Author's note: for this chapter I struggled with perspective. One version of this chapter was from Mokuba's pov, but I decided to keep it like this for the sake of consistency. Also, I wasn't sure where to put card releases on a timeline because they're different in the show vs. real life and I haven't followed the game closely since about 2007 (even then I didn't play much). I tried to be as accurate as possible, but if I made some mistakes I hope that they don't bother anyone too much. If it does bother you, have no fear, this story will not at any point revolve around dueling. I only write about the game at all because Yugi runs a game shop.

Thanks so much for your support so far. I can't believe that I already have over 20 reviews! Each review makes my day!

Thanks to lalalei, angiembabe, and YamiMayonaka for your reviews. I'd also like to thank all of you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

-TheEagerScribbler

Chapter 13 Higher Stakes: The Plan

When Tea stumbled into the kitchen at five o'clock in the morning Yugi was already up. He was sitting at the kitchen table sipping coffee as he stared at the cards laid out in front of him. "Sometimes I wish that I still had my original deck."

"Huh?"

"Don't you remember when I gave them to that Museum a few years ago as a favor to Pegasus?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I remember. You have them just about everything with the exception of the Dark Magician and Dark Magician girl, right? You told them that they would have to hunt down their own copies."

"That's right. The game is constantly evolving. My old strategies haven't worked for sometime, so I thought that it was best, but now I miss them. Each card has it's own story to tell and so many memories are attached to them. The deck of a true duelist is an extension of themselves. I find myself wishing that I could hold them again."

Tea just stared at him for a moment. "Don't mind me Tea, sleep deprivation makes me overly sentimental."

She slumped into a chair, still half asleep and smiled sleepily. "I know what you mean. Everything's coming back to me too. Don't you remember how it felt when we were kids? I mean, yeah it was scary, but it was all so exciting! We went on adventures together that made us become closer. We had to stand up for what we believed in-we had to fight in order to protect our unsuspecting neighbors and help our friend get his memories back. It seemed like nothing was impossible anymore."

"Who'd have guessed that the scrawny kid who got picked on would would do all of those things?" Yugi smiled.

Tea reached out and grabbed his hand. "You were never just a scrawny kid. You were pretty amazing even then."

"You're just saying that because I'm your husband."

She smiled. "I only speak the truth."

"Now what do we do?" He asked.

"You've been asking that a lot lately," she pointed out.

Yugi didn't know what to say to that. He had been trying desperately to keep it together, but he should've known that Tea of all people would be able to see right through him. "That's because I really don't know what to do about our situation. But," he cut her off before she could start, "That wasn't what I was referring to. I was asking about what we should do now because it's obscenely early and no one but Seto and Mokuba will be awake for about two hours."

"Oh, uh…"

"See what I mean? Nothing good comes on at five in the morning and neither of us are alert enough to play a game."

"You have a point." She rubbed the black of her neck. "I'm honestly not sure how we both managed to have such a co...what's the word…"

Yugi chuckled. "I think the word you're looking for is coherent."

"Yeah, that's it…I'm not sure how we managed to have such a coherent discussion so early."

"Practice. Lots of practice." He could tell from the far off look in her eyes that she was thinking about the reason why they had practice too. As expected, when she was a baby it took her a while to sleep through the night. When she hit fifteen she began to have nightmares about a monster eating her. They had gotten so bad that they had taken her to a psychologist, but nothing worked. She would wake up screaming in the middle of the night and Yugi and Tea would come dashing into her room to comfort her until she was was calm enough to go back to sleep. It had never occurred to Yugi before, but what if her dreams were warnings about what was going to come?

"Yeah," Tea sighed.

"Hmm…"they stood contemplating what to do next.

"Ok, that's it. We are going to make French-toast!" Tea exclaimed

"Huh?"

"French toast makes everything better. We'll have them with tea and then watch something light and funny because there's nothing else to do. We can't exactly make plans without the rest of the gang can we? That means that we have to wait for tonight. The shop doesn't open until 9:00a and your lessons don't start until 8:30.

That gives us plenty of time kill." Yugi really wanted to eat a normal breakfast for once, but she just looked so excited..."Sure! Just try not to get it all over you this time."

She stuck out her tongue. "For that remark you get to do all of the dishes."

"Whatever you say dear."

After the movie ended they got dressed and began preparing for the day. It felt odd somehow to spend time getting ready for a normal day when tomorrow could change everything.

Yugi had just finished brushing his teeth and Tea pulled out her mascara wand when Yugi caught a glance at the clock. "Um...Tea...it's 8:15. You're going to be late if you don't leave soon."

"I don't know if I can. The only reason that I'm going at all is that they couldn't find anyone to cover for me. Somehow going feels like betrayal, you know? Even my students know that something's up."

"I feel the same way. We usually don't get many customers before four or five,so at least I'll have to time to think."

That day business was particularly slow, so Yugi found himself staring at a notebook. He wanted to have something to contribute to their meeting that evening. He first wrote down what he knew. First, he knew that Bakura tried to take over the world with Zork. How had he tried to accomplish this the first time? Yugi could not longer remember the details. He knew that it had something to do with a pact and the darkness in his own heart, and that he was bent on revenge.

Second, Bakura attacked the Pharaoh and his court in order to pick them off one by one and obtain their items. Yugi knew that he was going to try that again. He felt that was an obvious assumption, but he still wanted to write it down anyway.

Third, He had gone through to much trouble to track down Ushio, so that had to have something to do with his plan. He was going to test the others now that he had abandoned his old strategy. He may have been bolder than ever, but the shadow realm had done nothing to dull his cleverness.

Fourth: He was going to try to manipulate them. Instead of just outwardly attacking Yugi he played off of Yugi's fear and tried to make him doubt himself.

Bakura was patient, intelligent, and a master strategist. He could handle them separately, but together they were a lethal combination.

Yugi looked at his list with disappointment. None of it was new.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Yugi looked up to see a small girl who was barely taller than the counter standing nervously. He put down the list and tried to smile at her. "Yes? What can I do for you?"

The girl pointed at silver booster pack. "Can I have this? My big brother's turning nine and I wanna get him duel monster cards 'cuz they're his favorite."

The girl set her money down on the counter and looked at him expectantly. "Sure. How many do you want?"

"I dunno. How many can I get with this?"

He counted her money for her because she was young enough that he wasn't sure she knew how to and saw that she was just a dollar short of a new booster pack. He remembered when his little girl had done exactly the same thing when she was little, so just smiled and handed her two packs. It was worth it to see a smile on her face."I'll tell you what, I'm running a special sale right now, so you get one for free."

"Really? Thanks Mister!"

"Go on now, you should probably get them wrapped or something before he sees!"

"I will! Bye!"

"Bye."

Throughout the day he had only three other customers. One was an old man and the next was mother who came in with her little boy-they came in bought a couple of packs, and then left. The last was a frantic father trying to figure out what his daughter was talking about when she said he wanted a tuner for her deck. Yugi suddenly realized how often people had been walking to his shop in a panic.

The man walked up to the counter and started babbling. "This should've been easy. She's told me what she wants but...what do I do? I haven't played since...hm...the first Battle City. I think I was probably one of the first people eliminated. It's a cool game, but things got way too serious around here after the first few years it was introduced. It went from a casual game to lifestyle, you know? No offense, Mr. Mutou, I think what you've done is amazing! I mean, you beat the creator at his own game, but it's not what I was looking for. I started looking into it for my daughter and I don't understand half of it anymore! And her birthday's tomorrow and she wants a tuner...what the hell is a tuner anyway? You must think I've been living under a rock or something."

In the past twenty years the game had changed at a breakneck pace. He felt sorry for the poor man because he looked frazzled. He must have put off birthday shopping a little too close for comfort. Yugi had made the mistake of doing that once, and he had no plans to do that again anytime soon. "You're not the first person to ask that. Everyone has different interests, and those interests can change over time. I used to like spoof movies, now I don't. That doesn't mean I have anything against people who do like them. Now, about that tuner…what kind of deck is she running?"

"Um…" the man turned bright red and admitted, "I don't know. She hasn't finished it yet, and she won't even tell me what it is until she has it just right. All she'll do is occasionally ask for a card."

"What cards has she asked for so far?"

"She's asked me for a Magician's Valkyria, other than that...I can't remember."

Magician's Valkyria effect was that no other spellcasters can be targeted. That meant she was probably running a Spellcasters Synchro deck. Spell casters had fallen in and out of popularity more times than he could count during the time that he had been playing duel monsters. They had come back into popularity relatively recently thanks to a new set of booster packs that had been released. "I respect her wishes when it comes to not telling you what type of deck she wants to run, so I won't tell you, but I think I know what it is. My suggestion would be Effect Veiler. I'm not sure if it's exactly what she needs, but it's a good card to have in a spellcaster deck." Without knowing what she already had he could only guess at what would work best for her deck. The card that he had suggested had a useful effect, so hopefully it would be suitable no matter what she decided. It was a spellcaster that kept monsters from activating effects during the current phase.

"Thanks. You're a life saver. I guess I need to brush back up on my duel monsters if I'm going to keep up with her."

"That might be a good idea. The rules change constantly, so here," Yugi grabbed a rule book from a pile on the corner of the counter and presented it to him. "Take this and read through it. Let me know if you want me to set you up with starter deck or a structure deck."

"I'll do that. Have a good afternoon! I need to hurry back home to wrap this before she notices.

"Okay, good luck."

Yugi checked the time on his watch-5:45pm. It was early enough to close up the shop. He flipped the sign to closed and walked up the stairs to his home with anticipation building in his stomach. Fifteen more minutes until they came.

Somebody knocked on the door at 5:50. Yugi ran to the door-Tea must have accidentally left her key at home. He was surprised to find Ishizu and Marik. He thought that they were all going to convene at Seto's house. "I've already found that arriving early is far preferable to being late."

"Sorry about showing up so early, but I couldn't convince her to leave any later. Ishizu really wanted to get here twenty minutes ago-I was lucky that I was able to talk her down to this. My sister's too stubborn for her own good."

"I understand, Tea's the same way. She likes to be everywhere at least twenty minutes early! Please come in. Would you like a snack before dinner?"

"Do you have any of those muffins left?" Marik asked.

"Yep. What about you Ishizu, do you want anything?"

"No thank you Yugi." They both took a seat on the couch.

Yugi gave him one of the remaining blueberry muffins and then sat next to them. "How's Odion doing? It must be hard for him to be alone right now."

"Thank you Yugi, Odion's fine. He says that everything is normal so far. The Pharaoh's tomb is undisturbed and our artifacts are safe for now. We wanted him to come, but he reminded us of our family's duty. Someone needs to be there to protect the tomb, and he thought that we should be the ones to come because we're former item users."

Marik smiled affectionately at the mention of his older brother. "My brother's the only person as stubborn as her."

"What about Apis? I had thought that he'd be here by now."

"My husband wanted to stay in Egypt in case the Thief King comes back." Ishizu explained.

Marik nodded. "I almost went home when Kaiba got the rod, but I admit that I have a certain level of expertise that nobody else has, not even you."

"Speaking of Seto, when were we supposed to meet him?" Yugi asked.

"We have another twenty minutes before we are supposed to leave. We came because I saw what you were planning to do." What had she seen?

"I had a vision of you going after your daughter alone. You would confront Bakura, but his power would be too great and you would be lost to the shadow realm forever! If we work together we can stand our ground. I did not see the outcome of this conflict, but it looked like we were a far more equal match." Ishizu reached over and grabbed Yugi's hand. "Yugi, I can only imagine what you are feeling-If my daughter Bennu were the one kidnapped I'm sure that I would behave irrationally too, but you must not act without carefully considering the consequences." She admonished. Yugi felt a little ashamed of himself for considering it. Although his fight was a very personal one, more than just the fate of his family hung in the balance.

"You're right. I thought about it, but I didn't actually intend to go through with it. I know it wouldn't work."

"So how'd you get Kaiba to take off of work early anyway?"

Yugi had wondered that himself. He had expected that they'd be meeting at nine o'clock at night since Seto was the one who was hosting. "He's just as worried about Akari as us. It really didn't take much convincing. It's just that things are a little trickier for him because he's such a visible public figure."

"Perhaps we should go. If we spend too much time talking we'll get stuck in traffic, causing Mr. Kaiba to be angry at us. He will be far easier to deal with if we arrive earlier." This was one of those moments where Yugi wasn't sure if she used her necklace or if she just knew Seto Kaiba.

"Sure, Tea said she'd meet us there."

Yugi had forgotten that there was some sort of concert in town that day, so the traffic was ridiculous. It should have taken just ten minutes to get there, but their quick ten minute journey was doubled thanks to traffic that moved at a snail's pace. Thanks to Ishizu's warning they still managed to arrive just in time.

"You made it." Kaiba greeted them at the door. "If you had been ten minutes later they'd have insisted on sending out a search party."

"How is the shop Yugi?" Tea asked with worry. "Did he try anything? I know that you think that he needs time to regroup but there's no way to know for sure what his plans are."

"The shop was pretty slow today-Without Bakura and only a handful of customers things got pretty dull today."

"Man, I never thought I'd say this," Tristan said, "But boring sounds really good right now."

"Tell me about it." Mokuba rolled his eyes. "I'd give just about anything to be bored right now." He unconsciously ran his fingers over an ankh.

Yugi's eyes widened. "We were right."

"Yep, you're right. By the way, does that girl have the scales yet? I'm not sure why, but I feel like it's really important that she gets it soon."

"I've had the same feeling. I don't know if she has it yet, or not. Let's hope that Bakura doesn't find it before she does."

Suddenly Seto narrowed his eyes in irritation.

"What is it Seto?"

"He says that she is nearby."

His cell phone buzzed. He quickly checked the number-security. "Roland?"

"Mr. Kaiba, there's a girl here who claims that she needs to see you sir. At first I thought she was in your fan club, but she won't leave. What would you like me to do?"

"What did she say her name was?"

"She said her name was Aiko."

"Was that a question or a statement?"

"A statement sir."

"Let her in. She's a friend of Akari's." Yugi wondered why he lied. Roland had been in Kaiba's employ since they had met and he had witnessed shadow games first hand. Roland was good with weird and intensely loyal to the Kaiba brothers.

"Yes Mr. Kaiba."

The girl was a mess. Her hair was tangled and windblown, her blouse was wrinkled, and she was still panting slightly-she looked like she had run there. Had she been attacked? Yugi found himself scanning her for injury without even really intending to.

"I apologize for inconveniencing you Mr. Kaiba. Thank you for speaking to me."

"What was so urgent that it couldn't wait?"

She sat down the rather large bag that she had been carrying and began to rummage through it. When he caught the glimmer of gold he realized what it was immediately. The items were all with their rightful owners. Maybe there was some special significance to that. "This." She held it up. This is one of those things isn't it?"

Seto quickly examined the scales and Yugi knew that he had found what he was looking for-the eye of Horus. Each item had this eye and a telltale unnatural metallic glint that wasn't quite gold or bronze. Seto had an eye for detail, so Yugi knew that he could spot the real thing a mile away. "If I believed in coincidences, I'd say that it was strange that both you and Mokuba found your items at about the same time."

The girl's grip around the base of the item tightened and she opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it again. She then opened it and hesitantly said, "I'm sorry to bother you Mr. Kaiba-I really am, but he told me that I needed to find you as soon as I found it, and that it was 'absolutely imperative that I don't dawdle'," she indicated with air quotes.

"What isn't he telling us?" Seto growled, referencing the Priest. Clearly his relationship with the Priest turned Pharaoh hadn't improved much. Yugi sighed. Life would be so much easier for everyone if Seto decided to just have a civil relationship with him.

"I guess we'll find out." Mokuba shrugged.

She sat down the scales and said, "I did some research on this nameless pharaoh."

"What did you find?"Ishizu asked, probably out of professional curiosity because she herself had contributed most of the information known about him.

"There still isn't as much information about him as there is for some of the pharaohs, but it does mention that he was supposed to return in order to search for his memories, which happened over twenty years ago, right? The shadow games were supposed to leave with him, so why are they back, and why do we have these things?"

Yugi himself was about to comment, but Marik beat him too it. "It's because his ancient enemy has returned. He never got his revenge, and someone like that doesn't stop with small acts like vandalism." Marik grimaced in remembrance of his own madness and corruption at one time. "He wants to finish what he started."

"What's that?" Aiko asked.

"The end of the world."

The girl looked around the room uncomfortably and unconsciously rubbed her arm. "How can you all be so...calm…"

Mokuba stood proudly and flashed her a teasing grin. "I don't know about the others, but my job and my brother's job almost revolves around crisis management. If it's not in the job description it should be."

Seto snorted. "Why should I bother writing up a new job description unless I'm going to need a new Vice President?"

Mai leaned back into her seat and sighed. "Unfortunately it kind of comes with the territory when you're friends with someone who has a millennium item. When I first met Yugi he and the others they were into all sorts of trouble. The first two tournaments Yugi and I competed in together involved people losing their souls and ended with shadow games."

Joey shrugged in response. "One of our best buddies was an ancient spirit; you don't get much weirder than that."

"What about the whole time traveling thing? That took weird to a whole new level and I'm friends with you. That alone makes me an expert on weird." Tristan teased.

Joey elbowed Tristan in the ribs. "Shaddup would ya? We all know you're the weird one."

"I think what they were trying to say," Tea explained, "Is that this isn't our first time dealing with stuff like this. This whole situation may be weird and we may be scared, but we know that if we all work together we can make it through this!"

Yugi couldn't help but smile at his wife's confidence. Her spirit had always helped to hold them together when things got rough. Even so, Yugi found himself waiting for Seto to say something. He had been much more tolerant of them than usual, but he knew what Kaiba thought of her friendship speeches. When Yugi realized that he really wasn't going to say anything he couldn't help but be impressed with Seto's self restraint. "Don't worry, you'll get used to all of this soon. It'll be okay." Yugi tried to be reassuring and put on a brave face like his wife's, but it felt the kind of lie.

"We're wasting time!" Kaiba snapped. "Let's get on with the reason we're here, shall we? The girl might as well stay if we're operating under the assumption that they know something we don't." He paused. "Anyway, back to business. So far Mokuba and I have been able to infer that he's holding Akari hostage in Domino Deals Motel. I'm not too worried about security-that place has always been a dump so I doubt they have anything beyond a few security cameras and a lock on each door knob. We should be able to deal with the cameras and locks are easy to pick. The real challenge is in deciding how to approach her rescue."

Tristan leaned back in chair comfortably. "Sounds pretty simple to me. Get in, duel him, get her out. Isn't that how these things always work?"

"Tristan, you've been my pal for around twenty years, and that has got to be the stupidest thing that I think I've ever heard you say. Haven't you figured out yet that he's not playing by the old rules? The last time he attacked Yugi he didn't challenge him to duel did he?"

"I was just try'en to be helpful man."

"I think it's going to take all of the item holders to stand against him this time. He's more powerful now, and his strategy is different. This time he's going to try to play with our heads, probably using penalty games. I honestly don't think that out individual items are strong enough by themselves, but if we combine our magic and our strengths it might just be enough to get us through." Yugi said said with as much confidence as he could muster.

"The millennium items were created to be used together." Marik said. "Each one has an ability that compliments the others. The necklace to find someone, a key to unlock their mind, the scale to weigh their soul...their power comes from unity."

Ishizu nodded in agreement. "It is for this reason that they are drawn together. Even when you tried your hardest to keep them separated from each other they were drawn back together in the end. There was a reason that the Pharaoh had to gather all seven, after all. It is best to approach this in way that gives the first move so that we can choose to confront him with six of the items at once. If we do not we will be at a distinct disadvantage."She closed her eyes and he knew that she was trying to see the future. "Yes, I believe that he will use his ring to channel darkness. I wonder if perhaps will serve as an amplifier."

"Is a crowded hotel really a good place for a confrontation like that? What if other people get hurt?"Tea asked.

Mai nodded in agreement and twirled a long strand of hair as she considered here point. "Maybe we could lure him here? Or maybe one of us without an item could follow him, and then one of you six," she gestured vaguely at the item holders, "could be waiting for him this time around."

Aiko nervously bit her lip and said, barely louder than a whisper, "But what do we do when we get there?"

"Well…" he had never thought that far ahead. "I guess we, uh, surround him and challenge him to a game?"

Seto snorted. "Way to instill confidence Mutou. I had expected better from you" He stood up in his chair with the air of someone who was used to giving orders and said, "Since seem to collectively have the strategic ability of an eight year old we'll go by my plan. If you don't like it, say something now or deal with it-we don't have time to waste on your whining, understand?"

"And just what is this plan of yours Kaiba?" Mai snapped. "If you're being this condescending it must be good."

He narrowed his eyes into an icy glare that made Yugi want to shiver. "It's simple enough. Going off alone will only make us easy targets, so we pair off and take separate routes. Once we arrive Mokuba will dismantle their security system, and we'll extract Akari-under no means are you to engage him. If he were to try to do something in that hotel it could lead to putting too many people in danger, and if it goes wrong we'll get the blame, and I do not have the time to deal with another lawsuit. Got it?" He paused and pointed at Joey. "That goes for you too Wheeler. If you screw this up I can guarantee you that you'll regret it."

"Why you-" Mai elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Hey, what's that for?"

"Now's not the time to smart mouth Kaiba. Save it for Bakura."

Joey sighed dramatically."Fine, if that's what my beautiful wife wants then I'll keep my big mouth shut."

Mai nodded approvingly, "That's the spirit!"

"At least she has you trained, mutt."

"Hey, who you calling a mutt?"

Yugi found himself wanting to laugh at their old antics. For all that they were friends they still enjoyed a little (mostly) harmless bickering. He briefly wondered if they were doing it on purpose because the tension in the room started to lessen. Even Aiko had begun to lean back into her chair a little bit as she slowly became more relaxed around them.

Tristan stood up. "Now that we have a plan, what are we waiting for? Let's go already!" Yugi agreed with the sentiment. The wait was torturous. Each moment that he was unable to act was that much more time that his daughter was in the hands of a mad man.

"That's not a good idea." Marik shook his head and pleadingly looked at his sister for help. "You're forgetting that he has allied himself with the shadows. We need to stay in the open and go when the sun's out. Now that he can travel through the shadows we need to be cautious."

Ishizu touched her necklace nodded in agreement. "He will not be able to follow us quite so easily when he is unable to travel through shadows, so if we take heed we may be able to catch him by surprise."

"I thought that you had already seen how this would work out?" Tristan blurted

"I learned the hard way during battle city that sometimes the outcome of the future is not always set in stone."

"Fine then, so when do we leave?"

"We need to plan to arrive when the sun's at its highest."

"You're telling me that we have to wait for noon tomorrow?" Tristan whined. "Now that we have a plan I don't think that I can wait that long!"

"Shouldn't we have some sort of plan for when we get there?" Aiko asked shyly, her voice so soft that they could barely hear her. "I mean, what do we do if he tries to attack us?"

As far as Yugi could tell they only ever had one option. If they were too strong individually, they'd have to work together and trust in each other. "We all stand together. It's the only way. We can count on him underestimating the bond that we all share. We're each bound together by fate, by the items, shared experience, and friendship-our bond makes us stronger, and that's something that he will never be able to understand." Yugi knew that together they were stronger, but even there were no guarantees that it would be enough. Despite all of their plans they still had only the vaguest notion of what they were up against. Friendship is powerful, but could it be enough to conquer evil incarnate? All they knew was that they had to win because if they failed everyone would suffer.


Meanwhile in Domino Deals Motel:

"Oh, I understand perfectly Yugi…" Bakura turned to face Akari "Your father's coming for you at long last my little pawn. It appears that it is finally time for our game to begin. Tell me little light," he leaned down so that he was eye level with the girl sitting in the desk chair. His lips slowly crept into a sinister grin. "Do you like games?"

Author's note:

Hi guys! So this chapter ended up being twice the length that I thought it was going to be. A review made me think more about how I was going to write this chapter and the next, so I decided to make some changes to this and completely re-write the next. So this is my last (mostly) pre-written chapter. So you can expect that it will take at least a week to get the next one out. I might end up putting up some chapter that didn't make the cut though, so let me know what you think. This one was a little slow but the next chapter is when things start to pick up.

*Oh, I almost forgot: Akari means light, so if you're wondering why Bakura called her that...now you know.

Please let me know what you think through reviews!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

-TheEagerScribbler