One by one, the rest of the Domino duelists arrived of the game shop. Pip and Borealis kept to one corner of the room, going mostly unnoticed as the others greeted each other, and especially when Mokuba showed up.

"What brings you here…?" Joey asked the young Vice President.

"Something's been happening to Seto," he said. "I thought that maybe you guys might be able to help, but I see that you're busy…"

"Of course we're willing to help," said Yugi. "We'll hear you and Marik out."

"Marik can go first," Mokuba said. He still had to figure out the best way to phrase what was going on; he wasn't so sure of what was going on in the first place. But he did know that something was terribly wrong.

The young Egyptian boy cleared his throat.

"I was in the middle of researching the Anubis pendant when my sister vanished," he said. "I half wonder if I was getting too close…"

"What did you find out?" asked Mai.

"I'll show you…" said Marik, taking out one of the books he had checked out from the library. He showed them the image of the medallion, and a stone slab found next to it with hieroglyphs carved on it. "This passage on the stone talks about a set of seven medallions, with this Anubis pendant being the most powerful one of all. These seven medallions were brought together by a turncoat advisor from Sethos' court in an attempt to try to usurp the kingdom from him. The ensuing events described in the passage are very similar to what happened during the battle with Zorc, except for one event." He pulled out a magnifying glass to enlarge a part of the text. "I spent a long time trying to find out what this word means; I haven't seen it in any other text until I did bit more research on the flight here. Breaking it down in both phonetics and context…" He shook his head in disbelief. "There was an ice storm in Thebes towards the end of Sethos' reign."

"An ice storm…?" Joey asked, blankly. "In the middle of the desert?"

"That's what I didn't understand, either, until I found out some more information on Anput." He turned the page, revealing another medallion. "Doesn't she look familiar?"

"She looks just like Anubis—jackal head and everything…" said Tristan, blinking in amazement. "So she married him?"

"Guess when you're a half-human, half-jackal, your matrimonial options are limited, huh?" Joey cracked, pulling a sandwich out of his backpack and sinking his teeth into it.

Mai rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Really witty…" she said, but then flinched at the pungent odor of the sandwich. "Urgh; Joey, what are you eating?"

"You noticed, huh?" he replied. "I figured since we've got a vampire running around Domino, it wouldn't hurt to have a nice supply of sandwiches with a lot of garlic. What we've got here is a sandwich fresh from the deli, fortified with pesto sauce and actual roasted garlic cloves."

Marik just blinked at the sandwich, but continued.

"According to the text, Anput made her appearance after several people had…" He swallowed hard. "…Vanished in the midst of the ice storm. Fifty people overall had disappeared… And then she arrived."

"Just like they're disappearing now…" gasped Téa. "How many people have vanished this time?"

"Including Ishizu, thirty-one, I believe," said Odion.

"Thirty-two…" Mokuba said, glumly, as everyone turned to stare at him. "Roland vanished early this morning; that was one of the things I wanted to talk to you guys about…"

"Oh, dear…" said Bakura. "So they only have twenty-eight people left…"

"Anput began to ravage the land when she showed up; she was supposedly trying to collect another fifty souls to bring back Anubis," said Marik, turning the page. All seven medallions were on the next page. "But then something happened—a final battle between the new Millennium Guardians and the wielders of these seven dark medallions. The Guardians won, but at a price; just as his cousin Atem had depleted his ba in battle before him, Sethos, too, gave up his ba to stop the ringleader of the Medallion gang—the one who summoned Anput. Because her summoner was defeated, along with four of the medallions destroyed, Anput, too, was defeated--"

He was cut off as Joey let out a yell of protest. Borealis the husky had grabbed the half-eaten garlic sandwich out of Joey's hand, and the dog was now rooting through his backpack for the rest of them.

"Where'd this dog come from…!?" Joey demanded.

"Sorry," said Pip, hurrying over from his seat in the corner of the room, pulling the hungry husky away, but not before the canine had purloined another sandwich. "His grandfather was a wolf, and he retains a bit of those instincts… especially when he smells food…"

"And… who're you…?" Joey asked, baffled and also annoyed at having his food stolen by an animal for the second time that week. Delphi taking the pizza had been bad enough, but these sandwiches were going to be his first line of defense against the vampire!

"This is Pip, the brother of that detective we met at the festival," said Téa. "He's also Vulsor's unwilling fiancé."

"Very unwilling," said Pip. "But never mind about me." He turned back to Marik. "What happened to the fifty people who vanished back in the day?"

Marik swallowed hard.

"There's no record of what happened to them after Anput appeared or disappeared…" he said. "I think… I think their souls were sacrificed to summon her. And that's why I think that the people who are vanishing now will never be seen again… They're going to be used to bring Anput back!"

"Then we've got to stop whoever's behind this!" Duke fumed, clenching a fist. "They could be after another innocent soul even as we speak!" Like Serenity

"But… are the missing people already sacrificed?" asked Mai, horrified. If so, it would be too late for them… for Ishizu…

"I don't think so…" said Marik. "Based on what I've read, the missing people were described to be 'prisoners of the ice' before Anput returned. If that's the case, then the people missing now still have a chance, but only if we find where they're being held and free them before all fifty are… collected." He hated saying that word, but that was, in fact, what they were doing.

"But where do we start looking?" asked Yugi. "And who are we looking for? We still don't know who's behind this!"

Mokuba swallowed hard.

"I think… I think my brother was possessed by the Anubis medallion," he said. "Roland had been talking to a secretary just moments before he vanished. He saw my brother with the medallion around his neck—sleepwalking. And then he vanished! Seto probably doesn't want to admit it, but I think he thinks that he unconsciously did something to Roland… And after hearing Marik's story, I'm inclined to believe it myself!"

Téa stared in horror at Mokuba's words. Seto had already been possessed by Anubis before, during the Pyramid of Light fiasco; could it be that Anubis still had some sort of hold on him, augmented by the medallion, and now was trying to use him as a pawn to revive Anput? It was a horrifying—but all too possible—thought. But that did point the fingers at someone.

"Anubis…" she said. "And… hadn't Madame Mystíca mentioned about Vulsor associating with the Rare Hunters? I know Vulsor attacked Kaiba at the dinner party. Wasn't it that night he started sleepwalking?"

"No; he woke up in his home office a couple nights before that without knowing how he got there…" said Mokuba.

"So much for that idea…" the dancer sighed. But she decided that she needed to have a talk with Seto—he couldn't handle this alone, no matter how much he wanted to.

"Maybe not…" said Yugi, in deep thought. "It's possible that Bandit Keith might know something about Anubis and Anput. If he and Vulsor are exchanging information, maybe it's the Rare Hunters who are making everyone disappear. Didn't you say that you and Kaiba got that Anubis medallion from a Rare Hunter?"

"That's right…!" Téa recalled. The Medallion had belonged to Aurus, a young and rather reluctant Rare Hunter. He, personally, didn't know about the medallion, but the other Hunters had, for they had seemed ready to severely punish him for losing it to Seto.

"But what to the Rare Hunters hope to gain from bringing Anubis and Anput to this world?" asked Mai.

"The turncoat advisor who summoned Anput was supposedly able to control her to a point," said Marik, paging through the book. "Bandit Keith probably hopes to accomplish the same; he's probably already made a deal with Anubis, and that's why Anubis is attempting to control Kaiba through the medallion."

"So… it's not the vampire that's makin' Kaiba sleepwalk…?" asked Joey.

"I'm not so sure von Krolock is a vampire, but Seto thinks he may have something to do with what happened…" said Mokuba. "The first time Seto sleepwalked, he had spoken to von Krolock, and this time, it was right after actually meeting him in person."

"He could be working with the Rare Hunters…" said Tristan. "Or it could be a colossal coincidence."

"But what if it isn't?" asked Mokuba, now worried. "He's probably arranging a meeting with von Krolock right now to get some answers! If he's somehow allowing Anubis to get to Seto…" He trailed off.

"I must admit, I'm concerned with why Kaiba doesn't seem to be resisting the mind control, if that's what's going on…" said Yugi. "Atem said that Kaiba was able to partly resist Anubis' control the last time. Even if he's only trying to control him while asleep, Kaiba's subconscious should be stronger than that…"

"Maybe there's another factor…" said Bakura. "Hypnosis, perhaps…"

"But you can resist hypnosis…" said Mai. "Someone like Kaiba could, at least; he probably doesn't even believe in it… But Kaiba could be affected by something like a drug. I know Valon sent me an email a while back about a scare he had trying to help out Pegasus. He, Alister, and Raphael had been looking through an old lab on Dronyche Company property, and Valon had a cut that was exposed to a drug that had been stored there--"

"Back up!" said Joey. "Dronyche is Vulsor's company!"

And now Pip suddenly blinked.

"Was that drug in an old bottle of wine—like… from the 1880's?" he asked.

"I'll have to double-check that email…" said Mai, and Mokuba immediately lent her his handheld computer.

"The 1880's…?" asked Téa. "When Kaiba and I were in Italy over the summer, we asked someone about that same Anubis medallion. She said that her ancestor was an opera singer who owned the medallion… Her name escapes me, but she started having blackouts and sleepwalking spells just like Kaiba's having now! And the Rare Hunter who owned this medallion last told me that it was Vulsor who ended up giving it to his cousin."

Marik blinked.

"I wasn't aware that this medallion had a record of being owned," he said. "From what I understood, four of the seven medallions were destroyed, and the other three were lost."

"So Vulsor somehow got her hands on it after that opera singer did…" said Yugi. "And then gave it to the Rare Hunters."

"…And according to Valon's email, the serum was in an old wine bottle…" Mai added.

"I thought so…" sighed Pip. "That juice was how she got me to sign the marriage license… Guess she's letting the Rare Hunters use it, too…"

"But… why is Vulsor helping Keith?" asked Duke. "What's in it for her?"

"I guess those are questions we'll have to answer as we figure this out…" said Yugi. "But at least we know where to start."

"But what about von Krolock?" asked Joey. "We have to stop him from meeting Kaiba again…! Kaiba could get mind-controlled again… or bitten!"

"You really aren't going to let the vampire thing go, are you…?" Tristan asked, rolling his eyes.

"You just wait; this is another angle of the mystery that I'll take into my own hands to solve!" the young blond stated. He brandished a garlic sandwich like a wooden stake, only to have it pulled from his hand by the hungry husky.

"Some of us should check out Dronyche and make sure Vulsor isn't trying anything even as we speak," added Duke. "And Maybe Madame Mystíca can tell us something…"

Téa didn't want to say what Vulsor had told her just before coming her. She wanted to give Madame Mystíca the benefit of the doubt, but… Could she be certain? And then there was Pip. He would be useful in getting information on Vulsor… But was he truly a detective? She wasn't sure, and she decided that she wasn't going to fully trust him until she was convinced.

"Téa?" Yugi asked, bringing her to the present. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I… was just thinking that we should also have someone intercept Kaiba before he meets von Krolock," she bluffed.

"Maybe you should," Mokuba said, feeling as though Seto would be more receptive to her. "I'll be there, too."

Téa glanced at him and nodded.

"I'll go to Dronyche and see what's going on," said Yugi.

"I'll go, too; you might need backup with Vulsor involved…" said Duke.

"And I guess that leaves Bakura and me to check things out with Madame Mystíca…" said Tristan. "Unless Mai wants to come, too…"

"No; someone needs to make sure Joey doesn't make a complete fool out of himself…" the blond woman said, with a slight smirk as Joey protested.

"I would like to go with you, Tristan," said Marik. "If she is as good a medium as your emails have described, then I pray she has some way of letting me know that Ishizu is alright, wherever she is."

"I, too, wish to find out about our sister," Odion agreed.

"And I'm going to stay out of your way and try to find my brother…" Pip said, coaxing Borealis out the door. "See you around…"

The others saw him off.

"Where did you find that character…?" Tristan asked Téa.

"At the arcade…" she sighed, no longer sure of what to make of him now. But there were other things to worry about, she decided.

After all, getting through to Seto Kaiba was no easy task.