Star: Hey people! How's it going? Two updates in the span of a week! Isn't that a great achievement for me? Of course, don't expect another update this fast. I've been killing myself…well…ok, so I'm lying. This chapter was actually pretty easy to write. Maybe it's because I haven't been pushing myself to finish a chapter in a while.

Either way, I'm happy that I've been able to update this soon. The next update will be for Bright Shadows. So, expect that maybe at the beginning of April. But for now, enjoy this long awaited chapter of A Mask Over My Heart.

Disclaimer: Don't own, can't sue

"speech"

'thoughts'

"radio/phone/walkie talkie conversation"

"Latin language"

--------Working Hard for Tomorrow-------

The room was silent as hundreds of eyes stared at the giant, blank screen on the wall. Occasionally, the crackle of static would be heard over the intercom, but other than that it was quiet. Everyone was holding their breath in anticipation of good news, of anything that would give them a hint that their plans had gone well. Suddenly, one of the computers started beeping loudly and the man in front of it began typing a code in. He then smiled, and opened a link to the giant screen. "Satelite signal confirmed," he said as an image of an empty looking airfield appeared. The people let out a loud cheer; they had managed to disable the satelite jammers! Now they could keep track of all activity to keep their agents safe.

"Good job, everyone," Mai said from a balcony above the people. "Now send a message to the M.A.B. telling them to get their jets ready for takeoff in ten minutes." The people nodded and began to run around the room in a flurry of activities. Mai watched them for a second before turning back into the office behind her. She glanced to her left where Yugi was leaning against the glass pane, looking down at the people in the "Pup and the M.A.B agents will be keeping an eye on the power plant incase something goes wrong," she told him.

He turned his head to look at her, then turned away again. "We've got half an hour, at the most, to get the agents across those hills after the drug lords arrive at 8:30. Then another half hour for the troops attacking the weapons base. I don't like the way it's so rushed," he said, walking away from the glass pane. Going over to one of the computers, he watched as the Control member pulled up a satelite image of the surrounding topography.

"Well, there was no other way. We have a limited time to take out the drug lords," Mai replied. "The only other time we would have been able to attack would have been in a week. Mahaado felt that it was too risky to wait that long."

"It's risky enough sending a squadron of this size to two bases in the span of an hour," Yugi argued. "And we've just gotten a clear view of the weapon's base and the thirty surrounding miles. So that gives us fifteen minutes to go over the area and send the information to the troops. Then they have ten to adjust their battle plan to accommodate the new information. And then they have only five minutes to make sure that each soldier understands the new plan. And the time limit for the pilots is even shorter. We have forty five men per squad, and twelve squads. That's five hundred and fifty soldiers, plus seventy pilots. That's six hundred and twenty men total. By the time everyone is aware of the new plans, the enemy could have already detected us."

"Kitsune, we have a problem," Ryou said as he ran up the stairs from the balcony in the "About ten miles from the second base is a large hill that dips straight into a gulf. Squad 7 won't be able to go over it."

"See?" Yugi said, looking at Mai. "The problems just keep piling up. Now Squad 13 has to spend even more time trying to figure out how to get past. Which will leave our left side vulnerable, unless we divert jets to guard them. But then that would leave even more troops without backup." He was beginning to wish that he hadn't skipped school for this.

"We can figure out a way past this," she reassured him. "White, are the tanks able to cross the gulf?"

"Barely. It's not so steep that they can't drive down, but getting up might be the hard part," Ryou answered as he looked at the sheet of paper in his hands. "The jeeps might have more trouble, and it's impossible for the ones on foot."

"Have the foot soldiers join up with Squads 12 and 5," Mai said after some thought. "The tanks can go down, and so can the jeeps." Ryou nodded and ran back out and down the stairs. "See, it's not impossible," Mai said, turning towards Yugi.

"We'll just see," he said, walking out to the balcony and down the stairs. Crossing the room quickly, he headed towards the third row of computers. He stood behind the technicians for a few minutes, watching them pull up satelite images of the thirteen troops for the M.A.B and U.S.A.B. So far it looked as if Squad 7 was the only one having trouble. The other squads were advancing quickly across the Mexican landscape. Looking up at the giant screen, he looked at the images of the weapons base. The people on the base seemed to be running around, preparing for something. Yugi narrowed his eyes; could they have already found out of their attack? It was possible, since the power plant had to have warned them about the satelite jammers malfunctioning.

The good thing was that, other than a few tanks and a shit load of weapons, neither base seemed to have strong defenses. And, unless they had planes or underground tunnels, there was not much option for escape. So everything should go well. But that was only if Pegasus didn't have soldiers waiting for the Alter soldiers. But, so far, none of the satellites had picked up on any life forms surrounding the bases. Which meant that there were no troops waiting in ambush. But one could never be too sure, especially when it came to Pegasus. That man definitely had something planned in case of an attack. The only thing he could think of, other than having troops to attack the Alter soldiers, was if he had rigged the bases to explode.

Explosions were a favorite of Pegasus. The last two bases that Pegasus had dealt with had mysteriously blown up. They weren't very important to the mission, so Alter had ignored them. But if these two bases blew up, Alter would be back at square one. They'd have to work even harder to find out what exactly Pegasus was planning. All they knew at the moment was that he had nuclear weapons hidden in the mountains of Indonesia. 'Where' was the question they were trying to figure out. And where exactly were they being produced, because shipments only came into Indonesia. Never out. So Yugi was hoping that these bases weren't detonated.

He involuntarily shivered as he thought back to the first time he had met Pegasus when he was twelve. In that warehouse in the Russian wilderness. Gripping his right arm, he tried to block the memories of that night. Images of his fallen team mates filled his mind as his whole body burned from the fire that raged all around him. He was completely lost in pain as he watched the blood flow from his burnt body. He cried as he tried to forget everything that just happened. He then looked up into cold eyes and a cruel smile before they disappeared. And then he heard himself scream as a bomb went off on the floor beneath him.

"-it…Kit…Kitsune!" Yugi jerked out of his memories as he felt Ryou shaking him. Turning to look at his friend, he noticed the worried look the other had. "Are you ok?"

Yugi looked at him for a second before walking away towards the first row of computers. "How many jets have taken off already?" he asked, leaning over so he could see the data on the jets. Everything seemed to be in order so far.

"Twenty two planes from the M.A.B., and twelve from the U.S.A.B.," Ryou answered, the concerned look still on his face.

"What's taking the U.S. soldiers so long? Don't they know we're on a tight schedule?" Yugi asked angrily.

"One of the planes had a sudden drop in tire pressure on it's front tires," Ryou said as he pulled up the report on the computer. "They are repairing it right now, but with that plane out, the groups had to be shifted. So now squad 8 has only 3 planes for it's perimeter."

"Wonderful! What else can go wrong?" the young agent stormed back towards Mai's office. This was not a good start for this mission. If anything else went wrong, they could just forget about the whole thing completely. Little problems always added up to a failed mission in Yugi's opinion. Although he had never personally been part of a failed mission, he had seen enough missions go bust to know about it. And he wasn't about to break his perfect record over something so stupid as a bad landscape and tire pressure. "Scarab, how are the troops fairing?" he asked as he entered the office.

"So far so good," the Egyptian agent answered, looking up from one of the computers. "Squad 7 has just managed to join up with 12 and 5. The tanks are now attempting to cross the gulf."

"How many agents were with 7?"

"Eight, including Cyclone. And the rest were soldiers. Two agents stayed behind with the tanks and jeeps just incase something happened." His headset crackled for a few seconds before the sound of a male speaking Spanish was heard. Malik nodded and typed numbers on the computer. The screen image changed to just a few miles before the weapons base. "Kitsune, one of the jets picked up on this strange formation in the landscape about ten miles before the drug base."

"What kind of 'strange formation'?" Yugi asked, quickly rushing over to look at the screen.

"The kind that moves," Malik answered, watching the object drift across the screen. Zooming in the satelite image, he focused on the object. "I can't tell what it is."

"White, have someone scan the object for life forms or radio waves," Yugi ordered. Ryou nodded and ran back down the stairs to the "Why didn't our scanners pick up on this before?"

"Because it didn't appear until just now," Mai answered. "A few minutes ago, we picked up a change in the topography. A piece of land was suddenly raised eight feet. It stayed up for about three minutes, before it lowered itself again. We tried to find the source, but were unable. Pup is looking into if any electricity came from it."

Ryou ran back in, carrying print outs of the object. "We picked up on radio waves coming from it. It's not sending them, it's receiving them."

"From where?" Yugi asked, looking over the papers.

"We don't know," Ryou answered with a sigh. "But it seems that every ten seconds it gives of a tiny bit of heat. When it does, it stops moving."

Malik began talking to someone through his headset again, typing more coordinates into his computer. "It's moving south by south west at a speed of ten miles per hour. It looks to be seven feet high, ten feet long, and seven feet long. The pilots see three long mounds on top of it, but it's too dark for it to be seen properly."

Ryou looked over the paper, and pointed at something on top of the moving object. "Those are what give off the heat."

They all looked over the images of the moving object, trying to figure out what exactly it was holding. Mai's eyes suddenly widened as she gasped. "Wait! That shape is very familiar."

The agent's eyes widened as well as they recognized the object. "No fucking way!" Malik yelled, zooming in as much as he could on his computer. "Those sneaky bastards!"

"Scarab, send a command to all jets to watch it closely. Don't let it out of our sight! And send a message to all squads with in ten miles to change their approach immediately. I don't want any troops near that thing," Yugi ordered as he headed out to the balcony. Malik nodded and began to relay the message. "Attention, everyone!" he called out loudly. Everyone in the stopped what they were doing and turned to him. "We have a big problem now. The enemy has sent out a robotic missile launcher."

The whole room gasped then began to talk loudly. How did they miss that? Where did it come from? How could they have gotten their hands on something so sophisticated? "This was obviously Pegasus' plan from the start!" Yugi continued. "I want that thing disabled as quickly as possible. Jam the radio signals, and, if possible, reprogram it for our use. Have it done in ten minutes, or our troops will be in big trouble." The people nodded and began to run around, trying to complete their new orders.

"Sir," a female said as she ran up towards the balcony. "Our satellites have picked up on two more launchers that just came out of the ground. They are about five hundred yards apart and heading in different directions."

"White, I want a diagram of both of the bases on the main screen at all times. There must be a pattern to where these things are coming from. Find it, then have Pup and his team cut power to that area." Ryou nodded, and turned on his own headset, contacting Pup and giving him the order. Yugi sighed, and gripped the railing tightly. He really didn't like this mission. Their only hope now was if they were able to take out the missile launchers. But they didn't know what else Pegasus had in store.

A few minutes passed and three more launchers appeared on the screen. Three for the weapons base, and three for the drug base. Pup had managed to shut the power for the rest of the launch ramps before anymore could come out. But six launchers were still a lot to deal with. They didn't know if the missiles were aimed at their planes or at the troops. Either way, it was bad. But Yugi wasn't so worried about the planes. They could send out decoys; the ground troops couldn't. He smiled a bit when he was notified that two launchers had been taken out. Now only four more to worry about. If only that was all they had to deal with.

Time passed, and everything seemed to be going well. The drug lords had arrived at the drug base by helicopter a few minutes before 8:30. They had been taken inside one of the small buildings, and had yet to come out. There were only two ways of escape from the buildings, and Alter had troops approaching from both sides. One of the officers had confirmed that there was one escape tunnel leading from the base, but it was still in range of the troops. If they attempted to escape by air, the jets would take them out quickly.

"Things are going smoothly, Sir," Malik said after he finished talking to one of the squad leaders. "Squads 1, 3, 4, and 9 are in place around the drug base. 2, 5, 6, and 8 are around the weapons base. The remaining squads have flanked around the perimeters of both bases as back up." It was now after ten in Mexico, and the Alter troops had finally managed to get in place. More than half an hour after they were supposed to, all thanks to the multiple changes they had had to make.

"Has squad 7 reformed yet?"

"They are awaiting the arrival of the jeeps. But the foot soldiers and the two tanks are together."

Yugi was about to respond when all the computers started beeping, and the people in the began frantic yelling. Rushing over to an empty computer, Yugi pulled up the satelite images of the drug base. Hundreds of men were rushing out of the base, firing wildly at the Alter troops. So the battle had finally started. "Scarab, have the attack begin at the weapon's base. We're not waiting anymore."

All of Control watched as their troops fought against the enemy at both bases. The battle had been going on for an hour now, and it was after eleven p.m. The jets were constantly firing missiles at the warehouses on the drug base, hoping to take out all the goods. The drug lords suddenly ran out of the building where they had been meeting. Running across the air field, they entered one of the warehouses. The Alter soldiers began to chase after them, firing at the guards that had surrounded the entrance. Just then, a large tank burst from inside the warehouse, driving directly towards the group of soldiers. It began to fire multiple rounds into the group as it made its way down the tarmac. The soldiers retreated as fast as they could, but many began to fall all around it.

"Damnit, take out that tank!" Yugi yelled into his earpiece. An American lieutenant responded quickly, and Yugi got madder. "You have planes! Fire a missile at the tank, and destroy it!" Cutting off communication, he looked over at Malik. "How are they doing at the weapons base?"

"Three tanks are down, and two squads have been annihilated." Pulling up the image on a large screen inside the office, he zoomed in on the main warehouse. "The enemy is doing a good job defending this building." The sound of gunfire and yells filled the room as everyone watched as an Alter tank drove straight into a smaller warehouse. Fire began to spread all around the inside of the building while soldiers ran in. Another gun fight began as the soldiers began to take out the enemy. Part of the building suddenly exploded as a hand grenade went off. Yugi scowled as he watched his troops get blown up. Another grenade went off in another part of the base, and the agent felt like ripping his hair out.

Switching his attention to the battle at the drug base, he saw that the soldiers were still firing at the tank. The jets were trying to lock on to it, but they are also trying to avoid being locked on by the enemy's missiles. A black car suddenly sped out of a garage, and began to head for the gates. The soldiers near the gates began to fire upon it, but the car weaved in and out of their range. Finally one of the bullets managed to hit the back left tire, and the car swerved across the air field. The driver regained control again and the car began to head for the fence. It crashed into the fence, tearing it apart as it drove across the land.

Three jeeps began to chase after it, firing all they had at the car. Bullet holes riddled the car body, but it kept moving. The jeeps chased the car all around the area, but they never could get a good aim on it. Five minutes went by and still not one jeep had managed to land a good shot on the car. The sun roof on the top of the black car then opened, and two large men stood up. They pulled out semi automatic machine guns and began to fire back at the jeeps. The Alter jeeps began to dodge the fire as best as they could without toppling over one of the large mounds on the ground. One of the jeeps was suddenly hit through the windshield on the driver's side, and it spun out of control then slid to a stop. The soldiers inside began to frantically run around, apparently moving the injured driver. The black car, noticing their predicament, began to race towards them. The two men started to fire on the soldiers around the jeep. The men had no time to fire back, and started to run behind the car for protection. Three men were shot down, and the black car spun around to aim at them again.

The other two jeeps sped as fast as they could towards the car, hoping to hit it head on. The black car took off towards the left, away from the soldiers. One jeep surrounded the stalled one to give their fellow soldiers a chance to get back inside. The second continued to chase after the car around the desert. The two other jeeps then joined it, driving beside each other as they yelled out orders to each other. They then split up and two began to approach from the sides. They sped up faster than the car, and suddenly drove in front of it. Having no other choice, the car veered to the right and turned around. But before it could go anywhere, it's two front tires were blown out. The car swerved wildly on the desert, before it hit a small hill. Flying through the air, it crashed and flipped upside down a bit before lying still.

Everything was still on the screen for a few seconds, and everyone in the Control room was holding their breath. Slowly, the Alter soldiers climbed out of their jeeps and headed towards the overturned car, guns at the ready. The soldiers suddenly tensed and pointed their guns towards the car. Four men began to climb out of the wreckage, and raised their hands in surrender. The intercom came to life as one of the soldiers reported, "Drug lords have been captured." Everyone cheered and Yugi let out a sigh of relief. It was about time they got an advantage.

"Good job," he said, turning away from the screen and heading over to a computer. "Have a helicopter bring-"

"Sir! Incoming missile!"

Yugi had barely turned around when the screen was filled with a bright light and the sound of an explosion reverberated through the whole room. He stood there, mouth agape, as the smoke began to rise from the ground. Frenzied calls began to come in through the intercoms, all the generals trying to get information on what the explosion was. Of course, Control didn't know what had caused it. And Yugi couldn't do anything but stare at the screen.

"Sir, we've traced the origin of the missile," Ryou said. "It was a robotic missile launcher that we'd failed to notice."

"Failed to notice? FAILED TO NOTICE! What kind of piss poor excuse is that!" Yugi yelled, finally snapping. "Our best leads to take down Pegasus have just been blown to pieces along with twelve of our soldiers, and all you can say is that we 'failed to notice' an attack coming?" Storming out of the room, he went down the steps of the balcony and headed towards a main computer terminal, Ryou following quickly after. "What the hell do you think all this technology is for if we can't even spot one missile coming at our soldiers?" Now he really wished that he hadn't skipped school. This was one of the most poorly prepared missions he had ever been on. Everyone dived out of the way as Yugi went down towards the terminal. "What happened to taking out all of them?" he asked a group of people surrounding the computer. "I gave you one job, and that was to divert the radio signals to stop them. How did you let this one go?"

Ryou stepped between him and the cowering officers. It was amazing how frightening Yugi could be when he was pissed off beyond all reason. "Kitsune, Sir, this missile launcher was not part of the group from before. It was not on our radar."

"And when exactly did it appear on our radar?" Yugi asked, trying to keep from throwing something.

"Thirty seconds before the missile was launched," one of the cowering officers said as he read off the data from the satelite.

"And why hadn't we noticed it before?"

"It wasn't moving, and all radio transmissions had been turned off. To out satellites and planes, it looked like just another dirt mount."

Yugi groaned and began to tug at his hair, walking away from the officers. Ryou sighed and followed him again. Instead of going back upstairs to the office, they walked right out of the Going down the hall quickly, he entered an elevator and pressed the button numbered '15'. "It's been two hours, and we still haven't gotten anywhere. Is it too much to ask for everything to go smoothly?" he asked, leaning against the wall and watching the numbers go down from 30.

"When does a mission ever go smoothly, especially in Alter?" Ryou responded with his own answer. "Come on, you've been in this agency since the day you were born. Is there really a need to ask that question?"

"Ten soldiers and two agents: blown up. Three drug lords: blown up. Our lead to Pegasus and his plans: blown up." The elevator doors opened with a soft 'bing' and the two agents walked out. Yugi took a left down the first corridor and headed towards a door at the end of the hall. Opening it, the two entered an office room that overlooked the J.A.B. air field. Yugi took a seat behind the desk, while Ryou sat down on the black, leather couch. "The whole point of this mission: blown up."

Ryou took off his earpiece and straightened his hair. All that running around in the made his hair a tangled mess. "We still have those other two drug lords. As we speak, agents are tracking them down."

"And how do we know that they won't be blown up as well?"

"It'll be fine," Ryou reassured. "They will be caught. And we'll get to the bottom of Pegasus' plans."

Yugi turned his chair to look outside. The air field was surrounded with small blue lights, that blinked slowly in unison. A car drove down the tarmac and disappeared into one of their garages. He looked out at the ocean and watched the afternoon sun shine off the water's surface. It was a little before five in the afternoon and it was quiet here. Unlike over in Mexico, where his fellow agents and soldiers were fighting a battle that seemed lost.

-----

Far away from the J.A.B., on the other side of the world, Pegasus watched the battle on a large television set in his office in his Los Angeles office. He smiled as he took a sip of his wine, putting down the long stemmed glass on the desk in front of him. He leaned back in his chair as his eyes darted around the screen, taking in all the action from the battle field. It seemed that he had the advantage so far. Those men defending the bases were vicious. They were firing at Alter soldiers left and right, and they didn't care if they were hurt. Pegasus watched as two agents snuck up on a group, and watched the men fall quickly. The agents didn't even stop to catch a breath as they ran away towards a group of soldiers who were coming under fire.

Pegasus was a bit disappointed in Alter's efforts in this battle. It seemed that they weren't even trying. The soldiers were absolutely pathetic, and the agents weren't better. Only a handful of agents were actually doing some damage to the numbers of gang members. Particularly one male with short brown hair. Pegasus smirked as the brown haired agent sliced a man's throat open with a small dagger. It seemed this agent was fond of sharp weapons. He had only used his gun twice, and that was to help a fellow agent who was far away. Pegasus blinked and suddenly two other men were clutching their throats as the brown haired agent ran off. If all agents were as diligent as this one, then Pegasus would have a problem. But there was still one agent that could beat this brown haired man. And Pegasus was pretty sure that the agent he was thinking of was pulling out his hair right about now.

The C.E.O. typed into his computer, and the image on the television changed to another. It was the car chase across the Mexican landscape. The jeeps were still going after the black car, but they hadn't caught up yet. Then one of the jeeps started swerving wildly, before skidding to a stop. People began to run out of the jeep, and it looked like they were pulling someone out. But before they could, bullets began to rain down on them as the black car of the drug lord's approached quickly. The other two jeeps chased it away, and the third jeep started up again. Thus began the race once more. A few more minutes went by and nothing happened, until one of the jeeps finally managed to blow out the remaining tires. The black car flipped over a few times before landing upside-down in a smoking wreck. The three drug lords and one body guard climbed out, and were being taken into custody.

Pegasus smirked; there was no way he was going to give Alter that victory. Punching in a few codes on his computer, he watched as thirty seconds later the screen was filled with flames and smoke. 'Too easy,' he thought as Alter jets began to surround the area. 'Alter really should give me more credit. Did they actually think that I would let them take those drug lords so easily? Well, at least now I have three less problems to deal with.' He reached over to the wine glass and, picking it up, saluted the screen. "Thank you, Alter. For helping me get rid of that baggage."

What happened to the two bases in Mexico didn't bother Pegasus. They had served their purpose, and to keep them would cause issues that Pegasus didn't have the patience to deal with. They had helped him secure deals with the Mexican and Soviet governments to fund his nuclear weapons program in Indonesia. Of course, North Korea was standing in his way, but Pegasus was already making plans to deal with them. He'd either convince them to join him, or he'd destroy their weapons facilities. But he wasn't going to let anyone stop him from his plans of world domination. Especially not Alter, and especially not Kitsune. But he did hope that they would at least try a little harder to defeat him. Because tonight's battle was just sad. If Kitsune had been there, things would have been much more interesting.

"Sir, an urgent call is coming in from Mr. Marquez," his American secretary said through the intercom. "He's on line two."

Pegasus sighed and picked up the phone. He didn't want to be interrupted at the moment. He was having too much fun watching Alter struggle to defeat the gang members at both bases. "What is it?"

"Sir, I have bad news about the other two drug lords," a male responded in a thick, Spanish accent.

"What happened?" Pegasus asked, sitting up straight now.

"There was a spy with the bodyguards you assigned to them. He led Alter straight to them."

"Fuck!" Pegasus yelled and he slammed the wine glass against the wall. The red liquid slowly dripped down the wall, pooling on the ground amidst glass shards. The C.E.O took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, before he answered back, "You fool. You should have been more careful! Now Alter is going to find out all about the other bases!"

"But, Sir, isn't there any way to track them down?" the man asked meekly.

"No, you idiot! I didn't expect anyone to find them in the most remote part of Central America!" Pegasus sighed and rubbed his temples with his free hand. Great, just great. He should have known better than to believe Alter was without their own tricks. But when Kitsune isn't directly involved, Pegasus usually doesn't try as hard. He had completely forgotten that Kitsune was smart enough to plan ahead for his tricks. It had been so long since he had faced Kitsune. But he would be on his toes from now on. He couldn't afford another slip up such as this. "All we can do now is prepare for them to attack the base in Japan."

"When do you believe that will happen, Sir?"

"As soon as they can. Alter isn't going to waste time on this one. The second they get everything ready, that base will be under fire." Pegasus fell silent for a few minutes as he thought of what he might be able to do to defend the base in Japan. That base was far more important than the ones in Mexico. It was one of the direct shipping routes to Indonesia. All the shipments of money and weapons from Mexico had been sent to Japan. And if the Japanese base was attacked, then Alter would find out where exactly in Indonesia the nuclear weapons were being stored. And from there, they would find out that the bombs were being created in India's mountains. And if the Indian labs was destroyed, then Pegasus' plans for domination would be ruined.

There was only one way that Alter could be stopped. Only one person could protect the Japanese base long enough to get all, or most, of the supplies out of there. This person might even be the only person to go up against Kitsune and not die immediately. He hadn't had to depend on this person in a while, so he hoped that this idea would work. Otherwise, they were screwed. He hung up on Mr. Marquez, then picked up the receiver and quickly dialed a number from his memory. He waited impatiently for the person on the other line to pick up, his fingers tapping on the wood of the desk. Finally the other line was picked up.

"What do you want now?"

"I want Kaze."

------

The next day at school the four agents had trouble keeping their eyes open and their heads off the desk. The battle had lasted at least four hours, and ended around two in the morning in Mexico, which was seven at night in Japan. There had been a lot of work to do afterwards, and none of them had gotten to bed until four in the morning. So waking up in two hours was not something they had wanted to do. They didn't want to even think about the battle anymore. Both sides had suffered heavy losses. Alter had lost about six whole squads, and twenty three jets had been shot down. So all in all, they had lost almost three hundred men. The only good thing was that the enemy had suffered far worse. And in the end, both bases had been reduced to smoldering rubble. But Yugi and the others were no longer interested. They had managed to capture the last two drug lords, thanks to the spies they had in the gang. So now, they once again had a lead on Pegasus.

Yugi yawned as he doodled on a piece of loose leaf paper in art. He was far too tired to even think about working on his project. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep. But he knew that as soon as school was over he would have to go back to the J.A.B. and read over the reports of both battles. He would have to go over every image from the satelite feeds, and he would be presented with the schematics for the damaged tanks and planes. Then he would have to write a report on how and why they were damaged. Which would have to be tied in with the satelite images. Then he would have to go over a casualty list from both the M.A.B and the U.S.A.B troops. Then he'd have to do a million other things that he really didn't want to do. He probably would be up all night again doing all this work.

The agent blinked sleepily and looked over at Jou who was leaning against the wall as support. He was about to fall out of his chair, but he made no move to stop himself. His reflexes were slow today, as were the other three agents. Jou had spent the whole battle working on disabling the power to the bases, which was no easy feat. The power plant workers were very fast at restoring power, and their programs for the backup generators were incredibly advanced. Not only that, but he was also presented with the job of taking out radio waves from all communications systems that did not belong to Alter. All because those stupid officers in the didn't do a good job of taking out all missile launchers.

Jou's head dropped to his desk, and he began to snore lightly. He could no longer fight to keep himself awake, and he didn't want to. If it weren't for appearances, he would have stayed at his apartment and slept through the day. But all four of them had skipped school yesterday with out a reason, and they couldn't afford getting in trouble with the administration. Especially now that they had those two drug lords in custody. So they had to act like perfect civilian students so that nothing would get in the way. At the moment, though, Jou couldn't care less about any of that. He was finally asleep.

Bored crimson eyes watched him sleep, before glancing over to Yugi who looked like he was about to drop dead. Yami vaguely wondered why the two were so tired. Even Malik and Ryou looked like they were about to collapse from exhaustion. Yami got up and walked over to Jou's desk where the blonde teen was still sleeping, his papers fluttering with each exhale of breath. Yami gently shook Jou's shoulder in an attempt to wake the boy up, but it didn't work. Jou was sleeping like a log. Yami rolled his eyes and poked Jou in the side. Jou jerked awake, yelling, "I don't want the pudding!" The whole class fell silent as they all stared at Jou, who blinked in confusion. Yami snickered and received a half hearted glare in return. "That wasn't nice, bastard," Jou told him as he put his head back down on the desk.

"But it was funny," Yami answered, sitting down next to Jou. "What's with you today?"

"Nothing," Jou muttered, drifting off to sleep again. Yami sighed and poked him again. Jou jerked up again, and smacked Yami on the back of the head. "Stop doing that! Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"

"Then you shouldn't stay up so late."

"I couldn't help it," Jou muttered again, putting his head on the desk once again. "I spent all night trying to stop those stupid plant workers from turning back on the power and it sucked because they were better than I thought, so I had to work really hard." Jou hadn't realized that he had switched to speaking in Latin, and didn't notice the confused look on Yami's face. Suddenly an eraser flew across the room and smacked Jou hard on the head. "God damnit, if one more person hits me, I'll break their arm!"

"Pup, you shut your mouth right now!" Yugi spat. He had heard what Jou was saying, and freaked out. Even though he knew that no one understood Latin, he still couldn't take the risk. So he had climbed on his desk and hurled the eraser at his teammate's head. "I don't care how tired you are, you are NOT to speak of anything concerning the mission in front of civilians."

"Sorry, Sir. I didn't realize what I was saying."

"Well, pay better attention next time!" Yugi caught Yami's gaze for a second, then sat back down and buried his head in his arms and tried to sleep.

Yami looked back and forth between the two for a second before giving up on trying to figure out what had happened. He was quickly learning that, whenever either of the four began to talk in that strange language, it was useless to try and understand the situation. "So can you tell me why you were out all day yesterday, or will you get hit again?"

"I'll have a desk thrown at my head," Jou answered. He closed his eyes for a few minutes before opening them. "Did anything interesting happen yesterday?"

Yami leaned on his elbows as he thought back to the previous school day. "Well…Bakura and Marik were caught sneaking out chemicals from the science labs. Apparently, they were planning on creating a big explosion as a senior prank."

Jou chuckled. "Idiots. So how long is their sentence?"

"Two months Saturday detention, and they have to clean the school once a week."

Jou rolled his eyes. "Idiots. That'll teach them. But they'll probably figure out another senior prank by the time their detention is over. Anything else?"

"Some freshmen were playing with a baseball at lunch, and the ball hit Kaiba's car. The alarm went off, and they freaked out. But that was nothing compared to how freaked they were when he got there. He bitched them out so much, one of them started crying!" Yami laughed at the memory of those two kids cowering in fear.

"He's such a jackass," Jou scoffed. "I can't believe he actually made one cry."

"But they hit his car," Yami defended.

"So? That doesn't give him the right to scare the shit out of them. Someone needs to punch him in the face."

"Well, good luck with that." Honestly, Jou and Seto were always at each other's throats. While it was amusing to see Jou blow up at being called mutt, it was starting to become a pain. Yami had told Jou a million times to ignore his cousin, but every time they were together, someone always started something. Granted, that someone was usually Seto, but Jou needed to learn to keep his temper in check. But, then again, Yami wasn't really one to talk about controlling tempers. He especially didn't have control when it came to Yugi.

But so far, Yugi hadn't done anything to annoy him. Of course it was only first period, but usually by this time they had already snapped at each other. It could just be the exhaustion that everyone seemed to be feeling. Earlier in the morning, Yugi had accidentally bumped into Yami, and he had apologized. He actually apologized! Normally, he would make some snide comment about how Yami should get out of the way, but not today. Today he apologized then staggered off towards the others. Yami had to admit that caught him by surprise. And he was going to snap at him too. But all he could do was stare and nod.

The conversation in the music room had been repeating itself in Yami's mind for the past two days. He couldn't forget how easy it was to talk calmly with the other. Which surprised him, considering all their arguments. But even through their arguments they yelled freely at each other. Most people would consider that a bad thing, but it just seemed that talking with each other came easily. Although yesterday was the first time that they hadn't raised their voices at each other. In fact, Yami had caught himself more than once wishing that the conversation had not been cut short.

And, of course, the comment that Yugi had made stuck in his mind. 'You aren't as big of a jerk as I thought'. Did that mean that Yugi was changing his opinion of him, if only a little? Did Yami want him to change opinions of him? Or did he still want to remain the annoying bastard to the other teen? Before that day, his answer would have been easy to predict. But now…he didn't know. It wasn't as if he was suddenly fond of Yugi; he still considered the kid an annoying little punk. But he couldn't deny that he had liked talking to the kid peaceably. He just felt more relaxed than usual; as if all his barriers were slowly being lowered. He usually didn't feel so open around people, not even Seto or Jou.

So what was he to think? It wasn't like he suddenly considered Yugi his best friend, or anything. But maybe he should cut back on bugging the kid. If it meant that they would have more talks like that, then he was willing to try. But that didn't mean anything, other than he wanted to talk. And he for sure wasn't going to tell anyone that. The last thing he wanted was to get teased by the others. And, knowing Marik and Bakura, they would blow it completely out of proportion. Then a rumor would start, and the whole school would be talking about it. Yeah, it was definitely better to keep that tidbit of information to himself.

The bell finally rung, and everyone got up and started packing their books. Yugi and Jou were slower than everyone else though, seeing as how they had both fallen asleep. Yami sat on the desk and waited for Jou to finish packing so they could get out of the art room. He sighed as Jou dropped his pencil for the third time; if he was so tired, why didn't he just stay home? He looked over when he heard Yugi walk up to them. The other sighed as well, and grabbed Jou's pencil from the floor.

"Hurry up," Yugi said. "You take too long."

"Well, sorry if I'm too tired to focus," Jou answered as he finally got his things together. The three began to walk out of the room and to their next classes.

"Shut up. I'm just as tired." Yugi then yawned, and shook his head to wake himself up more. "Hey, Yami. What did you do in algebra yesterday?"

"Learned things."

"Like?"

"Like math things."

"Which chapter?"

"Seven." Yugi nodded in thanks. Yami was once again surprised that the kid hadn't yelled at him to stop fucking around. "There are three worksheets due for homework."

"That's insane. Was it hard?" Yugi asked as they approached his classroom.

"Depends on what you mean by hard," Yami said with a shrug.

"'Shoot yourself' hard."

"No, it wasn't. But then again, math isn't hard for me."

"So basically, I just have to see for myself?"

"Basically, yeah."

"Wonderful," the teen agent groaned. "See ya," he said as he walked inside his chemistry class.

The other two walked through the crowd in silence as they headed to their psychology class. They only had two minutes to go up three flights of stairs and down the hall to the right. They weren't worried, though, because their teacher was really nice. She understood that it was a long trek through hundreds of students across a large campus. They reached their classroom just as the bell rang and took their seats by the window. Yami looked up at the ceiling as he leaned back in his desk. The music class was on the floor above this class and across the hall. And the piano was on the right side of the class next to the window.

"I'm surprised," Jou suddenly said, and Yami turned to look at him.

"Why?"

"Because you and Yugi haven't yelled at each other all day. In fact, that last conversation was actually nice."

Yami shrugged and turned to the front. "He just asked about what happened in class. It's not a big deal."

"But normally, you wouldn't have answered him. You would have told him to find out for himself, which would start a big argument. So why were you so nice?" Jou asked with a smirk.

Yami shrugged again, and mentally cursed himself for acting so nice. "I just didn't feel like being an ass at the moment. But I will if you keep smirking like that." Ok, so maybe he shouldn't act so nice to Yugi around the others. Jou was sharp, and he picked up on things like this easily. "I don't have to be a jerk to him all the time."

"But I thought that you liked being a jerk to Yugi. That it was your new favorite hobby, and that you liked seeing him get pissed off. What's with this new way of thinking?"

Yami sighed and rolled his eyes. He watched the teacher pull out their tests from a few days ago, and start calling people up to get them. "Jou, just tell me what you are hinting at before I smash your face in."

"Well, maybe something happened to change your mind about him."

"Something like what?"

"I don't know. But you should."

Yami heard his name called, and he stood up and strode over to the desk, snatching it before heading back to his desk. He refused to answer Jou or even look at him at the moment. He was not going to get dragged into that conversation. Especially since Jou had assumed that he had changed his opinion of Yugi. He hadn't; Yugi was still an annoying brat, and nothing would change that. The only difference was that Yami had realized that talking to him wasn't as horrible as he had once thought. But then again, he had to bring up the fact that they had never had a 'nice' conversation before two days ago. Was he being too quick to judge? It could have been a one time thing. After all, Yami had been in a slightly depressed mood, and Yugi had seemed preoccupied. That might have been the only reason the conversation had gone so well. Yea, that was probably it. "You are insane if you think my opinions of that obnoxious, little punk have changed. I still hate him, and I always will."

"If you say so."

------

Malik was annoyed as hell. And it was all thanks to one certain senior who wouldn't stop bugging him. If it wasn't for that stupid Alter rule, Malik would have beaten the hell out of the other a long time ago. 'Stupid Marik,' he thought as he buried his head in his arms. 'Why can't that jackass just leave me alone?' All through their civics class, the other teen had been bothering him. He kept asking questions about why he was so tired, or where he had been all day yesterday, or even random questions like how was the weather? Malik was already pissed off from his lack of sleep and from yesterday's battle. But this new addition to his list of annoyances was testing his patience. At least the teacher wasn't bothering him about sleeping in class.

Marik watched Malik fall asleep slowly, and he smirked. Poor Malik; today just didn't seem like it was going well for him. Of course, with Marik bothering him all through class, it probably wasn't making it better. But he just liked teasing his look-a-like. Malik always had the most interesting reactions. 'I should probably let him sleep,' Marik thought, but he still got up and went towards Malik's desk. He gazed upon the sleeping teen for a minute, then leaned over Malik's shoulder. "Hey, Malik. Are you awake?" he whispered into the agent's ear.

Malik didn't move, nor did he make a sound. He was fast asleep, and it didn't look like he would wake up any time soon. "Wake up, sleepy head," Marik said, gently poking the other teen's shoulder. Malik grunted and shifted slightly, but other than that he still didn't lift his head. Marik smirked again; well, if he wasn't going to wake up on his own then Marik would just have to jerk him awake. "If you don't wake up when I count to three, I'm gonna kiss you," he teased, brushing his lips lightly against Malik's ear. "One…" he began counting as he lowered his lips towards Malik's, trailing them lightly against the teen's cheek. "Two…" He stopped, hovering his lips above Malik's, waiting to see if there was any reaction from the other male. Seeing none, Marik lowered his lips. "Three."

Suddenly a hand was wrapped around his throat, and Marik was staring into hardened lavender eyes. "Not in a million years," Malik seethed, pushing Marik away roughly. "Ass."

"Well, at least you are awake now," Marik laughed, rubbing his throat. Damn, Malik had a strong grip.

"Bastard," Malik said as looked away, glaring at a random spot on the wall. He could feel his face becoming hot, and hoped that it wasn't noticeable to the other. Marik was such a jerk, messing with him like that. To actually attempt to kiss him was just way too much. Of course, Malik had been awake since the beginning, but he hadn't seen a reason to let the other know. Until Marik had come too close. The teen agent could still feel Marik's lips grazing his cheek, and he glared harder as he felt his face become even hotter.

That wasn't the first time that Marik had pulled a stunt like that. It was the first time he had gotten so close to actually going through with it, though. Everyday, the teen would find a way to pester Malik. It was that he'd either hug him, wrap his arm around Malik's shoulder, and one time Marik even dared to hold his hand! He was constantly around Malik, and was always trying for some form of physical contact. At first it had been embarrassing, but now it was just annoying. However, Malik couldn't help but feel happy when the other did that. He had absolutely no idea why he would feel happy, but the fact was that he did. Though it still bothered him, Malik couldn't help but like the attention he received. And he had a sneaking suspicion that Marik knew that fact.

"You are so mean," Marik said lightheartedly, kneeling down beside Malik's desk and resting his arms atop the desk. "And here I am trying to be nice."

"I don't need this type of niceness."

"Aww, don't you like me?" Marik asked, trying to look hurt. He poked Malik's arm repeatedly. "Huh? Don't you like me?"

Malik sighed and moved his arm out of Marik's reach. "I'd like to kick you." The agent placed his head back down on his arms, and gazed at Marik with a bored stare. "What's your fascination with bothering me?"

"Because I think it's fun."

Malik glared at the other half heartedly as he chewed on his lip. "It's not very nice though."

"But, in all honesty, does it really bother you as much as you say?" Marik asked with grin.

Malik's answer was immediate. "Yes!" But one look at Marik told the teen that the other wasn't buying it. And to be honest, it really didn't bother him as much as he pretended. He'd been dealing with Jou's stupidity for four years, so Marik wasn't really a bother. And he'd rather deal with Marik than Jou. Which wasn't saying much, since he'd rather deal with anyone than Jou.

"I said in all honesty," Marik responded as he began to poke Malik's arm again. "You were lying."

"What does it matter to you?"

"Because it means that I don't bother you as much as you'd like me to believe. And do you know what that means?"

"No, why don't you tell me," Malik said, rolling his eyes. Shouldn't they have been paying attention to the teacher? Why hadn't Marik gotten in trouble yet for being out of his desk?

"It means that you've grown used to me. Which is one step away from liking me."

"Well, don't hold your breath," Malik said as he watched the other continue to poke his arm.

"Aww, you really are mean to me."

"Yea, well, I think being mean to you is fun."

"As long as it makes you happy."

Malik looked into Marik's dark, violet eyes. The agent then sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. "I don't get it. You don't know me, and yet you act so open to me. Why?" Malik had always been taught never to let anyone get close to him. It was dangerous to develop any deep bonds with civilians, because he might never see them again. Or worse, they might be killed. Even Alter members weren't supposed to get too close to each other. Of course, he had extremely strong bonds with his friends, but he knew that if anything happened to any one of them, he was not supposed to shed a tear. So he didn't let many people get too close. And yet this civilian, someone who had barely known him for more than a month, was treating him as if they had been friends for years.

Marik blinked as he thought over the question. "Because we're friends. Isn't that obvious?"

"And yet you seem to bother me more than anyone else. Why is that?" Malik continued, closing his eyes.

Marik smiled and placed his forehead against Malik's. The agent opened his eyes and looked up at Marik, but he didn't move. "Because, I said it's fun."

"You have strange notions of fun," Malik answered, smiling lightly.

"I've been told that many times before," Marik said smugly.

"I bet you have," the agent said with a laugh. "I think you have to be one of the strangest people I've ever met."

"Stranger than Bakura?"

Malik chewed on his lip as he thought of an answer. They were both strange. Malik had a suspicion that they were both dropped on their heads as babies multiple times. There was no other explanation as to why they were as insane as they were. Of course, Ryou didn't seem to mind Bakura's insanity, despite all his denial. "He's psychotic strange. You are more…idiotic strange."

Marik pouted at the fact that Bakura was called the psychotic one. "I'm crazier than he is."

"Well, then you are a hyper, idiotic psycho. But Bakura strikes me as the always pissed off psycho."

"He is always pissed off. Not as much as Yami, though."

"Why is he always mad?" It had been bothering Malik for a while now. Yami never seemed to be in a good mood, and it always had something to do with his family life. Well, on occasion it was due to his girlfriend. Malik would have never even thought of dating someone like Anzu. She was a shallow bitch who took advantage of everyone around her. It was amazing that the whole school didn't gang up on her and lynch her.

"He has a lot of issues dealing with his dad," Marik answered with a sigh. "They don't really get along."

Malik nodded, understanding exactly why that would make the other teen angry. He didn't really have a good relationship with his parents either. It was all because he ran away to join Alter. They had forbidden him from joining, even though his sister was already in the organization. But he snuck out of his house one night, and caught a cab to the base. Since then, relations with his parents had been strained. And communication with them was little if any. In fact, the last time he had talked to his parents had been five months ago when he had called to tell his mother happy birthday. "Is his dad a jerk?"

"Kind of. I think it's more because he's not Yami real dad, and Yami doesn't think that the other has any right to tell him what to do. That, and his dad is a heartless business man who doesn't really give a shit about anyone else. He only takes care of Yami for appearances. Even though he's always giving Yami everything he wants."

"Wow," Malik answered. "That's sad. So, why does he keep picking on Yugi?"

Marik shrugged and shifted his weight from one knee to the other. "Maybe he's jealous because Yugi is so happy all the time."

'If you had seen him last night, you wouldn't be saying that,' Malik thought as he remembered how angry his teammate had been through the whole mission. Though Yugi had a right to be mad. Things had not gone well from the start, and the fact that three of the five drug lords had been blown up had not helped the agent's anger. Yugi was right in saying that it was far too soon to launch an attack, because they had not been prepared for any of Pegasus' counter attacks. They should have waited another day or two to be sure they were completely prepared, instead of rushing things the way they did. Maybe they would have suffered less casualties if they had waited.

Marik noticed Malik's mood changing, and tapped his forehead lightly against the other's. "Enough talking about those two. Hi."

Malik blinked up at Marik. "Hi." Marik really was a strange one.

"You know what?"

"No, why don't you tell me."

"You're pretty."

Malik almost fell out of his chair. He stared at the other and began to stutter as he tried to figure out what to say in reply to that. It was not everyday that someone said that to him, so he was a but lost as to how to react. Should he get mad? Defensive? Or should he just blush and act stupid like he was already doing? Through he whole thing, Marik was just sitting there with a smile on his face as if it were the most normal thing in the world to tell someone that they were pretty. Especially another guy. "I-I'm what?"

"Pretty," Marik easily repeated.

"Ok, you are definitely crazy! I am not pretty!" Malik said fiercely thought he had to whisper so he wouldn't draw attention from the rest of the class.

Marik just smiled at him, knowing full well how embarrassed the other was at the moment. And in his opinion, he looked even better when he was blushing from embarrassment. "Yes you are. I think you are very pretty."

"I officially hate you now," Malik said with a glare. Marik had just made his list of people who's asses he needed to kick. Calling him pretty of all things! Malik was completely and utterly insulted. Yet he was still blushing. Well, he'd chalk it up to being completely humiliated by being called pretty. It was definitely not because he was flattered, or because he liked the fact that Marik thought he was pretty. Nope, definitely not either one of those two. He was humiliated and pissed off, and he would stick with that logic.

"You're lying again," Marik said with a laugh, pinching Malik's cheek lightly. "I can see that blush, you know."

Malik pushed the other teen away and turned his body to the other side, burying his head back in his arms. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you say something stupid like that?" He was trying as hard as he could to keep the blush from getting stronger, but it wasn't working. He tried to think of how much he hated the other, but it still didn't work. He just couldn't get rid of the stupid, annoying blush.

"Because I mean it." Marik leaned over and pulled Malik's arm away, revealing his face. "And because I think it's funny when you blush."

"You really are an ass, you know that," Malik said, glaring once again at Marik. He suddenly noticed how close Marik was to him, and he tried to back away only to discover that he was already at the edge of the desk. If he backed up anymore, he'd be on the floor. That seemed like a much better place to be at the moment, but he really couldn't afford to get in trouble with the teacher. If he did, then Yugi would be on his case really quickly about how he needed to be more responsible.

"I know." Marik gently tugged on Malik's chin to turn his head. Malik's eyes widened as the other leaned in even closer. He couldn't help but gasp when he felt lips softly brush against his own. His mind was racing as he tried to think of ways to get away, but his body wouldn't listen to him. He could only sit there as the petal soft lips caressed his again. Then Marik suddenly pulled away and smiled at him. "But you'd be lying if you said it bothered you."

The bell then rang, signaling the end of class. Everyone packed their things and got up, storming the halls as they headed towards their homeroom. Even Marik left, ruffling Malik's hair as he walked out. The whole school began buzzing with chatter and laughter, except Malik couldn't join in. All he could do was wander the halls in a daze, his lips still tingling from the near kiss. He was sure the whole school could see his bright, red blush, which made him blush more in embarrassment. Stupid Marik, messing with him like that!

--------TBC-------

Star: Hey, hey! Hope you liked this chapter. I've actually cut out the two final scenes for this chapter. But don't worry, because I'm putting them in the next chapter. Otherwise, this chapter would be waaaaay too long.

So, I hope to see you at the next update of this story, and of Bright Shadows. Have a good one!