Death: Well...this chapter might be a little rushed, but I feel much better with this story than before now that I've gotten more reviews! Thank you all!

Disclaimer: It's obvious that I own nothing but complicated ideas like this.

Chapter 3 Dirty Tricks And Turmoil Promises

=3=

With some hesitation the Signers had led the two champions to their home to the huge basement. Bruno had decided to visit during that time, and nearly spilled a cup of instant ramen when he looked up to see the two newcomers.

Jack got on Bruno's case of almost wasting a good meal. Crow went upstairs for a nice nap. Yusei was the only one who was polite enough to offer any food or drinks to their guests. Bakura turned the offer down, something about already ate beforehand while Seto requested coffee.

And now Yusei was returning to the basement with the requested coffee. He walked in as Bruno was showing Seto the computers they had on the back wall. Yusei noticed that Jack was standing off to the side of them, heating up his own instant ramen. Bakura was more or less trying to ignore he was in a random basement, doing a quick check over his D—Wheel.

"So what's your duel runner styled after?" Yusei casually asked as he walked by.

"My monster Diabound, all of us in the team have duel runners styled after our favorite monsters." Bakura replied, he sounded a little forced.

'I guess he's not used to being nice…?' The lead Signer concluded in wonder.

"Here's your coffee." Yusei set the cup beside the brunette.

"Thanks. And I should warn that he's going to be irritated for a while." Seto said, referring to his partner.

"Good to know." Yusei took his seat on the other side.

"So what are you guys doing here in Japan? Last I heard your team was going to a tournament in India, and then cancelled at the last minute." Jack inquired, opening the ramen cup and grabbed his chop sticks.

"Our leader, Atemu Pharos, needed a vacation. He was getting too stressed for the next tournament." The brunette coolly informed.

"Too stressed? What's there to be stressed about?" Jack furrowed his eyebrows in suspicion.

"Oh let's take a look at the list." Bakura spoke up before Seto could reply.

"Bakura—"

"Crazy and psychotic fan girls and over jealous duelists who want to trample you down to the dirt, the media trying to find any embarrassing scoops of you, and let's not forget that Seto and I aren't exactly two peas in a pie." The white haired duelist named off.

"You're a comedy genius." Seto rolled his eyes.

"Why you—" Bakura looked about ready to snap.

"Wait, if you guys aren't friends then why are you in a team to begin with?" Bruno all but frowned.

"…Because of Atemu. You could say he's the glue that keeps us together." It's not like Seto could say it was because they had to stick together for an eternal job.

"A successful team is a team with a strong friendship. You two couldn't just be friends with only your leader." Yusei pointed out.

"Unless they're bed buddies." Jack added before lifting up a few noodles from the chop sticks to his mouth.

"Bed buddies?" Bruno echoed.

"We're not bed buddies!" Bakura growled.

"Uhuh, your shout says otherwise." The blond retorted through a mouthful of ramen.

"Swallow before you spew." The white haired duelist scowled.

"Wipe that scar off your face."

Seto whirled his chair around, but before he could tell the other tall boy to stop the thief hissed.

"You know, this makes me wonder exactly why girls and boys drool over the floor for you. You're nothing but a jackass." Bakura's eye twitched as he crossed his arms.

"Excuse me? No one tells off Jack Atlas!"

Referring himself in third person was not good in Yusei's head. The blond Signer had done so in their duel in the Fortune Cup Finals. The lead Signer didn't pay much mind to it, he was concentrating more on winning while trying to get a point through his friend.

"Jack—"

"Stay out of this Yusei!" Jack angrily set his ramen cup, spilling a portion of it onto the floor.

Yusei was about to reply but Bakura already opened his mouth.

"You see, you just proved my theory. Jack Atlas is actually Jack—Ass." The notorious thief grinned widely, feeling very proud of himself right now.

The temperature went down below several degrees. Everyone had the same thought: Hell froze over. Crow quickly squatted down where he stood, which happened to be behind the furious blonde's precious duel runner. While Crow and Bruno cowered, Yusei held a firm gaze at his friend, warning Jack that if he were to raise a fist then he would interfere.

"Why don't you come over 'ere so I can wring that little neck of yours?" the blond narrowed his eyes with a glare that rival Seto's cold glare of death.

"No thanks, I'm good where I am." Bakura gloated.

Seto immediately recognized the plan set in motion. The brunette stood up before Jack could reply. Startled, the blond blinked in shock as Seto made three leaps to Bakura's side, grabbing his teammate's arm and roughly dragging him upstairs.

"Hey!" the thief struggled, but was in vain for the former high priest had an iron grip.

"You're not going to pull a dirty trick, Itja." Translation: Seto wasn't going to allow Bakura to pull a knife on a Star Child.

Even if that Star Child was a bit immature with ego problems.

The Signers watched in strange sense that there was something more to this situation with the way Seto was reacting. They heard Bakura's yelps and screams of curses and they briefly wondered what was happening. Half the time Bakura was speaking in a language they didn't know, it was deep and seemed ancient.

But within a few moments Seto returned with a bag. The bag was oddly shaped, giving them the impression that it held small objects. By the looks of the size, there were a lot of them. Yusei frowned when he recognized the small, rectangular shape of pocket knives. He stood up with a firm expression.

"Tell me, why does he carry weapons around?" Yusei asked in an angry tone.

"There are many reasons why our team doesn't socialize. Bakura is one of them. He carries them around simply because he's a paranoid freak and wouldn't hesitate to pull a knife on anyone. He's also protective over Atemu, the only reason why he's on the team." Seto explained as het stored the bag into his duel runner's small compartments.

"Protective how? I mean, the guy seems to loath people." Crow peered over Jack's D—Wheel.

"Tch, just as I suspected. They're bud buddies." The blond mumbled before taking another mouthful of his meal.

"While it's true that Bakura loathes people in general, Atemu is an exception." Seto turned to Jack, his cold gaze made the blond to pause.

"And I would appreciate it if you would refrain from using that term. Bakura isn't the only one who isn't afraid to pull off any dangerous tricks."

The blond wordlessly continued to finish his ramen cup.

=3=

Atemu was dreaming. He was dreaming of his days with Yuugi, the quiet, peaceful days where they both sat around and just talked. It was rare for them to relax and just share conversations that had nothing to do with their enemies or recovering his lost memories. But even after all of that, these peaceful moments with his aibou were one his most cherished memories.

There were other moments within his life that were special to him. From the few times his father had time away from his job and spent time with him, to the rare peaceful days with Yuugi. And the most recent memories he began to cherish were the few times where he literally had Bakura in his lap, purring contently like a cat. Sometimes Seto would be there with his long arms wrapped around both of them.

But his loyal priest never hugged their once mortal enemy from behind, but neither minded the small contact. To them they were happy when Atemu was happy, and he always graced them with a smile or whoever was closer he'd pet their hair affectionately. Bakura of course would get annoyed of being treated like a pet. But now and then he gave into Atemu's adorable pout and let his hair be petted.

"Um…mou hitori no boku, when you have all of your memories back, you'll still remember us, right?" His aibou in this particular memory timidly asked him.

"I'll never forget you and our friends, aibou. All of you have taught me the importance of friendship, something that I lacked of before you solved the puzzle." Was his reply with an honest smile.

"But you helped us even though we had no idea about you and your powers." The boy frowned with growing guilt.

"Aibou, I only did that because under those circumstances you had been hurt. You wanted to help your friends so I did it for you. And about half the time it was to protect you, you are my other half and I will do anything in my power to protect you." He assured with confidence.

The kind words seemed to be the answer Yuugi needed to hear. They shared a smile between them. It was at this point that the dream changed. Yuugi seemed frozen, as if time had stopped. Atemu noticed the shadows creeping along, surrounding them. He knew what was happening, but it made him feel uneasy that his aibou dream or not, was being swallowed by the very darkness he tried to protect him from.

'You know you shouldn't dwell in the past so much. You'll only depress yourself.' A dark, female voice echoed from the shadows.

Atemu couldn't stop a chuckle in response.

"You're one to talk, Nightshade." He smirked as the creature revealed herself from the shadows.

Nightshade Dragon was a syncro monster that came to him three years prior in a series of dreams. At first he was frightened of her, for she was intimidating to look at. Nightshade was as dark as night. She had a narrow head with intense red eyes and her two main fangs reached her lower jaw. She had a long neck that could curl and twist much like a snake's. Her long body easily reached twenty feet from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail.

The dragon might be long, but she certainly wasn't fragile. Her chest was wide, narrowing down some towards her rear legs (she didn't have forelegs like most dragons did, which Atemu found fascinating). The legs at least had some muscle being the only limbs she had other than her wings. When the legs were fully extended the claws met the halfway mark of her tail.

Besides her sharp teeth, intense red eyes, her claws were what really intimidated Atemu. The talons were big enough to penetrate through his body. And there were three talons, plus one at the heel of her foot. He calculated, and if she wanted she could impale him with one foot with the four talons ripping him into four big chunks of flesh.

Not that he would actually die. But still, he didn't want to cross the line with her.

What impressed him though were her wings. They were thick in width, and impressively long in length. When they met she was proud to say her wingspan was ten feet. They were half the length of her entire body, but they didn't look small for her. The wings reminded him much of a bat's, only the base of the leather skin didn't extend to her legs. Instead the base of the leather attaching to her body reached just before her hind quarters.

All in all, Nightshade Dragon was a feminine yet strong dragon. She was fierce in battle and gentle like a caring mother to him at times. The bond between them grew stronger when Atemu realized that she was much like him. She was the balance between light and dark, she apparently had two forms. She was currently in her darker half of the soul. She had to earn her other form in a strong battle against the purest soul of light.

That was their contract. He help her find her light, and she'll help him go through his change from light to dark then back to light. In a way she was also the reason why Atemu formed up his team, a very unlikely team, but they were unbeatable none of the less. The Three Nobleman worked much like the game of duel monsters itself.

Atemu was the deck, as the leader and his strong belief in the heart of the cards provided them a solution out of a tight corner. Seto was the hand. He can quickly manipulate his monsters to have enough to summon higher leveled monsters such as Blue Eyes. Bakura was the graveyard, for his strategy most of the time was so that their graveyards would become nonexistent or his destiny board that spelled "FINAL" that automatically ended the game in their favor.

'I am at least trying to get us out of this prison. I'm actually missing that petty little thief that you call your lover.' Nightshade snorted.

Atemu narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "What have you done?"

'Oh nothing too bad, boy. You know all I ever do is either pace or glare at people. I've changed my tactics a little. I'm trying to figure a way to shut down those energy shields from the inside.' The dragon let out a rumbled laugh, her hot breath hit him and he blanched at the heat.

"Please don't cause too much commotion. I don't know how long this body will last after the last experiment." Atemu growled at her.

'I know. But it's hard not to respond to those Star Children. They have two of them now, that little girl with the fairy dragon.' Nightshade said.

Of course, there were a few glitches within their contract. For one Nightshade had the uncanny ability to take control over his body at random times. Sometimes he was given the chance to see what she was doing, able to respond to the other two guardians but nothing else. Other times he was pushed aside into his mind and unable to do a thing until she grants him full control once again.

The downfall of this was that when she had total control was that her voice over rode his own. It wasn't like his voice at all, from what Seto had once told him. 'It was like those men Marik controlled with the Sennen Rod, you can hear two voices but in your case hers rules out your voice almost completely'.

"Then…wait, you said the girl with the fairy dragon?" Atemu glanced up.

'Yes.' Was the hissed reply.

"She should be able to communicate with you without actually speaking. It's her power to speak to monsters, so this should be easy." He smirked as she tilted her head at him.

'…I could kiss you if it were possible.'

"And I think it would be slightly awkward." Atemu let out a nervous laugh.

=3=

Aki had tried to turn Atemu's attention to her. She ran out of options after sending a few threats (it was only to intimidate him) and they did nothing. Some half an hour earlier she had noticed that he was stirring, and opened his eyes but didn't get up or move from his position on the side.

She knew he was awake, Ruka said she could see his eyes. The younger Signer still can, but he wouldn't turn his gaze to either of them. Aki eventually gave up and sat down on her bed, letting out a sigh of frustration.

"Maybe it has something to do with whatever those priests did to him the past few days." The psychic duelist wondered out loud.

"Possibly..." Ruka shrugged.

Suddenly there was a rustle of fabric. It took Aki a moment to realize that the rustling came from the cell across from hers. She perked up when she watched in shock as he tried to stand up. He struggled for a bit, and had to reach out to the wall on the other side for support.

Nightshade was having trouble to move. She knew what the Holy Priests had done, she didn't try to block out what was happening unlike the boy. The legs were weak hell, the whole body was weak. What little he had in the stomach wanted to come out through the mouth.

She did not like this. There was no way Atemu could brush this one off like he did the previous experiments. Those damned Holy Priests had gone too far this time. Nightshade found herself kneeling on the floor, the legs had given out.

The pain had intensified, spreading throughout the entire body. It was then she knew, it was too soon for this body to be even moving. When she had control of Atemu's body, she felt the pain. It had really hurt just by lying there, but moving around made it worse.

The pain increased so much she clawed at the wall with one hand, unable to hear the Signers as they called out to her. Nightshade clenched her jaws tightly, willing herself not to scream. She knew that this body had low energy now, and briefly she raised her head to meet the smaller girl's gaze.

'P—please, help us…help us…' Nightshade pleaded out to the girl.

But before Ruka could reply, Atemu's body gave out once again. She was unable to sit up now.

Nightshade wasn't sure, but she had a feeling she was sprawled out on the floor. It was harder to resist the urge to scream. Nightshade lay there, twitching as she let out a feral growl before it turned into a scream of pure agony.

Ruka whimpered at the scream, immediately covering her ears. While she was trying to drown out the ear splitting screams, the plea repeated in her head. That voice sounded female, more feminine, and if possible darker than a human voice should be.

There was no doubt about it. This Atemu person had some strong connection to a monster that can take control of him. But it seemed that they miscalculated how strong his body was, and the creature pleaded to her. The desperate voice reminded Ruka of a wounded animal, an animal that was once strong and graceful. But now it was reduced to a weakened state, so weak that it could do nothing but scream.

As soon as the screaming started, it ended. The creature didn't have the energy to even scream, as it laid there whimpering and sobbing. Atemu's chest rose up and down rather fast, gasping to regain lost oxygen in a loss of control over the body's instinct reaction to this intense pain.

Even though they weren't making eye contact, Ruka could still hear that voice.

'Please…we need to escape…we have to…help us…'

The young Signer stood up and made her way to the energy shield. She was gathering up the courage to reply but the pleas were nearly breaking her into tears.

'Please…please…' the voice was getting weaker now, barely able to get the words out.

Ruka watched as those eyes began to close. The tears began to fall down her cheeks.

"I promise we'll get you out! Just hang in there, we'll find a way! Stay strong!" the young Signer cried.

"Ruka…?" Aki tilted her head in confusion, not sure if something else was going on right now or it was the girl's pledge to help ease his pain.

Nightshade smiled as she heard the promise loud and clear. And with one final saying she let out a sigh.

'Thank you…thank you, little one.'

Even in her turmoil to see anything in pain, Ruka smiled at the hope in the voice.

=3=

Death: I think Ruka's power to communicate with the cards is only effective when she's holding the cards themselves or the spirits of the cards come to her. But in this case, Nightshade was in control of a human body so she couldn't see what Nightshade looked like.

1) It's within Bakura's nature to seek out someone within a group that would be the easiest target to provoke. I mean, really, he gave Seto a reason to go to Egypt in the final season! And that was a hard feat, since Seto wouldn't go in the first place. Yet he did. Why? Because Bakura is a smooth talker, ok not entirely smooth but you get what I mean. As for what the knives looked like, just picture the things the police confiscated from the Joker in 'The Dark Knight', but twice as many.

2) Nightshade Dragon: I'm sorry there won't be any drawings of her for a while. I've tried many times to draw her but I'm not good with creatures...I have an artist on DA in mind for a request, but I don't know if she'll want to do it or not. But if anyone who is willing to try, please contact me through review or private message, and give me your account name on DA so I can find you.

3) I have been asked how long I've been into Yugioh, and which series. After all most of my fanfics are Death Note with one Bleach, and one Code Geass. I've been a Yugioh follower since the beginning. Well, not entirely, I didn't like the first season but there were a few touching moments. And it was annoying as hell that the "Friendship speeches" and "all about monsters" was repeated over and over, then the Oricalchos came along and blew all that to pieces. I have to say that's my favorite season second to the very last (I'm a nerd for Egyptian culture).

And I'm sort of a late boomer of a fan of 5D's. I HATED Yugioh GX, they went on too freakin' long and with some wild drama from left to right, so why would I give 5D's a chance? Well over this summer I was bored, and gave it a chance. Just once. And, I grew to like it. It's like the original, but minus the "friendship speeches" and "all about monsters". Well, it sort of is but it's tuned down A LOT. So I instantly grew to like it, even though I couldn't help but notice that Yusei was kinda like Atemu but maybe not as naive, and Jack was like Seto but...more out of control? Maybe? Yea, sounds about right.

Anyway, just thought I'd share about my inspiration about this story. I hope you enjoyed reading and this will probably be my last update for this story for two weeks, finals are coming up. So please review! :3