Yugioh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

The next morning is anything but cheerful. Actually, the whole house is quiet. How can it be filled with fun and laughter when one of their friends has been captured? That's how Atem is feeling at this moment. He leans on the wall with one arm hiding his face. He is alone in the bedroom because he had asked to be alone. 'I couldn't save her. Now Mana's gone.'

Tea stands outside the room and knocks on the door. All she wants to do is cheer Atem up. He couldn't stay depressed forever. The door opens and Tea jumps in surprise to see that he is wearing no shirt, just pants. He doesn't seem ashamed though.

"What is it?" he asks.

"Uh…" The whole no shirt thing caught her off guard and now she forgot what she is going to say.

"Well?"

"A-Are you alright?"

"No," he replies plainly and she quickly thinks of something else to say so that he won't close his door.

"Do you want to talk about it? Maybe it'll make you feel better." Atem sighs. He isn't in the mood to talk right now. But he knows that Tea is only wants to help him out. He steps outside of his room and leans on the wall and she waits for him to say what is on his mind.

He takes a deep breath first, trying to get his thoughts together, before exhaling. "I should've listened to you Tea and now it's too late. She shouldn't have come in the first place. This is all my fault."

"Don't be so hard on yourself Atem. You tried your best."

"But my best wasn't good enough!" he raises his voice slightly and she can hear how upset he is. This is just like the time when Yugi lost his soul. Atem was devastated. He kept blaming himself like is right now. But Joey knocked some sense into him. Maybe that's what he needs. "I couldn't save her," he continues.

"Stop it Atem."

"It's my fault that she gone." Sick of hearing him beat himself up, she slaps him on the cheek and he looks away with shock. He didn't expect that at all especially from someone like Tea. He slowly turns his head back to her to see her wiping away some tears.

"Just stop Atem. I can't stand the sight of you beating yourself up and moping around like this."

"Tea…"

"You have to stop this now. How do you expect to save Mana when you're like this? She's counting on you and you can't let her down."

"You're…right," Atem says. He has never seen this side of Tea before. But this talk has helped him greatly. He knows now that he can't walk down with his head low because Mana is gone. He has to pull himself together so that he can save her. "Thank you Tea."

She nods, wiping away her remaining tears. "What are friends for?"

YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYG

Bruised wrists, aching head and most of all, a tired body. Mana's eyes flutter open and she looks from left to right, taking in her surroundings. It's the same place as her dreams. The cave is dark, filled with dragon statues, lit candles and what appear to be stone slabs containing people on them. She tries to move her arms, but she is chained to a wall.

She sighs and bows her head. Ever since she came to this time, a lot of bad things have been happening to her lately. First she almost got hit by a car, started having these weird dreams and now she's been gobbled up by some black stuff that has sent her where she is right now.

"It's about time you woke up." She looks around for the person who just said that. Then she looks straight ahead to see a figure coming out of the shadows. To her dismay, it is the man with the long blue hair.

"Just who are you anyway?" Mana asks with narrowed eyes.

"Well I guess I could tell you because after this, you will not have a mind of your own."

"What?"

"My name is Dartz."

"Wait a minute. What did you mean by your last statement?" Mana asks.

"You see Mana, you're apart of my plan for capturing the pharaoh's soul," he explains, walking up to her. "I need his and all the other strong souls out there to strengthen my Leviathan."

"But earlier you told me that this was all for good. Taking people's souls doesn't sound so good to me. And what makes you think I'll help you Dartz?"

Dartz chuckles and places a hand on his hip. "I knew that you wouldn't want to go against your friend." He takes out an Orichalcos stone laced with string out of his pocket and raises it up for her to see. "But this will change that and soon, you'll be under my control!"

"No…I'll never help you."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice," he says as the stone starts to light up.

YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYG

Yugi opens the front door after hearing someone knock on it. An older teen with sort of a gothic look stands at the doorway and Yugi's eyes widen with surprise on seeing the familiar face. "Duke Devlin?"

"Yo," he greets with a wave. He had first met Yugi playing a game called "Dungeon Dice Monsters." First they were enemies, but they quickly became friends afterward.

"What are you doing here?" asks Yugi, stepping aside so that he can come in.

"I was just stopping by. Anyway, have you heard of all the commotion that has been going on lately?"

"Yeah. It's getting out of control."

"Have you ever thought of going to Professor Hawkins and asking him for help?"

"That's a great idea," Yugi says before bowing his head slightly. "But how exactly are we gonna get there?"

"We could all hop in my car. No big deal," Duke answers and Yugi smiles.

"Thanks Duke."

"No prob."

YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYG

Joey, Tea, Yugi and Atem all ride in Duke's light green convertible down a deserted road. They have been driving for hours now because Professor Hawkins lives far away from the city. Joey sits in the front next to Duke as he drives while the others sit in the back.

Duke looks at Atem through his rear view mirror. "Well I have to say that I was pretty surprised to see you here pharaoh. Weren't you sent back to the afterlife?"

"He was," replies Yugi for Atem who doesn't seem in the mood for answering questions right now. His mind is on saving his friend. "He was brought back here by Mana."

"Mana? Who's that?"

"Mana's a friend of his. We think she got kidnapped by Dartz," says Yugi lowering his eyes. "So now we need to find a way to get her back."

"Mana eh?" Duke raises an eyebrow with a smirk across his lips and Joey dims his eyes, knowing what Duke is thinking right now. "Is she cute?"

"Back off man," Joey warns. "She's taken."

"What? By you?" Joey motions his head back to Atem and Duke's eyes widen. The last thing he wants to do is anger Atem especially in the mood he's in. "U-Uh, not that I would take her from you man."

"Focus Duke," Tea says with a slightly annoyed look on her face. Atem lifts his eyes and turns his head, hearing a couple of motor sounds coming from behind him. There are four motorcycles in the front while there are another group of motorcycles riding behind them.

"Great," Atem says and everyone except Duke turns to see what all the commotion is about. A couple of motorcycles speed up and start to surround the car, causing Duke to put his foot on the brake.

Joey grits his teeth and growls. "It's these punks again." The four head bikes stop in front of the car and they all take out their helmets except for two that are riding on the back of two motorcycles.

"No way," Tea says with shock once she gets a look of the four bikers. "Don't they look familiar you guys?"

"They are," Joey replies with his eyes narrowed at them.

"That's Allister, Valon and…Rafael," Yugi says, just as surprised as everyone else is. There is also another man that looks slightly familiar. He looks a lot older than the rest of them and he has short brown hair with a beard and he wears glasses in the shape of circles. He is actually the first person from the Orichalcos that Atem dueled last time.

"Prepare yourselves for a duel," says the older man with glasses, preparing his duel disk.

"Why are you guys doing this?" Tea asks. "Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah, you're on the wrong side," Duke says

"It doesn't look like they're listening," Yugi says and he gets out his duel disk from his book bag and puts it on his wrist. Then he hops out the car to face the man.

"Yugi what are you doing?" Atem asks, in fear for his friend's safety. "It's too dangerous."

"There is no choice," Yugi says, turning his head to him. "If we don't beat him and the others, there's no way we'll be able to save the world." He turns back to face the man with a determined look on his face. Tea has never seen Yugi act like this before. She thought he always needed Atem's help to duel, but she can see now that she is wrong.

"Be careful Yugi," Tea says.

"Before we begin, let me first explain the new rules to this duel," says the man.

"What? New rules?"

"In this duel and for the remainder of any duel, you will only be able to use one monster. You will no longer have life points, but a life bar." Yugi looks down at his duel disk and instead of numbers being there, it is a long white life bar. Atem narrows his eyes. This is similar to back in Egypt where they would have health bars to determine how much health they have left. "When that bar is gone, the seal will take you soul."

Yugi pulls out his deck and looks at the cards that he has. 'Only one monster. I have to choose wisely.'

Chapter 8 is done. I shall have the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please review.