A/N: It's just a guess, but I think y'all are going to like this part. Enjoy!

Ghost's hands were cold, Malik noticed distantly, and they were shaking, fumbling to get a good grip on the rope. It would have been pitifully easy to turn on him, but he was keenly aware of the gun tracking his every move. Besides, he was far more interested in watching Seto, which meant that he saw the moment that Seto looked around the room, so calmly you wouldn't have even guessed he was doing it for any particular reason, and then shifted his weight. A loud thumping sound from above gave him the opportunity he needed: he leapt forward and tackled Bandit Keith at the same time that Bakura appeared out of nowhere and took down Takaido.

"Where the fuck did he come from?" Satake shouted in alarm, whirling around. It was the decision that proved to be his undoing, as he let go of Jou's ropes when he spun. In one smooth move that contained entirely too much pleasure, Jou turned on his heel and punched Satake in the face as hard as he could. Malik watched in amusement as the man hit the floor, out cold from just one blow.

The hands scrabbling with his ropes paused, and then Ghost said, "Stop or I'll shoot you!"

"No, you won't," Malik said, and he reached out behind him and easily hooked his leg around Ghost's ankles. The startled squeak he got as a response when Ghost hit the floor was fairly fulfilling. Jou seized the ropes that had slipped easily off of his wrists and quickly but expertly tied Ghost's hands and feet until he didn't have a hope of moving. Then he turned towards Seto and Bandit Keith and Bakura and Takaido. He hesitated for a split second, not knowing who to help.

"Seto!" Bakura shouted, elbowing Takaido in the face. The man fell back with a howl just as the gun that Seto and Bandit Keith had been fighting over went spinning across the floor. Jou leapt forward and grabbed it, hefting it up and turning to face the two men on the floor.

"Enough!" he said, his voice shaking. He was clearly trying to sound calm, but Malik could see the stress in his face. "Or I swear to god I'll shoot you."

Bandit Keith froze. He was missing his bandanna, and he had to push a handful of his blond hair out of his face before he could get a good look at Jou. "Oh, you really think you're going to shoot me?" he asked, rolling his eyes. He didn't look nearly as brave as he sounded. "You don't have the guts."

"He doesn't, but I do," Seto replied, disentangling himself from Bandit Keith. He stood up and stretched a hand towards Jou, a wordless request for the weapon. Jou handed the gun over without hesitation. Bandit Keith started to speak, his mouth opening, and didn't get the chance to finish. Seto struck him solidly across the temple with the handle of the gun and he toppled over, unconscious.

"About time," Bakura said. He'd taken care of Takaido while the others were occupied, having trussed him up so neatly that there wasn't a hope in hell of Takaido escaping. "What were you waiting for?"

"I was trying to not actually kill him. Though at the moment, I'm trying to remember why." Seto touched his right cheek, which was developing a very lovely bruise that was spreading over the lower half of his face.

"Um," Malik said. He was still standing there with his arms tied, but that wasn't what he was really concerned about. The others didn't seem to have noticed, but the thumping noises from upstairs had stopped. He wasn't sure what the cause was, but if there was a chance it was Ryou or Yuugi... "I'm glad we're all okay, but I think someone should probably go upstairs."

For a moment, three faces just stared blankly at him. Then Jou and Bakura took off up the stairs at the same time, so quickly that Malik was left blinking at the spot where they had been. Seto sighed, and, although it was obvious he would have preferred to follow and see what was going on for himself, he remained behind to untie Malik and then tie up Bandit Keith. He seemed to take a special pleasure out of making Bandit Keith's knots so tight that there was no chance he would be able to get free. Malik thought that he probably should have protested, but it hardly seemed to be worth the effort.

"We'll put them in the closet and shut the door, then lock it," Seto told him. Malik nodded and grabbed Bandit Keith's shoulders. Seto took his legs, and they lifted together in an awkward stagger towards the hall closet. The door was open and inside were Miho and Honda, tied up and unconscious.

"Good gods," Malik muttered, dropping Bandit Keith on the floor and darting inside. He bent over Miho and realized that she had been bound with handcuffs instead of rope. A quick examination of Takaido revealed a key, a small silvery thing that unlocked the cuffs binding both of them with no problem. Neither of them stirred, and Malik checked to make sure they were both still breathing. He breathed an audible sigh of relief at the realization that they were. Drugged? Or knocked unconscious? He wasn't sure which would be worse.

Seto bent down and picked up another couple pairs of handcuffs that were lying on the floor. "At least now we know how Bakura got loose," he said. "They should've known better than to use something like this on the thief king. Bakura would've picked these in no time."

"He can do that?" Malik said, impressed. It sounded like a handy skill to have. He wondered if Bakura or Mariku would be willing to teach him.

"There are a lot of things that Bakura can do that aren't strictly legal," Seto replied wryly, hooking the cuffs to his belt. "Just because he's in Atemu's employ doesn't mean he's forgotten them."

Malik hid a grin at the long-suffering tone. He suspected that Seto had a lot of experience at being the victim of Bakura's 'special skills'. He started to respond, but paused at a sound coming from somewhere outside the house. Recognizing it as a door opening, he looked up at Seto. Clearly Seto had heard the sound as well because he'd gone tense, and he bent down to grab the gun that Satake had carelessly stuck in his waistband. He strode back into the living room, ready to meet any reinforcements. As it turned out, it was unnecessary: back-up had come, but not for Bandit Keith and his friends.

"Mariku!" Malik cried, launching himself out of the closet the second he recognized the face of his lover. Mariku caught him and brought him close, hugging him tightly while Malik clung to him. He was relieved to see that Mariku was alright, that the meeting at the restaurant hadn't been some sort of ambush after all.

"Where's Vivian?" Seto asked, lowering the gun to his side.

"With my father," said Atemu, his gaze quickly taking in the scene. There was a flash of satisfaction in his crimson eyes when he caught sight of Bandit Keith. He looked back at his cousin. "Things didn't go quite as well as I would have hoped and I tried to distract Vivian as long as I could, but it seems that the fact that we didn't stay any longer was a blessing in disguise. Is everyone alright?"

"Minor injuries," Seto said dismissively. "But… I can't speak for everyone."

Atemu's jaw visibly tightened. "I see. You can call in your men now, Seto." And he walked towards the stairs without waiting for Seto to say anything else. Malik, after one last comforting squeeze, hurried after him. He wanted to make sure that his friends were going to be okay.

YY

Bakura did not easily tolerate stupidity, and in this case, when the cause of it was himself, he dealt with it even more poorly. He took the stairs two at a time, silently berating himself for not having checked the house more thoroughly when they first arrived. Miho and Honda had assured him that it was empty, but as it turned out they'd been wrong: he and Honda had been ambushed by Bandit Keith's idiotic friends. The one saving grace was that Satake had been stupid enough to use handcuffs on him, apparently not realizing that the thief king would have long ago learned how to pick the locks on every cuff on the market.

He'd timed his escape well, leaving an unconscious Miho and Honda in the closet where they would be safe and only revealing his presence when he had the help necessary to take care of their attackers. Now, for the first time since he'd been caught, he allowed himself to think about Ryou. The boy had been conspicuously missing from the closet when Bakura had woken up, and there was no denying the alarm that had been pounding through his body at the realization. He had done his best not to consider the sort of things that could be done to someone as defenceless as Ryou, and now he vowed that if Bandit Keith had done even one of them the man would pay twice over.

"Down there," Jou said tensely, pointing to the door at the end of the hall. Bakura didn't spare him a second look as they sprinted down the corridor and threw the door open.

In the middle of the room, Ryou spun around. His eyes were wide and frightened as he gasped. Bakura took in the scene rapidly and realized that Ryou's hands had been roughly bound behind his back. His ankles were also tied, leaving him on his knees. He was awkwardly slumped over Yuugi's body, and it looked like he had been trying to untie Yuugi. There was bruising on his face and dried blood staining his soft white hair, but overall he appeared to be unharmed and Bakura felt something wound tight inside of him beginning to uncoil.

"Bakura," Ryou whispered.

He couldn't speak. He stepped into the room and strode over to Ryou, vaguely aware that Jou was hurrying over to check on Yuugi. A quick inspection of the rope binding Ryou's wrists and ankles told him that they would need to be cut loose, as the knots had tightened to the point where it would hurt Ryou more if he tried to untie them. Fortunately, while he'd been tussling with Takaido he had helped himself to a small knife that the man had been carrying in his boot. It was not the best quality steel, but it would do. He took it out now and expertly sawed through the ropes.

Ryou whimpered quietly as the rope was peeled from his flesh, and when he turned around there were fresh tears in his eyes. Without a word he threw himself into Bakura's arms, trembling violently. Bakura held him close, allowing Ryou to cling to him. He watched in silence as Jou borrowed the knife to cut Yuugi free. Yuugi still wasn't responding, and that was clearly causing Jou concern. He shook his friend a few times to no avail before he sat back on his heels and glanced up at Bakura with an expression that made him look like a lost puppy.

"He'll need medical attention," said Bakura before Jou could speak. "Seto knows some of the best doctors in the world." It wasn't necessary to add any paltry reassurances, and anyway Bakura wouldn't have even if it was. From downstairs they heard a shout of "Mariku!" and he knew that meant Atemu had arrived. Quickly, he wound an arm around Ryou's waist and lifted his partner out of the way.

Atemu appeared at the door a few seconds later, his crimson eyes blazing. He didn't look at any of them; his attention was drawn immediately to Yuugi. Worry mingled with fear flashed across his face before being replaced by the composed mask he usually wore in public, but Bakura could tell how close he was to shattering. Jou backed away as Atemu stepped into the room and walked over to Yuugi. He stood there for a moment before he fell to his knees and reached out with a shaking hand to touch Yuugi's hand.

"I'll just -" Jou jerked his chin towards the door. It was obvious that he would have preferred to stay, but he knew that Atemu needed this moment of privacy with Yuugi. Bakura waved him out. There was no way he was leaving his prince alone, privacy or not.

"Yuugi," Atemu whispered, his voice breaking on the last syllable. He bowed his head to hide his face, and Bakura looked away.

"Bakura," Ryou murmured again.

"Yes?" he said, turning all of his focus onto Ryou and ignoring the scene before him completely.

"I thought - Bandit Keith said you were dead."

There was a lot of emotion wrapped up in that one word. Bakura swallowed and closed his eyes, his arms tightening fractionally around Ryou's tiny form. "As though that idiot could've taken me," he muttered, not wanting to admit that he had been thinking the exact same thing about Ryou. There was no doubt in his mind that if they had waited just a little while longer, Ryou and Yuugi would have died.

Ryou lifted his head and gave him a tiny smile. "Yeah, I guess I should have realized that it would take more than just Bandit Keith to take you down," he said. "Where is he?"

"Mariku and Seto are taking care of them," Bakura said. He had the feeling that Bandit Keith, Satake, Takaido and Ghost were all going to end up with some mysterious fresh bruises by the time that Mariku was done with them. And for once, Seto wouldn't do very much to stop him. "Seto has called in some of his men. They should be here within the hour."

He glanced back over at Atemu as he spoke, but the prince had not moved. He was still kneeling on the floor beside Yuugi, holding Yuugi's hand tightly. Ryou felt him move and twisted to look as well. "Yuugi needs medical attention," he said softly. "I don't know what Bandit Keith did to him."

"Do you think it's safe to move him?"

"I think so," Ryou said after a brief hesitation. "I don't see why not." He looked around the room and shivered. "We could at least take him downstairs and put him on the sofa. Lying on the cold floor like that can't be very comfortable, and he must be freezing."

Bakura nodded. "Atemu," he said.

Surprisingly, Atemu responded immediately. "Yes?"

"We should take them downstairs."

Atemu did not move for almost another full minute, but finally he released Yuugi's hand and bent to slide his arms under Yuugi's body. He picked Yuugi up very carefully, as tenderly as though Yuugi was made from glass that would break if allowed to fall, and cradled him against his chest as he stood up. Watching them, Ryou's face crumbled and for a moment Bakura thought he might start to cry. The idea was not nearly as annoying as it should have been. Surprisingly, though, Ryou kept it together after taking a deep, shaky breath.

"Can we go downstairs too?" he asked as Atemu shuffled carefully towards the door. "I don't want to be up here anymore."

"What did he do?" Bakura couldn't responding with a question of his own. He was brimming with the burning desire to know whether or not he had to pay Bandit Keith back for anything that he might have done to Ryou.

"Nothing much. He told me you were dead, threatened me, pressed the gun he was holding to my cheek." Ryou shivered and unclasped one of his hands from Bakura's shirt to touch the side of his face, like he could still feel the kiss of the metal. "He said that he was going to make me choose whether I died first or Yuugi, but before he could do anything this guy opened the door and told him that Seto and Jou and Malik had arrived. Bandit Keith said that he wanted to get his revenge on all of us at the same time. He was going to leave Seto's fate up to the others."

Bakura controlled the fury spreading through him with effort. He kept his expression carefully blank as he placed a hand on the small of Ryou's back and guided him out of the room. They went down the stairs together and found that Atemu had taken Yuugi into the living room where the others were. The prince was sitting on the couch with Yuugi clutched against his chest, staring at the floor. His eyes were unfocused, and Bakura suspected that if he walked over and snapped his fingers in front of Atemu's face the man wouldn't even react. All of them had been through a lot tonight, but there was a chance that Atemu and Yuugi had been through too much.

"Sit down over there," he told Ryou, nodding towards Atemu.

"Where are you going?" Fear sparked briefly in Ryou's face, and he clutched Bakura's shirt tighter.

"I'm not going to leave the building," Bakura replied honestly. He gently but firmly dislodged Ryou's grip and walked back into the hall. Seto, who was standing in the doorway with his arms around Jou, noticed where he was going, but as predicted he didn't say a word and Bakura was allowed to pass uncontested into the closet where Bandit Keith, Satake, Takaido and Ghost had been placed after Miho and Honda were carried out. Mariku was squatting over Takaido with a familiar mad light dancing in his eyes, and he glanced up when Bakura came in.

"Ready to have some fun?" he purred.

"Yes," Bakura said, and shut the door.

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