Oh my, is it that time again already? Fine. The characters, etc., are not mine. Nothing but the coughbrilliantcough plot.

Seto's face set grimly. "What are our options? We need to get out of here with as much information as possible."

Yugi began to recount them. "We could try to make contact. I think there are some satellite phones somewhere, the only real problem is finding them in the midst of all this chaos. Barring that, there are the suppliers and the occasional official visits, a few relief organizations and the like. But we'd have to smuggle ourselves out of camp."

He gave a self satisfied grin. "Not that that's a problem, is it?" Cole and Dmitri choked back laughter, the girls looking on disapprovingly but still visibly holding back their own laughs. Yami looked back and forth between the laughing Movians and a very shell shocked looking Seto.

"Yugi…illegally…" Seto cut himself off before he made a fool out of himself. Mokuba looked far too entertained at his brothers' shock. Seto quickly composed himself. "Yugi, I must say I never knew you had it in you."

"Thank you kindly, Seto. Right then, people. Dmitri, you and Eliana start looking for those phones. Cole, you're on kid-sitting duty until further notice. Leanna, check supplies, compile all information you can get about this epidemic, and if you wouldn't mind Yami, go with her. Seto, we're not sure what condition the sat phones will be in if we get them, so we might need your and Mokuba's expertise on this.

"Alright, does everyone understand their job?" There came a chorus of varying agreements. "Good."

"Hold on, Yugi. Where will you be?" "I'm going to the medical tents. They need all the help they can get, and around here I pass for a doctor." Yugi gave Yami a look of 'no, duh.' Yami in turn looked as though he were about to have a mild coronary, until Yugi cut him off.

"We don't even know how it's getting spread. Orren's here, so they probably aren't worried about person to person contact. It could be water contamination, air-born, anything. Don't borrow trouble, and don't try to fight me on this. You'll lose, you know." Cole seconded that. "You will. It takes an act of heaven to get Yugi to change his mind once it's made up, especially about his leadership decisions."

Seto cleared his throat to gain attention. "Actually, I also have a device that could help. It's essentially an emergency beacon, but it was slightly damaged. We'll try to get it working again, and my people will find us."

"Good. We need every chance we can get," said Yugi, already walking towards the medical section of camp. They all moved off, Yami following Leanna as she moved swiftly through the camp with practiced ease.

Leanna had her determined face on, but her mind was moving frantically, trying to work out all the different problems, trying to make a mental list of everything she needed to check, all the information she needed. Could things get any worse? She truly wasn't sure. And it didn't help that she had a very distraught, taller clone of her leader/friend following her everywhere. She knew, in the back of her mind, that there was a story behind this. But now wasn't the time. She needed to FOCUS, she needed to think.

Yami was trying to keep pace. For someone who was a good foot shorter than himself, the girl knew how to move quickly. It didn't help that she sometimes took shortcuts that were difficult for taller folk. Still, he managed to keep pace. A million worries clouded his mind, not the least of which was the fact that Yugi seemed to be avoiding him. It was hard to tell, considering that they had spent the past few days almost constantly in view of each other, but still. And the usually wide open link was kept adamantly closed. This was…everything really, seemed to be meant to confuse the yami.

Cole kept a carefree countenance whilst among the children playing around him, but his mind was also contemplating the situation. Here was something no one could fight, it was a different battlefield. The protectiveness of the children under his care flared up, and he promised himself that he would do anything to keep his children safe. He just wasn't sure how he was going to keep that promise. But Yugi would be able to do something, he always figured something out. This time wouldn't prove the exception. 'We'll save them,' became his mantra.

Dmitri wanted to curse vividly in every language he knew, which was quite a few, actually. Where were those (insert expletive here) phones?! Everyone he talked to said to talk to someone else, who inevitably said to talk to someone else. He wasn't angry at the people, they couldn't help it if the entire camp had fallen to pieces as the disease swept through and ravaged the population. Still, he was glad Yugi was here again. He had been rather flattered that Yugi had chosen him to lead in his absence, but he had never really felt comfortable in that position.

And truth be told, he disliked being forced into such a position of responsibility. It was just too hard having people depend on you for life and death decisions.

Eliana was doing her best not to catch Dmitri's aggravation. It wouldn't do to have both of them completely incensed. At least Yugi was back. She, better than anyone else, understood just how much pressure Dmitri felt in Yugi's absence. Her brother had confided in her all his insecurities, and in turn she had comforted him to the best of her abilities. It did, though, seem somehow very wrong that Yugi had been taken from them. He deserved happiness, truly he did. And his getting out had enabled them to have some form of support for their efforts. Still, he hadn't wanted to go. He had found a new family, and then been ripped apart from them.

There are always losses in war, but Eliana suspected that this particular loss, an unnecessary one had hurt Yugi more than he said. What secrets that boy-no, he hadn't been a boy in a long time-that man could keep. It was funny to think of someone so young-looking as a man, but it was true. She only hoped that Yugi had been able to reclaim some piece of his childhood living in Japan. She loved him! How could she hope otherwise?

Seto was pretending that he wasn't worried about Mokuba getting sick and focused as much as he could on the small metal bit of hope in front of him. He wasn't about to let his brother die. It was his promise, and he had always kept it.

Yugi was too busy dashing from one person to the next to really think anything except 'need more of this medication, patient in the corner needs that' for however long it was Yugi kept at it. He had a thought at the back of his head, just before he fell asleep sitting on a crate. He really, really hoped that beacon of Seto's worked.