The next day when Atem awoke he noticed Yugi's bed was empty. It was still very early in the morning; not even the sun had reached the base of the Pyramids yet. He must have slept well, Atem smiled at the thought. He stretched wide and instinctively moved to place the Puzzle around his neck only to find it missing from beneath the pillow. It wasn't knocked off, it wasn't in sight… where was it?

Panic gripped him as he searched. He kept it close by and the chains wrapped around his arm while he slept so he knew if it were to be taken but somehow it was just gone. Yugi was going to be furious with him if it was taken… they couldn't complete the ritual without it and even then, this was his puzzle… where was it?!

"Joey… Joey!" Atem pushed him awake until he groaned and sat up slowly.

"What?" He moaned.

"The Puzzle's gone. I can't find it!" Atem said quickly, his voice cracking under stress.

Joey woke up quicker, pushing sleep aside to look towards Atem's bed.

"What? Where did you take it off last night?"

"I put it under my pillow and wrapped the chain around my arm but I can't find it!"

"Where's Yugi?"

"I don't know, he's been gone before I got up not too long ago. Joey please you have to help me find it before he realises it's gone!"

"Okay bud… hang on." Joey said. He reached under his pillow too for the rod only, when he threw the pillow away he stared in horror at it's disappearance too.

"How? I … how?!" Joey mouthed in horror.

"The rod too?!"

"Crap…. What do we do?!"

"Lets find Tristan and Tea… maybe theirs are missing too." Atem suggested.

Tristan and Tea's room was opposite theirs so slipping in was easy enough, particularly when they left their door unlocked. They were still sleeping, naturally, their room even darker than their own. They split up to gently wake one of them each, stirring them awake as quickly and as calmly as they could to not provoke any screaming.

Once they woke they told them their items were missing.

Tea bit down a shriek when she touched her neck to find the necklace missing and in her drawer so was the eye and ring. Tristan's scales and key were gone too…. They were stolen… all of them!

"How did they get the necklace though? I can't have slept through someone taking it off!" Tea said in dismay. "Someone was that close to me while I was asleep?" Her face went pale at the thought.

"Guys… all of them are gone… we have to tell Yugi. There's no way we can find them all without him knowing."

"Is he awake?" Tea asked.

"Yes… I haven't seen him yet this morning." Atem shook his head no.

"Oh he's going to be so pissed." Tea complained.

They went downstairs to the cafeteria but found it empty, Joey checked the bathroom but he wasn't showering. The hotel owner said he hadn't seen anyone come down yet … where could he be?

"I doubt someone stole Yugi too without us knowing." Joey joked weakly when Tristan rushed back inside, his eyes wide with terror.

"The cars gone! Someone took the car!"

"What?!"

A thought occurred to Atem then, an instinct, like a message left behind for him he was just seeing. Yugi took the items, he took the car, slipped out before daylight and has gone to resurrect Bakura… but why would he do it alone? He knows they were in support of this and he knows he'll need their help to bring him back to town… unless it wasn't Yugi that did this but Bakura. Bakura could of taken the opportunity to take everything when they were all asleep, including Yugi and put him away into his mind without him noticing… that was the only explanation.

"Bakura's gone to resurrect himself. We have to get another car and catch up!" He announced.

"Bakura?"

"But wouldn't Yugi notice if Bakura took over like that?" Tea asked.

"Not necessarily. Yugi needed a lot of rest, while he was in the deepest part of his sleep thats likely when he took over, locked him away temporarily and made his move." Atem explained.

"Who care's, lets go get another car. God damn this is going to be expensive. Someone else get it, they'll know I got one the other day." Tristan said.

"The owner said he hadn't seen anyone, does that mean he left before sunrise?" Tea asked as they drove very quickly across the dunes.

"Most likely. I'd say between 1 and 4. Thats likely when Yugi was sleeping the deepest and no one else was awake." Atem supposed.

The car lifted off a dune temporarily to crash back down, swivveling slightly until Tristan could get control of it again. They groaned, rubbing their heads and gripping on tightly to anything they could. Tea smacked him across the back of the head.

"Be careful!"

"I'm sorry but we have to get their quick right?" Tristan complained.

"Alive is preferred you numbskull!" Joey snapped.

Alive… if he was right then it'd been about 3-5 hours since Yugi left… which was more than enough time to get there already and begin the ritual. By the time they get there, regardless on when he started the ritual would be complete… he just hoped he would live through this. He knew Bakura was getting impatient, but all he needed was Yugi to be at his bare minimum to survive long enough to complete the ritual… he didn't need him alive beyond that.

He bit his lip and shuttered. The sun hadn't been up long enough to heat the desert but he felt a chill run through him that not even Ra could soothe… Yugi… please be okay!

3 hours it took them to get there, with a stop in the middle to refuel the car but when they got there their suspicions were confirmed… the jeep was here. Which meant Yugi was too.

"He's here!" Tea said excitedly.

"Yes but it's been hours. They've likely already completed the ritual." Atem pointed out, leading the way towards the hidden staircase.

"Wait… but then what about Yugi?" Tea asked. They followed him quickly, sprinting to the centre of town and getting out their torches. Joey lead the way with his phone but Atem stuck by very close. They remembered the traps and with ease slipped through until they reached the Hall but to their heartbreaking dismay they found nothing.

Yugi wasn't there, Bakura's body didn't fill the rags left behind and the glint of the golden Millenium Items did not grace the empty hall before them. They had been here though. The carvings Yugi had made yesterday were now a dark shade of red as blood dried in the grooves.

They had in fact completed the ritual and had since left… but Bakura should have been unconscious and Yugi… Atem doubted he'd be in a fit condition to carry him out with the items… and the car was still here. So where were they? What happened here?

"Search around, maybe they went further in?" Tristan suggested.

"Be careful. Don't go too far, they wouldn't have." Atem warned them.

"Wait guys! Look!" Tea called out before they could split up. She crouched to look at the sand carefully and on further inspection Atem could see it too: drag marks and foot prints. There had been others here and they dragged something out of the tomb where they had come. Were they the ones responsible for Yugi and Bakura's disappearance? In which case, who were they and who's side were they on? Why didn't they take the car?

"They're tracks right? It leading back outside!" Joey said quickly and took the stairs back up 2 at a time.

They found more tracks now they were looking, faded and slightly blown away in the gentle breezes brushing the town. They followed them to what appeared to be hoof prints. That explains why they didn't take the car, if they had horses with them but then that also meant they couldn't travel as far or as long. They'd need to stop somewhere but if memory serves correctly the only stops nearby would have been buried beneath thousands of years of sand now.
"They look like they go into the desert. We could follow them?" Tristan suggested.

"The sand will have buried the tracks and if we run out of fuel we're as good as dead. We need to know where they're likely to go before we search the desert wildly." Atem said quietly.

"What about Kaiba? He should be able to track down Yug's watch, right?" Joey suggested.

"His watch?" Atem asked.

"Mokuba gave him a smart watch 2 years ago as a present. It's connected to Kaiba Corp's satellite so they should be able to tell us where they are." Tea agreed.

"We'll have to go back to the city though. I have no reception out here." Joey complained as he raised his phone to the sky.