Chapter 11

DECEMBER 20; 9:07 AM

Anya

Houou the Rainbow Skylark landed within my dreams, after a wonderful flight with a large dragon that had Seto's eyes. This had been the pattern of all my dreams since bringing him here. This time, though, the dragon actually named her; now, of course, he knew who she was, and he proved to me that we were sharing dreams.

And, as with all my dreams with Houou in them, when she fell asleep, I woke up.

I woke up slowly, analyzing my personal shield's memory. Let's see…Otieno made repeated sexual attempts at about eleven, that my shield repelled. Sheesh – I should report him. Or turn him into a toad and drop him down a snake hole myself.

"Has anyone told you that you are quite alluring in a nightgown?" Otieno's voice slid over to me.

That woke me up, and I fell out of bed onto the curved surface of a…bubble? Jumping up, I looked around. My bed and I were inside a gigantic bubble, and certainly not in my room anymore! I was in a dungeon, with the only light coming from a torch. And sure enough, there was the snake himself, in the doorway and grinning at my disorientation with fangs.

So. He was a vampire. Why aren't I surprised?

"You!" I yelled, both mentally, and physically. "You did this to me?!"

"Much as I'd love to take the credit," he answered, bowing, "my master constructed your, ah, new bedchamber. And, don't even try to escape," he added, "for my master certainly won't like it if you did. You won't like him if he's angry."

That just set me off even worse. I didn't try to escape with my powers, for landing on the surface had told me that using my powers to try to manipulate it or leave it would just drain my energy. Instead, I pounded my fists on the surface and yelled at him with my voice and mind, every nasty thing I could think of, as he laughed and left. I actually didn't particularly care if he heard me or not; I was simply giving my students something to find.

Now I was really glad I had chosen a different statue to channel Houou through, as opposed to my actual one. If he had me, he'd probably also chosen to take the statue he'd seen me with. As long as my students found it before he went back to double-check my room for the real one, they'd have all the instruction they'd need.

DINING HALL; 10:24 AM

Seto

Pegasus was eating with us today. Apparently, Anya's old teacher had finished teaching him everything she could. What was odd was that Anya wasn't here. Mai had gone to check on her.

She soon came back, carrying what looked like a ball with lines carved in it. "Anya wasn't in her room. Neither was the statue, or her bed."

"Her bed?" Wheeler repeated. "Why would she move her bed?"

Yugi looked like he was thinking about something. Then he looked at Pegasus. "Do you think you can find her?"

"That's what I've been learning, Yugi boy," he answered smugly. Then he closed his eye.

It opened again really fast. "My word!"

"What?" "Whatcha see?" "Where is she?" Tristan, Wheeler, and Tea asked those questions, respectively.

"Well, the bad news is, she's in a dungeon, within a very pretty soap bubble that she evidently can't teleport out of." He looked like he was going to laugh.

"She's been captured?" I yelled, starting out of my chair.

"Why do you care?" Wheeler asked, giving me a strange look.

I hesitated. Then I decided that they were all my friends, whether I'd agreed to it or not, and sighed. "She's bossy, she thinks too highly of her own delusions, she knows almost nothing about Duel Monsters, is computer-illiterate and can't fight her way out of a soap bubble." I looked at Tea and finished with a question. "So could somebody tell me why I'm in love with her?"

Well, everybody else reacted brilliantly. Bakura actually fell out of his chair. So did Wheeler, laughing like an idiot. Tristan, Tea, Yugi and Mai all had their mouths open. Most shields were down enough for me to get a sense of what they were thinking: "YOU??? In love?" Sheesh – what did they think I was: a cold-blooded monster?

Actually, considering my attitude for years, that was probably exactly what they'd thought.

Pegasus chose to be annoying right then. "Ah, se ll'amour. There's no logic to it at all."

"Shut up!" I snapped.

"Don't you want to hear the good news?"

"There's good news about our teacher being kidnapped?" Wheeler asked.

"Well…" Then he started laughing. "I can't say it! Just…look, all right?"

I narrowed my eyes. What couldn't he say? Finally, I just closed my eyes and looked.

OTIENO, YOU BAT-HEADED SNAKE!!! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU TWICE AND THEN TURN YOU INTO A TOAD AND FEED YOU TO YOUR PARENTS! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO BE CALLED A PSI – YOU'RE A TRAITOR TO YOUR KIND! I'D CALL YOU A MONSTER, BUT THAT'S AN INSULT TO SETO'S CARDS!!!

I recoiled, stunned.

Pegasus asked, still laughing, "Pungent, isn't she?"

Joey was starting to laugh a little, too.

Yugi commented, still staring straight ahead in shock, "Well…Anya did say that it was easier to get an angry victim to cooperate with their rescuer. So that is good news. But how do we use it?"

Tea suddenly looked at Mai. "Hey, what's that you've got?"

"Huh? Oh." She set it down on the table. There was slight energy sheen over it. And now that I was looking at it, I saw that the lines weren't random: they were carved to give the ball the appearance of a bird with its wings curved around it and its head bent down.

Suddenly, I had a suspicion about it. "Houou?"

The eyes on its head turned blue, and the bird surged free of its home – its real home. And it was mad.

Yugi

I yelled up, "Houou! Calm down!"

She turned to me…and calmed down. A little, anyway; she calmed down more when Kaiba called to her. Considering Anya had specifically mentioned Seto's cards, that didn't surprise me.

"Now," I said, "we need a plan to go rescue her."

"Ah…how are we going to do that?" Tristan asked. "We don't know where she is, and we don't have any way of getting there."

Bakura slowly raised his hand. "I could probably guide our way there. It's simply dousing for her, just like Pegasus was able to see her."

Joey grinned. "And we can summon monsters to fly there! After all," he reached up and patted Houou's shoulder, "the monsters we summon here are real!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Wheeler, did you leave your brain somewhere? We can only summon weak monsters right now!"

"Well…"I said, "we could make our spirit statues. That would give us powerful monsters that would have enough endurance to get us all the way there, with enough energy left over to summon all the monsters we need. And there are those medallions Anya showed us, too."

Mai spoke up. "We don't know how to make those statues."

Then Kaiba corrected her, his voice as gentle as if he was talking to Mokuba…or at least, as close to gentle as he ever gets even when he is talking to his brother. "I'd bet my Blue-Eyes that Houou does. She's a spirit monster herself, and she's Anya's. She can tell us."

Houou looked at him. Then she curved her neck so that she was eye level with him, and her eyes glowed.

His eyes started glowing a little, for about ten seconds. Then the light went out – toned down, in Houou's case – and Kaiba staggered backwards.

While he recovered, Houou went back into her statue.

Kaiba then reached over and grabbed Mai's hand and mine. "Get Wheeler ready. I'm sending you the information."

I barely had enough time to grab Joey's hand and set up the information link before concepts poured through my head, and by proxy, through his.

It's a method of kinesis; one that automatically locks out any outside strength, for the creator needs to be the only one giving strength to this action. Mai will have some difficulty with this – as she isn't actually kinetic – but she can do it once. You focus on the molecules in the air, focus on bringing them together, and ask within yourself for your spirit monster to help. Then, when you feel this tension-charged energy come to a climax, which will take all your strength, speak the first name to come into your head. This name is your spirit monster's name, will synthesize the molecules into a compact form of the spirit's form and place it within. Afterwards, most people lose consciousness. Anya didn't, but she was definitely worn out.

I opened my eyes. "Come on, you three," I said, "let's go to the first classroom."

CLASSROOM; 11:10 AM

I moved a table into the middle of our circle. "Let's all focus together. That way," I smiled at Kaiba, "we won't see each other faint."

He grinned sourly at that.

Then there was no time for jokes. We all extended our hands over the table, in front of us, and closed our eyes.

It was all I could do to keep from trying to check on Joey. After a while, though, I realized I couldn't focus on anything except bringing those molecules together. It was like some kind of song, with a presence that didn't have a name singing with me. Then, right on the climax of the song, I felt myself speak, and heard three other voices speaking as well.

"Horus the Lightning Magician!"

"Hotaru the Volcano Dragon!"

"Solana the Sky Griffin!"

"Morpheus the Dragon of the Heavens!"

Then all the energy just…came together, and I collapsed onto the floor on my back. I vaguely heard everyone else fall, too.

I wonder why I'm still awake. Then I remembered that there was still something to do. I didn't have the energy for it, though. Hey…why not do that? My voice a bare whisper, I called, "Atem."

A light appeared next to me, which shaped into my old partner. He looked very amused. What are you doing on the floor?

"You already know why. Could you help me? There's still something to do."

Getting everyone into their beds? At my nod, he answered; I suppose I have a little time.

I laughed a little, and let him take over.

Atem

I opened my eyes, and sat up; this was slightly difficult, because I was very tired. Now, I'm aware that it's Yugi's body I'm in, and not my own, but I choose to call it mine for the sake of convenience. Looking left and right, I saw Kaiba and Mai, both lying on the floor unconscious. Joey was no doubt on the other side of the table, in the same state.

Slowly, I stood up. I strongly doubted that I could use Yugi's kinesis, even if he hadn't just used up all his power for today in making Horus's statue. There was something I could do, though.

I opened the door and called. "Tristan! Tea!"

After about two minutes, they came in, with Pegasus and Bakura trailing along. Tea had to give me a second look. "Atem?"

Nodding at her, I waved at the three prone duelists. "They need to be taken back to their rooms. Yugi doesn't have the energy to move them in any way, so…"

They took the hint. Tristan and Tea glared at Joey, and slowly, Joey lifted off the floor. Bakura stepped forwards and helped me pick up Mai, while Pegasus slung Kaiba over his shoulder. Ah...nobody had better tell Kaiba just how he got back to his room.

Then I glanced at the statues. "Who's going to get them?"

Tea edged back over to the table and picked up two statues, still glaring at Joey. Once she moved back to her place, Tristan edged to the table and picked up the other two.

"Tea, you've got Joey's dragon. Tristan, you've got Kaiba's. Make sure the right statues make it to the right rooms."

We let Tristan and Tea drop off their load first. Then they came back out, Tea minus a dragon-carved ball, and I passed off Mai's arm to Tea. "Come on, Pegasus, Tristan," I said heavily, "let's get Kaiba and his dragon back to his room." I took Yugi's spirit statue – which looked vaguely like a human, curled up – back from Tristan.

I didn't actually go with them to Kaiba's room. Instead, I started towards Yugi's room. I intercepted Tea and Bakura on the way, who had just dropped off Mai and her griffin.

"You're not leaving, are you?" she asked.

"I need to put Yugi to bed, he's exhausted. But I don't have to go straight back to the spirit world. I can simply possess Bakura if you want me to stay and talk."

Tea looked very happy with that. Bakura merely pointed at himself and looked uneasy.

I could understand why. For years, he'd been possessed by a spirit that was closer in Anya's definition to a demon. But he knew me, and knew I wouldn't hurt him. I took my time going back to Yugi's room, to give poor Bakura time to think that over and get used to it.

I set the statue down on his nightstand, lay down, and left his body. "Pleasant dreams, aibou," I said softly, as I glided back out the door.

A/N: Atem's conversation's not important to the plot; he's merely catching up on old times with Tristan and Tea.