Hi guys! It's been a while since I've had an update, so here ya go!

Corona

Chapter 10

Yugi and Ryou were walking in almost complete silence in Bakura's hideout. Ryou was walking a little a head of Yugi with the Millennium Ring out. It had been pointing straight ahead of them for the past twenty minutes. Yugi decided to break the silence a little.

"It sure makes it a lot easier when your Ring can find the Millennium Items," he said looking at the object. It was giving off the same glow that all the Items give off when they're being used.

"Yeah, or else it would take a lot longer to find these things." Ryou smiled, almost proudly. "Still it's strange that they were pointing straight a head of us all this time, even when we would turn…"

Suddenly, right after he finished his sentence, all of the pointers turned to their right, pointing straight at the wall next to them. Ryou blinked.

"Huh…now that's strange. I wonder if they're in that room?"

Yugi didn't say anything. The crown inside him pulsed with a sudden renewed energy, and seemed to be trying to tell him something. There was a Millennium Item on the other side of that wall alright…but it was about to attack.

"Ryou move!" Yugi launched himself and Ryou out of the way just in time. A giant blast of energy burst its way through the wall that they were just standing in front of, leaving a gigantic hole. The beam of energy went straight through several more walls, leaving more holes throughout the building until it stopped many rooms down.

After Yugi and Ryou got their footing, they looked at where the energy blast came from, and saw Kaiba standing there with the Millennium Rod pointing out where he shot the beam. He slowly lowered his arm and looked at them when they realized that he was there.

"So you're surrendering yourselves to me? How…precious." Kaiba sneered, pointing the Rod at them both. His eyes were even starting to look like Bakura's.

"Kaiba, it's us!" Ryou yelled. "Don't you remember?"

Kaiba merely chuckled, his glazed eyes focusing on Ryou. "How…foolish."

A second blast of energy came faster than they were expecting. It made their way towards them faster than they could think to get away, but Ryou was ready. With a flash from the Ring, he put up his hand and a golden-semi transparent shield appeared and blocked Kaiba's attack. After the blast hit, the beam disappeared, along with the shield Ryou created.

"How'd you know how to do that?" Yugi looked at Ryou in shock. Ryou looked more pleased with himself than he had in a while.

"I guess I just picked it up from when Bakura kept me captive." He frowned as they looked back towards Kaiba. "But sadly it's the only thing I know how to do…"

"Touching," Kaiba smirked. The Rod glowed. "It's too bad you won't be able to protect yourselves for very long."

"Ryou," Yugi whispered quickly. "I know we came for the other Items too, but we won't be able to get them with Kaiba around. So let's just try and get the Rod. Maybe taking it will free him from Kaiba's control too…"

"Okay," Ryou said. He knew what he needed to do.

"Would you two please keep it down?" Yami turned around angrily at Joey and Tristan, who were constantly arguing over how they would distract Bakura for the past half hour. Joey suggested that they all run around in very small circles around Bakura, getting him confused. Tristan thought they should insult him, making him angry, or do sneak attacks. Yami believed that neither one of their plans would work. "We don't want Bakura to know that we're here just yet!"

It was true that Joey and Tristan were being quite loud when they argued, and Yami was surprised that they had not been discovered yet. Their original plan was to get to the side of the building, farthest away from Yugi and Ryou as to distract Bakura. When Yugi and Ryou would get the millennium items, Yugi is supposed to give Yami a signal through their mind link, telling them to leave…just as long as Yami, Joey and Tristan could distract Bakura long enough for them to.

"Sorry, but it's so creepy in here," Joey said as he and Tristan stopped arguing. "Why did Bakura have to make this place so weird…and big? I forgot how we got to him the last time we were here…"

"Pffft. I can't believe you don't remember." Tristan rolled his eyes. Joey immediately flared up again.

"Yeah? I'd like to see you try!"

"Joey, Tristan! Stop fighting!" Yami whispered at them as Tristan opened his mouth to argue back. They looked at him questioningly, as he didn't yell. When they followed his gaze, they realized why.

In one of the rooms that they were standing next to, the door was open, and inside stood Bakura, who was leaning against the wall with an amused expression on his face.

"You know, if you were any louder, I think even Kaiba would be able to hear you." Bakura smirked.

There was a few seconds of silence as they all stared at him, still reveling in the shock of him standing there. Then, Tristan stepped forward into the room.

"Your momma's so dumb, she tripped over a cordless phone!"

Everyone's gaze focused on Tristan, and he looked at them all in turn. Joey's face immediately said, "That was hilarious!" because he was desperately trying not to laugh. Yami's face was that of pure horror, as if they were going to die any second. Tristan looked at Bakura's face. It was that of pure rage.

"Oh…" Tristan mumbled as Bakura took a step closer with the look of pure murder on his face. "Crap…"

"Make fun of my family all you want," Bakura said looking up with a crazed look in his eyes. He raised his hand and at the same time, the Millennium Ring glowed. A cackling ball of energy formed in his palm. "But it will cost you…"

Before they could try and get away, Bakura shot the energy ball towards them, and there was a giant explosion. Among the sounds and screams that pierced the air, there was the sound of the wall in front of them collapsing. When the dust cleared, Yami was helping Joey up and Bakura was in the same spot as before.

"Tristan!" Joey yelled at his friend. Tristan was slumped up against the wall unconscious. As they looked at him, blood was starting to seep through his shirt from where he was hit with Bakura's attack. Joey ran over to him, with Yami not too far behind.

Yami looked at Bakura, to find him smirking more than ever.

"Do you really think you can win?" Bakura said. "I know what your plan is."

Yami and Joey looked over at him in shock.

"You're trying to distract me so they can get to the Millennium Items." Bakura cackled again as Yami gasped. "How…naive."

The hallway shook as Kaiba unleashed more of the Rod's power.

"Ryou, run!" Yugi yelled as Ryou almost got hit with another energy blast. He was trying to distract Kaiba so that Ryou could grab the Rod. Needless to say, their plan was failing miserably.

"I know!" Ryou said moving farther from Kaiba. "I was just trying to get close…"

"You'll never get it!" Kaiba laughed with a sound that was not his own. They could see the black aura radiating from him.

"This isn't working!" Ryou was getting a little creeped out. "We need a different plan!"

Yugi thought for a couple of seconds on how they were trying to distract him. The whole time they were trying to get Kaiba to come out by trying to get him to remember. But what if they got to Bakura first? He turned to Ryou.

"Ok, I have one more idea to distract him with. What makes Bakura mad?"

Ryou blinked. "Mad? Why?"

"If we can get Bakura mad enough, his concentration could slip, and we might be able to get the Rod and save Kaiba!"

Ryou looked at him for a second before nodding. "Alright. I know plenty of things to make him mad. You get the Rod."

Yugi nodded and walked on the other side of Kaiba. Kaiba watched them the entire time, waiting for some sort of move. So when they both went to either sides of him, he raised the Rod.

"Hold on Bakura," Ryou called out. "It's just you and me again. Are you man enough to face me?"

Kaiba lowered his arm a fraction, but did nothing else but stare at Ryou.

"Yeah I know what happened to your village, your family," Ryou gulped but went on. Kaiba's eyes were widening with each word he spoke. "And I'll have to tell you that they were all worthless!"

Yugi was too busy to see Kaiba's face, as he was trying to sneak up to get the Rod. Ryou noticed that he was close to grabbing it, so he went on to distract Bakura.

"They didn't deserve to be sacrificed to make the Millennium Items! But perhaps they would have made decent coasters for my drinks!"

Whatever Ryou said did it. The air in the room got thicker and any lights that were on got dimmer. In the strange lighting of the room, the Rod grew brighter than anything, and it almost looked as though Kaiba's eyes and a red glow to them.

Yugi immediately jumped away from Kaiba and over to Ryou with a disturbed look on his face.

"Ok…This isn't what I had in mind," he said. Kaiba pointed the Rod at them.

"I'll tell you who's worthless!" Kaiba almost screamed. His voice sounded oddly distorted, like it was a mixture between his and Bakura's. Suddenly, a giant energy wave came out from the Rod, and towards Yugi and Ryou.

Yugi reacted without meaning to. He reached within himself and found the power of the Crown. After bringing the energy out, he used it to send a blast of energy towards the one Kaiba just shot. The two energies collided and the building shook so hard it could collapse at any moment…

When the heat from the two blasts dropped and the light faded, Kaiba was on the ground, and the Rod was a few feet away from him. Yugi stood there panting, as the blast took up quite a bit of energy. Not only that, but it felt like his hands and his chest were on fire. Not a comfortable feeling.

After Ryou recovered from the shock of the blast, he quickly walked over and grabbed the Rod.

"Wow, that was really close. How did you do that Yugi?" Ryou looked over at him, and noticed he was in pain. He quickly walked over to him. "Hey, are you alright?"

It took a couple of seconds for Yugi to will the pain to go away, enough to where he could speak properly.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." he looked behind Ryou. "What about Kaiba?"

They both looked over to him just in time to see him sit up. They might as well have just pushed him down, because there wasn't a scratch on him.

"You fools," Kaiba said, nothing changed. "You will pay for that."

The dark aura was still present.

"What?" Yugi looked at him shocked. "But I thought that Bakura's control would break if he didn't have the Rod!"

"Well maybe not…" Ryou said stepping back a little as Kaiba stood up and gathered energy in his hand. "Oh great, he really didn't need the rod for anything, did he?"

"I think we should go…" Yugi said slowly as he started backing up towards the exit. If Kaiba could attack them without the Rod, there was no way they were going to get to the other Millennium Items now…

"Yeah, I agree with you…" Ryou said following Yugi. "Let's GO!"

At that, they both bolted for the exit and ran down the hallway. As they got to the end of the hallway, a blast of energy bolted through the walls and missed them by a foot. Behind that blast, was Kaiba, advancing on them quickly and looking as murderous as ever.

"Quick, go!" Ryou yelled and scrambled to get out of the hallway. When they got through that door, another white hallway greeted them. "Do you know how to get out of here?"

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Yugi said apologetically, but was cut off when another blast hit the wall to their left. "Let's just run until we hit the exit!"

So they did just that, weaving through the building like mice in an experimental maze, trying to find the exit. They almost got hit a few times before they saw the door they came from. They finally got to the exit, and ran out to the woods as fast as they could.

Yeah, I was going to continue on, but I felt that I should stop it there. Not a big cliffy, but there's still some.

Bonus points for those of you who noticed the Yugioh Abridged quote.

If there's any confusion or questions, let me know in a reveiw or send me a message! Thanks!

Yugisrose