Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed last chapter :) *Hands out cupcakes*

I'M FINALLY UPDATING CHAPTER FOURTEEN! YAY!

And let me tell you, it ends with one huge ass plot twist ^^

So as explained in the previous chapter, this Shadow Game involves solving riddles. The reason I loved writing this chapter so much was that I spent about three hours surfing the net for the best ones. I'm quite proud of some of the ones I found...although some of them are pretty lame. Deal :/

You'll probably notice that some of the riddles Lopez asks aren't actually shown here. It's because there are only a certain amount of bad riddles that I can put in without being embarrassed by them XD You'll see what I mean. Anyway, try solving the riddles yourself before reading the answers ^^ that's what I did...I didn't get any of them. But you never know – you may get lucky :D

Anywaaaay – thanks again for reading :D See you at the end of the chapter!

Lopez leaned against the railing of the walkway in Slater's nonchalant manner. "Just to make sure you get the hang of things, I'll start off very simple. You are a bus driver; at the beginning of the day there are ten people on the bus. As the bus visits various stops, six people get off, four people get on, three people get off, nine people get on..."

Yugi was lost after the first three stops. His heart started pounding. He had no idea how he was supposed to answer this.

"...seven people get off, twelve people get on, two people get off, eight people get on; what's the bus driver's name?"

Yugi stared at him, absolutely stumped. The bus driver's name? What did the bus driver's name have to do with how many passengers got on and off his bus? He felt himself grow cold. He couldn't remember Lopez making a hint at the bus driver's name in the long list of the passengers' numbers. He couldn't afford to get wrong what was supposed to be the easiest question! Frantically, he ran through the question again...and saw the answer. It was so obvious that he felt silly for not knowing. "His name is Yugi."

Lopez smiled, and without hesitating, he cut one of the ropes attached to his railing. Above their heads, one of the sandbags fell and landed on his side of the scales. Yugi saw his side – and the Millennium Scales – inch closer to him.

"So now you see how it works. Now, next question; if half of one is one and half of ten is five, then what is half of twelve?"

Yugi froze. Half of ten was five; that part made sense. But half of one is one? That was just a mystery.

He knew that half of twelve was six – but was that the answer? Judging by the 'half of one is one', he figured that there was more to it than that.

Yugi ran through any possible twists to the question; fractions, decimals, infinity...nothing made sense; how could half of one be one, if half of ten was five?

He considered the image of the numbers themselves. Slicing them in half on any axis didn't make any legible numbers. Unless...

Yugi looked across the room at Lopez, and his thoughts moved onto Slater himself. He hadn't paid it much mind until now, but judging by his accent, Slater was an American. Maybe this wasn't related to the Japanese numerals.

It made sense; if the number one were represented by a line, as it was in the Hindu Arabic number system, half of that line would be another line; another one. But the half of ten...

Something twigged in the very back of his mind; a maths class that he had ignored, thinking that it would never apply. Something to do with Rome...

The Roman numeral system! That was it! The symbol for ten was 'X', and X sliced in half was 'V', or five. He felt his excitement growing. He knew what he had to do; find twelve in Roman numerals and slice it in half.

And twelve in Roman numerals was 'XII'. "The answer is seven."

As he had done before, Lopez cut another rope, and another sand bag fell. The Millennium Scales came just a little closer.

Eight more to go...Yugi heaved a sigh of relief. He had made it this far; how hard could the rest of them be?

"And so if it has a bank but can't put in money, it moves without legs, and has a mouth that cannot eat, it has to be a river."

The third bag fell. The fourth, the fifth. Whatever questions Slater's mind slave threw at Yugi, he found the answer. Yugi was getting more confident

"You walk into a grassy field that nobody has entered for at least six months. It is completely empty except for two stones underneath a weather beaten hat. How did they get there and why?"

Yugi pondered this one for what felt like forever. "Someone put them there...as a joke," he said finally, knowing that it was wrong.

It was. "Ah, Yugi; you were on a roll, too! I'm afraid that while someone did indeed put them there, it was not as a joke; it was six months ago, when they made a snowman in the middle of winter."

Yugi groaned. The 'six months' had been a dead give away – he couldn't believe that he hadn't got that one.

"No matter; you must cross a canyon that is a hundred feet deep and a hundred feet wide, without going to the bottom or going around. All you have is a twelve foot ladder and an endless supply of rope. How do you get across?"

Yugi smiled, relived; he already knew this one. "Fill the canyon with rope and walk."

Another bag fell.

"What starts with four legs, then has two, and lastly three?"

Yugi stiffened. What was that supposed to mean? "I don't know..." He saw the answer just as the words left his mouth, but it was too late.

"A shame, a shame. The answer was a man; he begins his life as an infant, crawling on four legs, then learns to walk upright on two, and finishes with using a cane; three."

Yugi almost punched himself for speaking too soon.

"Tall I am young, short I am old. While with life I do glow, human breath is my foe. What am I?"

"A candle." That one was easy.

The next bag fell. I need three more, and I can afford one more wrong answer.

Yugi looked down at the Millennium Scales. They were much closer...but just not enough.

Two bags and one failure later, Yugi waited for the final question. It all came down to this.

"An assistant in a butcher's shop is six feet tall and wears size nine shoes. What does he weigh?"

This question seemed too simple; not easy, but simple. Yugi realised why a moment later when he realised that there wasn't enough information to draw a conclusion.

Then it's a trick question, and those are always solved by thinking over the wording of the question...

Six feet tall and wears size nine shoes, how much does he weigh...he stopped. Not 'how much does he weigh', but 'what does he weigh'.

"Meat. He's a butcher's assistant, so he weighs meat."

Lopez laughed dramatically, and cut the tenth rope. Another bag of sand fell, and the giant scales balanced.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Yugi reached down and grabbed the Scales, which were now easily within his grasp. He pulled them up; they were his now.

But something wasn't right. That was too easy...that was way too easy. What does Slater think he's pulling?

Yugi felt the shadows lift, and suddenly, he could hear his friends' voices.

"It's going away – it's over." It was Joey speaking.

"Did he win?" The next voice was Tristan's.

"He did! Look, see, he's got the Scales!" Téa waved from where she and the others were standing. "Way to go, Yugi!"

But Yugi wasn't paying attention – he was focused on Lopez, who was collapsing to the ground.

"Oh, god..." Yugi ran around the walkway until he was beside Slater's former mind slave. He propped him up. He was breathing, and there was a pulse, but there was absolutely no further sign of life. "Wake up!" he pleaded.

Lopez opened his eyes and looked at Yugi, and Yugi's heart clenched as he saw the utterly blank look on his face. He had lost his soul to the Shadow Realm.

"Damn you, Slater," he spat. "This man was helping you, and look at what you did to him."

I will save him. I have to. This is my fault, and I'm going to fix it.

"Yugi – congratulations! Really, I must say, you've impressed me once again."

Yugi didn't need to see his face to know who was speaking. "What have you done, Slater?"

"Why, Yugi! I thought you'd be happier – you now have two Millennium Items, and you earned them fair and square."

Yugi turned to see where the voice was coming from, and gasped when he saw Slater's worn, scarred face upon the far wall. He looked at the opposite wall and saw two more of Slater's henchmen manning a projector.

"What do you think you're doing? Why don't you just face me instead of hiding?" Yugi demanded.

"Oh, come now, Yugi. Couldn't you just pretend to be excited? For once?"

"No – for all I know the Scales I just won are a fake!"

Slater smiled a wicked smile. "You know, Yugi. I had a feeling that you were going to say that...so I prepared my answer in advance. What do you think would be the most reliable way of telling whether a Millennium Item is the real deal or not?"

Yugi knew the answer, and Slater did too. "The Millennium Ring, of course! If I recall correctly, it can react when it senses another Millennium Item nearby. An awfully handy tool for someone trying to find them all, but since I know where they all are, I have no use for such a thing. How about I save your friends and yourself the trouble of going to some new and exciting location and just put the Ring up as prize in another Shadow Game, right now?"

Yugi jolted. Another game? Already? He was already mentally worn out from his last game, not to mention that it was the middle of the night.

"Well, what do you say, Yugi? My Ring against your Puzzle and Scales."

"Go for it, Yuug! You already beat this guy twice – third time's a charm!" Joey called.

Yugi set his jaw. He knew that he would have to face Slater again eventually no matter what he chose now. "Alright, Slater. Let's get this over with."

"Wonderful! Kindly put the items in the basket which is being lowered to you from my generous associates."

Yugi looked at the simple woven basket that came from one of the higher levels. "I'm not buying that – you'll just steal them."

"Why, Yugi, how could you be so judgemental? I have fifteen men in the building where you are, all of them armed. If I were going to steal them, I'd have done it already. Put them in the basket and if I lose the game you can have them back. I'll even return Lopez's soul to his body."

Yugi looked at the motionless form of Lopez; a human being that Slater would have called 'collateral damage'. He had been working for Slater, and Yugi had never met him, but a human being nonetheless. There was no question about it; Yugi placed the Scales in the basket, and, with a cold feeling of dread, he removed the Puzzle from around his neck and placed it in the basket. It didn't even occur to him until it was already pulled out of his reach that he should have disassembled it first. He groaned. He absolutely couldn't afford to lose now.

"Now, to begin!" Slater's face on the screen smiled. "So, would you like to join your friends on the floor above you to watch, or are you happy where you are?"

Yugi thought he had heard wrong. "...What?"

"I would imagine that you'd want to watch with them. Alright, men; let him reach the stairs."

Yugi barely even noticed that the two henchmen who had been blocking the stairs leading to the next floor stepped aside. He was too focused on the screen.

"Of course, you can't see much with the camera on me all the time; Jones, zoom out and rotate the camera! Do I have to think of everything?"

Yugi watched in horror as the camera zoomed out to show that wherever he was, Slater was standing in front of what appeared to be a giant grid. And standing on the other side of the grid was Ryou Bakura.

Please tell me you didn't see that coming! Pleasepleaseplease? O.o I thought it was pretty cool anyway :/

So...what did you think of my riddles? I think that last question was a bit of a let-down. Oh well :( The snowman and the Roman numerals were my favourite. I'm not actually sure how educated Japanese people are on Roman numerals, but I thought that riddle was too cool not to include. Meh :)

Erm...please don't think the nationality of my villain is due to xenophobia! I needed him to be from an English speaking country...he was originally going to be Australian, but I decided against that. We aussies are too stupid to be evil :D Lol – self pay out! XD

So...next chapter is coming out soon! I'm up to chapter twenty at the moment so chapter fifteen should be out within a couple of days, depending on whether I have internet or not. Or maybe I'll just leave you hanging for a month or so ;P Just so you know, the next game isn't chess...much as I love chess, it's a bit hard to write about :(

Anywoi, I'll see you later ;D Thanks again for reading this far! :)

~IA