Even though the figure's touch made Yugi melt under his ghostly hands, he was surprised when his imaginary Yami withdrew from him. The shadow looked back at the boy, the darkness gone from his eyes. Yugi saw the absence of what was once want and was anxious to find out what was going to happen next.

/Yami?/, he called to the pharaoh through the mind link, the real one who he desperately want to be with at the moment.

/Be brave Yugi/, he called back

/What?!/

"Follow me love,"the underdressed illusion purred. He began to walk down the dark corridor, full well knowing that Yugi would follow him. And sure enough Yugi followed, for fear of being left alone in the dark. He was led down what felt like steps, due to several stumbles while descending. The shadow guided him down a darkened hallway at the end of the landing and stopped in front of a door. The figure then disappeared into tiny wisps before slowly veering away.

/Are you behind the door Yami?/

/No, but I believe their something important in this room Yugi/

/How do you know the room isn't trapped?…./

/Trust me Yugi/

Yugi opened the door, revealing the room behind it. It was dimly lit and it seemed to be empty. /This room is empty Yami, no good./,Yugi stepped into the room, preferring the dim lighting over the complete darkness.

/Or so it seems Yugi. Look around the room carefully/,The pharaoh pointed out.

/Uhm.. okay../, the boy spun in his position at the center of the room. He didn't see anything that made the room stand out in a specific way. In fact, searching for this factor was making him dizzy.

/I don't see anything special about this room./he mind linked to the other. The shorter teen continued his inspection of the room over at the back wall.

Suddenly he felt his right foot sink into the ground underneath him. He looked down to see he had stepped on a weak brick in the flooring. It was strange. The brick moved, unlike the others that remained in place. When Yugi raised his foot it popped back up, and when he lowered his foot, it sank right back down. The ancient flooring behaved somewhat like….

/A secret button?/

/Great work Yugi! Now press more firmly on it and see if it activates something./Yami praised his hikari, sending vibrations of love along the mind link.

/I just hope it's safe.../

/Please trust me love. I would never let you get hurt by telling you to do something that come with a negative consequence./ Yami assured the other.

Yugi slammed his foot on the brick making it sink through the floor this time staying. Soon after the room began to rumble and shake. The walls began to change and debris fell from them.

/What did I do?!/

/Just wait little one/

The door of the room slammed shut on its own and disappeared, making Yugi jump in his spot of standing.

/I'm guessing that's supposed to happen?/

/Yes/

Followed by the absence of the door was the introduction of another, formed from the stone wall on the other side of the room, written on it, a message in glyphs.

/What does it say? Is it okay for me to go in?/Yugi questioned.

/It says, 'The Door of Trial.' It's safe Yugi/, the pharaoh countered. Yugi opened the door before quickly going through and closing it behind him. The door sent him to a chamber on the other side of the puzzle that not even his darker half had been to before. The chamber looked like Atem's throne room but it was empty. No servant, no royal guards, nothing but the items remaining there.

/Well this is strange../

"Tell me about it../,Yami sarcastically responded from the other side of the room. "Yami?", Yugi broke the silence,"What are you doing here. I mean, what are we doing here?", he asked, striding over to the other."Well… while you were busy trying to conquer your fear the dark with my guidance, I was trying to find the five brothers and a safe place for us in the puzzle.",Yami responded.

"And..?"

"All the rooms and chamber I checked were booby trapped and led to misleading passageways. This is the only chamber besides our soul room hallway and the shadow monsters' chamber that is safe. Well.. so far",Yami stated.

"Ack, at this rate it'll take five thousand years to find your body.",Yugi groaned. "Really Yugi, five thousand years?",the pharaoh chuckled.

"Heh.."

"Let's search for clues in here. There has be something useful in here.",Yami suggested. "I'll search the throne area, you search the far corners",Yugi added.

After ten minutes of searching, the two teens met at the center of the room to regroup on their findings. "Any luck Yami?",Yugi asked. "No, I'm sorry",the taller teen apologized,"And you?"

"I found this.",Yugi answered, holding out his hand to reveal a whistle of some sort."What use is that Yugi?", Yami's eyebrows furrowed slightly, confused to why his light would consider the item in his hand important.

"Well, we'll never know unless we give it a try…", the shorter boy said, in attempt to cajole the other.

"I guess it wouldn't",Yami responded.

Yugi blew hard into the whistle, the sound much too high for either of the two to hear. They waited for something to happen, but only lay in wait for complete silence and stillness.'Well, I guess it really is useless..",Yugi said looking down at the whistle in disappointment. Yami noticed the sudden change in emotion and felt bad for his little one.

"Yugi, I need you to believe that we can do this. We'll do it together",Yami said trying to bring Yugi's spirits back up."But, but, we're not getting anywhere doing what we're doing",Yugi answered sadly.

/Yugi….. believe../Yami said warmly over their mind link. He looked into his light's eyes with passion, smiling his loving smile to the other. His sweet whispers and comforting words were cut short when a cloud of sparkles and dust began to rain down in the center of the room, a few feet from the two teens. Emerging from the enchanted debris was none other than a puny kuriboh.

KURI! KURI!

"Kuriboh?", The two boys exclaimed in unison

/Did I just do that/

/Blow it again, Yugi/

Yugi blew into the whistle again and another kuriboh appeared in the room. "It's a kuriboh whistle!",Yugi cheered with excitement."Maybe the kuribohs can help us find the five brothers,Yami."

"Then we're going to need a lot more than just two of them.",Yami chuckled."I'll just summon more of them",Yugi responded, before blowing into the whistle 3 more time. There were now a total of five kuribohs in the throne room with Yugi and the pharaoh.

KURI! KURI!

The kuribohs surrounded Yugi, gently nuzzling him."Yami… hee..heee….there's so many of them..hee..heeee!"Yugi giggled.

"But not enough to protects us from danger."Yami said. Yugi blew into the whistle once more, but this time with no effect. Kuribohs were no longer appearing into the room; the amount in the room remained five.

"Uhm, Yami?"

"It's not working anymore?"

"Yup…."

"I guess five is the limit, but why? What could five Kuribohs do for us?", asked

"The Kuribohs have saved us in the most desperate of situations. They helped us even when our enemies thought they were weak and powerless.",Yugi answered

KURI! KURI!

"See? And Kuribohs also show more emotions than all the other monsters,which can really be helpful. They're like furry little helpers."Yugi added looking up the Kuribohs with a smile.

Yami took this into consideration. They don't seem all that reliable at first, there's only five of them- wait a minute. This is starting to sound all too familiar. It sounded like the riddle they read on the scroll."That's it!",Yami put forth.

"Huh?"

"I've got it now Yugi. The Kuribohs. They're the five brothers!", he said with complete confidence.

"Alright!",Yugi cheered.

KURI!

"Hm?",Yami looked at the kuriboh in confusion to the cute gestures it was making."Hold on Yami. I think Kurboh's trying to tell us something.

KURI! KURI! KURI!

In the kuriboh's claw a ball of light began to grow. It morphed into a raggedy looking tote bag which descended into Yugi's hand. He looked inside to find another scroll in there.

"Yami, it's another scroll,"He said, taking the other scroll out for the other to read. He took the first scroll and put in into the disheveled bag. The pharaoh unraveled the ancient script, reading it's message that said

" My spell of reinforcement will replenish your energy. I am not violent I protect you against your foes"

"What's that suppose to mean?",Yugi inquired. "I don't know, but we have to decipher what that means on our own.",Yami repled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

"So Whaddaya think was on his mind?"Joey asked a second time, being met with silence the first time asking."I don't know, but something certainly isn't right."Bakura responded.

/For once these foolish mortal are right about something. I say it's about time I got a view of what's going in the mind of that pharaoh.. heh heh./, the evil spirit of the ring thought, his sadistic cackle incessantly pulsing through Bakura's mind

/Oh dear, what could this nutter be planning now?/Bakura groaned.

/Nothing you're not used to. I think you know the drill mortal./, his dark responded, hearing his light's last thought.

Bakura groaned, shaking his head."Not this bloody mess again…",he grumbled under his breath. Yugi's friends brought their attention to the young Brit who's face screamed,"I know what's what the hell's going listen before my evil half consumes me!",to them.

"Something the matter Bakura?",Tristan asked the other."Yugi's having a battle in his mind. I think it involves the Pharaoh."Bakura stated, his last conscious words and thoughts before the spirit of the ring took over, moving to the 'steering wheel' of his body while he took the 'back seat'.

His soft,flowing, non flyaway, white hair stood at ends, and his eyes developed a sharp, mysterious look in them expressing the only difference between Bakura and his yami.

"Battle?!",Tristan exclaimed."With the pharaoh?",Te`a gasped. "Can someone tell me what's goin' on?!"Joey roared,"This doesn't make any sense!"

/What a dolt/, the spirit of the ring evilly chuckled.

The millennium ring began to glow, its spines erected and pointing towards Yugi.

/Oh boy../

/Aw man.../

/Yugi../

"Uhh… is Bakura home?",Joey asked sheepishly."You'd think you would know by now….",the spirit replied sarcastically.

"Whaddaya think ya doin' to mah pal?!"The blond growled, blocking the tomb robber from Yugi.

"Not that it's any of your business but I think it's about time I take a look at what's on that pharaoh's mind.."evil Bakura smugly answered.

"You're not getting anywhere near him",Te`a said in defense assisting Joey in keeping the spirit away from their dormant ally.

"Fools, have you not witnessed the devastation of the ring? Perhaps you haven't learned from you past", the ancient spirit cackled before chanting in hums, activating the millennium ring, allowing blinding light upon the three, forcing them to shield their eyes.

"About time I put the three of you in your place for trifling with me in the past",he said partially to himself. With more movements of his hands, he cast a spell that put the trio in chairs, duct taped and blindfolded in their seats.

"Well that wasn't too difficult..",he said evilly."Bakura you won't get away with this!",Tristan shouted.

"I've already gotten away with it, you foolish mortal!",he responded evilly calm.

The trio could only listen as the tomb robber's footsteps passed them and traveled toward Yugi.

/No/,Te`a's mind cried.

"Yugi!", she shouted."Get up, get up!"

"It's no use Te`a. Bakura won this time."Tristan said

"Your idiot friend is right little girl. There's nothing you can do now",the spirit boasted.

He held the ring up and a light shortly flashed before going away. He was separated from his host's body as he entered the shared mind of Yugi and Yami, cackling evilly.

The young Brit was left behind, regaining control over his body.

"Huh", he gasped. He could no longer feel the presence of his evil half. "Where did he go?",he uttered.

/B-Bakura…./ he called out only to be met with his own thoughts.

/he's gone/, he thought slightly worried.

And that's a wrap on chapter 4. Wish it didn't take so long. Hopefully the next won't be as long