't even heard the vehicle's approach. "Are you alright? You haven't really seemed yourself since you got back."

"I've got… things to sort out," the Thief said and tapped two fingers to his temple.

"With Ryou, you mean?"

He nodded.

Marik's countenance grew dark and his brows furrowed together. It was a look he had seen often aboard the Battle City blimp, what the Thief had called his plotting face, and it instantly went to his groin. Even though it felt like ages since he had been in Ryou's body, apparently some parts hadn't changed that much.

"Ryou had been acting very strange before he took it. I think he was having another panic attack."

"Ahh," the Thief said, hoping it sounded like he knew what that was. Ryou did seem the type to panic often.

"Pegasus said he saw strange shadows in his mind." Marik was watching him closely, looking for any sign of recognition or surprise. He always hated it when Marik studied him like that. It made him squirm, and he never thought of himself as the squirming type. "There were thoughts of murder in his mind. He was resisting the urge to kill Anzu."

The Thief wasn't as surprised as Marik might have expected. Bouts of madness and urges to kill were common in his incarnations. Traces of insanity used to spring up in Ryou's mind like patches of weeds. With the Ring, the Thief could easily pluck them free, and did so every few months. He had grown accustomed to this sort of maintenance for all his vessels over the centuries; they were always prone to madness it seemed. Although he had never questioned it before, being distanced from Zork and Ryou for a couple of years had given him time to conjecture that perhaps Zork had been responsible. The coiled serpent waiting in that dark chasm might in fact be a puppet of the Stranger. He needed to examine it to be sure; and he certainly needed to purge it soon. He didn't want to reach the Ceremonial Chamber with the dark serpent lurking in the back of his mind.

"Bakura?" Marik was watching him with concern but the Thief gave him a small smile.

"I'm fine, for now at least." He turned to see the others all piling into the Jeeps. Pegasus was driving the rental, and every other Item Holder had climbed in with him. He chuckled to himself. Were they that nervous about riding with him even now? He climbed in the back of Rishid's dusty green Jeep and arched an eyebrow as Anzu climbed in the passenger seat in front of him. She must not have known that Ryou had nearly killed her earlier. Marik slid in beside him and looped an arm around his; Joey sat on the end.

"How long is our drive supposed to be again?" the Thief whispered to Marik.

"At least an hour. It's pretty far out."

"Good," he got comfortable and strapped on his safety harness. "I'm going to take care of a few things. It might take some time. Keep an eye out for a bit, won't you?"

It was comforting that he didn't need to explain himself to Marik. They knew each other well enough to understand the needs that came with wielding an Item. Marik had grown accustomed to the two Bakuras needing time to communicate.

He allowed his mind to recede. He was no longer Bakura here, a body housed by two souls, but purely the Thief. There was always a sense of comfort in being his spiritual self again. He moved past the doors of their soul rooms and on to the very framework of Ryou's mind. This was where he would go to clean out the madness that sprouted up. He had known that it likely had gotten worse after being gone for two years, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. A clean mind was one that was easy to traverse, easy to find information in. Normally Ryou's mind was like an enormous library with shelves organized on all sorts of topics. No mind was perfect, but overall Ryou had a clear concept of his past, his future, and his existence. This mind was overrun.

The walls of books that were normally so neat and tidy had enormous sprouts of black tendrils shooting out of them. They tangled around the modest ceiling fans and tore through tome after tome, writhing toward him as he passed. Books were piled on the floor as tall as he was, and some shelves had been knocked down completely. It was more like walking through a jungle than a library. The Thief gave a heavy sigh and clasped the Ring; with this he could pull out the overgrowth and banish it in an instant, but it took time. He picked up shelves, reorganized books, and yanked out the sprawling madness in his attempts to right the library, to right Ryou's mind. Even though he was in a hurry, he needed to be careful. Ryou's mind needed to be in good order before they fought the Stranger. After he had plucked the last black tendril weed wrapped around the section on patience, the Thief allowed himself a short respite. He wasn't looking forward to the next step, so he decided to surface again.

He opened his eyes and felt his body jostling as they sped over the uneven terrain. He flicked his wrist to look at his watch and Marik jumped beside him.

"Damn it, Bakura!"

"What? I wanted to check the time."

"The Ring was glowing. I had to convince Rishid not to pull the car over and dump you in the desert!"

"You better not be planning anything!" Joey snapped over Marik's slender shoulder.

The Thief sighed and leaned toward Marik to whisper, "I told you: I had things to take care of."

"Yes, well it's really hard to convince them that you're not trying to kill anyone, when you totally look like you are!"

He rolled his eyes, "I still have work to do. Can you buy me more time?"

Marik folded his arms and gave a concerned look at the Ring. "What in the world are you up to? If you're trying to contact Zork or something…"

The Thief rolled his eyes. Somehow he didn't think this would be the last he would hear of such suspicions. "I'm trying to help Ryou."

Marik's eyes softened ever so slightly and he took a deep breath. As much as he complained, he knew that the boy's mind was fragile. "Alright, just be quick. It's hard to keep Joey quiet, and Rishid has been listening to sister too much."

The Thief looked into the rear-view mirror to see Rishid glaring at him from the front seat. He frowned and shifted in his seat. Even with the power of the Millennium Ring at his command, Rishid was the last person in the vehicle he wanted to anger. He knew how protective he could be of his brother.

"I will be," he said before gladly closing his eyes and allowing himself to retreat again. He drifted away from consciousness and toward the chasm where he could feel Ryou still waiting, and the coiled trespasser alongside him. He pulled back the mental blockade he had used to cut Ryou off from the rest of the mind. The walls here were dark and made of large, stacked stones; he had banished him to what looked like the inner passages of a pyramid, he realized with some amusement. Only nothing was here. The entire passage was utterly deserted, and only the light of his ring lit the walls around him. Oddly enough, he could sense Ryou's presence all around him. The Thief looped his fingers around the Ring.

"Take me to the trespasser," he muttered and looked to where the points of his Ring aimed. That was when he saw it. Ryou was there, but there was something dark and shadowy that swirled around him, shielding him from view. It made him look like he was part of the wall itself, as though he had been built into the masonry. Ryou was trying to speak, but the trespasser wasn't permitting the sound to be heard. It wasn't the Stranger exactly, but perhaps some part of him; some minion that had latched onto something deep and dark within Ryou, something cruel and malicious. It had pulled that malice to the surface, overwhelming Ryou in the process, and feeding on his mind. It was using Ryou's own rage and anger in order to control him, and worse yet, it had probably intensified his madness. That was why the library had been overthrown, that was why Ryou was having attacks of panic, and likely why he had been so close to killing Anzu. It was a parasite of sorts, one that had lived here for quite some time; possibly since the Thief had been banished. How dare something else attach itself to his host!

The Millennium Eye would have been a better choice for cleansing, but the Thief wasn't comfortable with opening the boy's mind to Pegasus. One glance and the man would probably claim he was too far gone to be salvageable. Using the Ring made it more difficult. He concentrated a direct beam of energy from each of the Ring's points to blast it, but the entity was too deeply embedded in Ryou's energy. It had two years after all to sink its pointed fangs in, and it wasn't going to let go easily. The shadows swirled around Ryou more quickly and he knew that using the Ring alone wasn't going to work. He needed to call upon powers beyond to get rid of it.

It had been some time since he opened a Shadow Portal, and it took a few tries before he managed it. When Necrofear popped her head up around the portal's edge, he grinned. Even still she stayed close to him. She had grown quite devoted to him over the years. With her infant in one hand, she wrapped an arm around Ryou's throat and pulled him back toward the portal; only while Ryou didn't move, the energy around him did. She pulled it back with a glint of red in her eye, and the Thief closed the portal behind them. She would make little work of it in the Shadow Realm.

Ryou fell to his knees and the Thief picked him up carefully. Together they returned to the boy's soul chamber. Ryou was exhausted, but alive. Their souls were intertwined now that the Ring had been returned to him, and already he could feel Ryou's spirit pulling on the Thief's energy to heal himself. He sat Ryou down at a round dining table with a flowery tablecloth that wasn't quite big enough to cover it and fetched a cup of hot tea for him. He couldn't drink it, of course, but the warmth and the smell would comfort him. Ryou had always enjoyed a simple soul chamber. It was a small town house that overlooked a quaint garden and an old fashioned street outside. He had no idea if it was a place that Ryou had ever visited, but everything about it spoke of him: the beautiful flowers blooming outside, glinting from a recent rain shower, the old fashioned blue patterned wallpaper lined with European dishware and carefully carved wooden statues, and the furniture that encouraged comfort and charm. Ryou looked exhausted, but there was a flush in his cheeks as he blink in the morning light that streamed in through the windows.

"You look better," the Thief whispered.

Ryou smiled at him and got to his feet. He wobbled a bit as he pulled him into a tight embrace. To the Thief's surprise, his own eyes stung with tears and he hugged him back.

"I missed you." Ryou gasped between sobs. "You saved me!"

"I-" He was grasping for words, trying to figure out what to say, but he was too shocked.

Ryou stared up at him with big caramel eyes, "Don't ever leave me like that again, please."

Something inside melted a bit at those eyes, at the emotion on his face, at the pleading in his voice. How could he refuse such a question? Even Zork had never held sway over his emotions like Ryou did. All he had to do was look at him and speak, and the Thief was stricken.

"I'm sorry," he whispered helplessly.

"You abandoned me."

"It wasn't my choice, Ryou. I didn't want to leave you, but-"

"So why did you do it?"

It was such a simple question, and it should have been easy to answer. How could he respond to that with some clunky hypothesis? Whatever control Zork had over him was merely conjecture. Even he didn't fully understand it. Zork's control had been nearly total by the end. It made him remember that night on Kaiba's blimp when Marik had insisted that Ryou should take that blast in Battle City. The Thief couldn't bring himself to do it. Yes, the plan would have worked, but the Thief couldn't bear to see Ryou destroyed. It was the first time his heart had melted with sympathy, and it wouldn't be the last. Marik never could comprehend the bond between them, the understanding they both had for each other.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I won't leave you this time."

Ryou squeezed him again and pulled away. Already he had regained his balance and stopped trembling. His quick recovery was a testament to how much the trespasser had been feeding from his energies. "You had better not." Ryou swallowed down tears, "I don't think I can survive without you."

It wasn't an exaggeration either. The power of the Ring, and therefore his own power, was the only thing that kept Ryou from tumbling into complete madness. He never realized how necessary it was until now, and he felt shame fall upon him in a way that he hadn't felt for ages. He stepped forward and slipped a hand against the small of Ryou's back, moving his hand up his spine and up to the nape of his neck. Ryou shivered. If they had more time, their reunion would be far more exciting, but the Thief could feel them nearing the Ceremonial Chamber and the dark entity that waited there.

Ryou gave him a sad smile. Did he feel the Stranger too? Did he even know what they were up against? Had he seen anything when that beastly spirit possessed him? These questions would have to wait until later. The Thief brought his index and middle finger to his lips, kissed them, and then placed them on Ryou's. It was an old tradition, one he vaguely recalled his father doing before he would go out for a raid. Somehow those ancient, private traditions never really left him.

"Be careful," Ryou whispered.

"Of course. I can't allow either of us to die, you know." He smiled and he hoped there was some confidence shown there. "You need to get stronger. The madness took a dangerous hold over you. I have a feeling that won't be the last possession it will try on us. It knows now that we know much, and it may suspect that I have been spying on it for some time."

"Which is why you need to be even more careful. If it's able to torture the Pharoah like this, I don't want it getting its claws into you."

He gave a dry, bitter laugh. "Please, I'm far more difficult to catch than he is." The Thief turned away and allowed himself to rise into the body again. He was sitting in the same green, dusty Jeep, staring out the window at rocky outcrops poking out of distant sands. He blinked and saw that Marik had his head leaning against him. He gave Marik's arm a small squeeze, mindful not to make him jump this time, and smiled as Marik's violet eyes met his.

"Is everything alright?" Marik asked.

The Thief nodded. "We're getting close, aren't we? I can feel it." He could feel the dark presence ahead like a tightness where the Millennium Ring sat against his chest. He wasn't alone either; the atmosphere in the vehicle was thick with apprehension. He was fairly certain that his Ring had glowed again while he had fought the parasitic shadow in Ryou's mind, but no one gave dirty looks this time. They were all focused on what they would find at the chamber ahead.

The Thief already had a good idea of what they would find. He bit his lip at the dark, frightful memories and resisted the urge to make Rishid turn the vehicle around. The damned Pharoah better appreciate all the hard work it took to free him. A life for a life, so to speak. He had been a fool to ever make such a ridiculous promise.