Chapter 20 - Missing In Action

"Rose, Rose wake up!" Yugi nudged her as she slept comfortably in her bed.

She let out an annoyed groan and rolled over, "What time is it?" she mumbled into her pillow.

"Doesn't matter, you said you'd come with me and Joey to Kaiba Corp so we can use their duelling platforms," he said, poking her again.

"Not if it's before 9 o'clock," she said, pulling the covers up over her head.

"Aw, come on Rose," Yugi said, pulling them back, "Don't you want to see Valkyrion in action?"

Rose jokingly hissed at the sunlight coming in through her now open curtains, Yugi just laughed. "Fine," Rose said, "go ahead and I'll catch up." Rose pulled her blankets back out of Yugi's hands, and he smiled, victorious.

"Don't take too long, alright?" he said heading for the door.

"I won't," Rose said. Yugi walked out and Rose pulled the covers back over her, I'll just doze for ten minutes...

...

BUZZ!

Rose was woken up by the loud vibration of her phone on the bedside table. Startled, she sat up and fumbled for her phone. She just managed to glimpse the time before she answered it, it had been an hour since Yugi left.

She lifted the phone to her ear, "Hello?"

"Rose, it's Joey," although Joey normally sounded happy and care-free, he didn't sound like either of those at the moment.

"Hey Joey, what's up?" Rose asked sleepily.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at home, why?" Rose was getting quite concerned with the tone in Joey's voice.

"Is Yugi still there?"

"No, he left to meet you an hour ago..." she said.

"Well he hasn't shown up."

Rose was suddenly on her feet, "I'll be there in 10, hang tight." With that, she hung up, pulled some clothes on and darted out the door.

...

"Joey!" Rose called out to him as she ran over, "Still no sign of him?" she asked, as she stopped and tried to regain her breath.

"Not one bit," Joey said. He looked around nervously, "It isn't like Yug to disappear like this."

"No it isn't." Rose was worried. Yugi seemed to always have someone after him, for whatever reason. "Wait! My Millennium Heart!" she piped up.

"What about it?" Joey asked.

"It seems to have some form of connection with Yugi's puzzle, maybe I can use my heart to find him."

"That's a great idea!" Joey said, suddenly hopeful.

"Alright millennium heart," Rose said, "lead me to Yugi..." She closed her eyes and focused on finding the millennium puzzle. The Millennium Heart lit up and Rose felt like it was pulling her forwards. She knew she had found it.

"This way!" She said, running ahead.

"Hold up!" Joey said, stumbling over his feet then running to catch up with her. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Positive!" Rose said, calling back over her shoulder. They ran back the way Rose had come for a little while, then turned down a narrow alley. Rose could feel the presence of the millennium puzzle. "He's just around the corner!" she yelled back to Joey with triumph. They rounded the corner and stopped. The alley was completely empty except for some small trash bins. Rose's heart sank. "But I was so sure...I can sense the millennium puzzle right here," she slumped back against the wall.

"You're still getting used to using that heart thingy of yours," Joey said, "Maybe you just need more practice." Rose was sure the heart was right. She could sense the presence of the millennium puzzle as if it were right next to her. That's when she noticed something glint out of the corner of her eye. She looked over to the trash bins and gasped.

"The millennium puzzle!" She ran over and picked it up, it looked like it had been thrown behind the bins.

"Why is the puzzle here? Yugi would never leave it behind," Joey said, scratching his head.

"I know..." Rose said.

"Yugi!" Joey called out, "Where are ya buddy?" There was no answer.

Rose knew she had been able to sense someone. But it wasn't Yugi. "Pharaoh? Are you in there?" she held up the puzzle.

"Rose!" Yami's spirit appeared before her. "I've lost contact with Yugi."

"What happened?" Rose asked.

"We were on our way to meet Joey, but we were being followed by two thugs. I didn't notice until it was too late."

"Where is he?" She asked.

"I don't know, they threw the puzzle over here and dragged him that way," he pointed ahead.

"Well let's go find him!" Rose said. She hung the puzzle around her neck and her and Joey took off in the direction that Yami had pointed out. "Do you have any idea what they want with Yugi?" Rose asked Yami as they ran.

"I'm not sure, there's always someone that's after us for some reason, but for once it's not the puzzle."

"That's strange," Rose said.

"Indeed," he nodded.

...

The two henchmen finally let go of Yugi, and he fell straight onto his ass. They laughed as Yugi groaned from the drop and they stepped back. Yugi then heard another laugh and looked up.

"So you're the one behind all this!" he said, quickly getting to his feet.

"Is that how you greet an old friend?" Bakura said with a smirk. Of course it wasn't Bakura, it was the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring. "Not even a hello?"

"What do you want from me?" Yugi demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? I want your puz-" He stopped mid sentence when he realised Yugi didn't have the puzzle around his neck. "Where is the millennium puzzle?" he demanded.

"Your goons threw it away," Yugi said none too kindly.

"You imbeciles!" Bakura yelled to the two men at the back. "Why the hell did you throw away that artefact?"

"We thought it was some cheap rip off," one of them said.

"Yeah and it was annoying us, so we disposed of it," the other said.

"What did you do with it?" Bakura demanded.

"It's sitting behind a trash can somewhere," the first one said.

Bakura obviously wasn't very happy with them, as he clenched his teeth when he next spoke. "Go do something useful and guard the front door, if you're even capable of doing that properly." The two goons shrugged and left the room. "No matter," Bakura continued, "I still want those god cards of yours, so duel me if you want to leave here in one piece."

"Fine," Yugi said, pulling out his deck. "You're on."

...

"How on earth are we supposed to find where Yugi went?" Joey asked, stopping to catch his breath.

"I don't know," Rose said, her hope fading. That's when they heard voices nearby.

"I don't think he's very happy with us," one of the voices said.

"Who cares, we're still gonna get paid for bringing the boy here," the other said.

"Bingo," Rose said, before running around the corner.

"Hey wait up!" Joey said, following her. They saw a big abandoned warehouse up ahead. Rose looked up and saw a very tall tower reaching up into the sky above them. She then noticed two very tall well built men were guarding the door.

"They are the ones who took Yugi!" Yami said.

Because Joey couldn't hear the Pharaoh, Rose repeated what he said, "Joey, those two are the ones who took Yugi!"

"Hey creeps!" Joey called out, running towards them, "What did you do with Yugi?" he demanded.

"What, you mean that little runt? He's inside with-"

The other guy elbowed him, "you idiot, we're not supposed to tell anybody."

"Let us in you big creep!" Joey said.

"How about this: if you both can defeat us in a duel we'll let you in, but if we beat you we get your rarest cards."

"What are you doing?" the other one asked.

"Getting us a bonus now shut up," the fist one said. "So what do you say? Do we have a duel?"

"Rose?" Joey asked. "Are you in?"

Rose was already sliding on her duel disk, "I'm in," she said, glaring at the two men.

"Then let's duel!" Joey said.