Good Day Readers and welcome to the sequel to Pain of Betrayal, Pain of Loss! Thanks to all of you for the support and I hope that you all enjoy this latest edition of the Hope sisters.

Obviously I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh only Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also italics symbolise a mind conversation, a video tape or something in a language that isn't Japanese. I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 5: - An Unexpected Enemy

The limo remained stationary as we waited for the driver to return, my finger rapidly tapping a rhythm on my thigh as the tension in my body only continued to build up even more. Meanwhile the others – apart for Yugi and Katherine – were completely unconcerned with the weirdness of the situation except for how long the driver was taking.

"Guess we should go check on him," Jounouchi suggested. The blonde reached for the door and opened it up with Yugi proceeding to do the same, all of us quickly made to climb out the vehicle as a humid wind blew across my form and kicked up sand; yet I continued to feel a cold sensation creeping across my body and from the small shivers I saw Katherine emitting, she was feeling the same way.

An eerie creaking – like something out of a horror movie – echoed around us as we stepped into the fuel station, Katherine immediately latched herself to my side due to the sound, I soon rested a hand on her raven hair. Jounouchi and Anzu were concerned by the decrepit appearance of the station, which only got worse when we got closer, whilst Honda walked towards the building that looked an inch from falling to pieces.

"Everyone's thinking it, I'm just saying it. If this was a horror story; round about now would be when somebody dies," I joked. I had to, the tension in the air was starting to make me jumpy, Katherine squeaked and smacked me in the side for my side for my comment whilst Anzu stared at me with wide and terrified eyes; Jounouchi on the other hand seemed to go on alert at my words whilst Yugi inched closer to the blonde boy.

"He's not using the toilet either," Honda called. The boy had returned from inside of the building and his words caused me to tense up, a faint sound tickled my ear as Anzu was baffled by the statement; Jounouchi suddenly shushed everyone and I glanced over at him and saw him cupping his ear to behind us.

"Hey, can you hear that?" Jounouchi asked. Everyone started to focus on their hearing, I murmured a spell to enhance my own as Katherine did the same thing; the moment it hit I heard it, a rumbling of engines that was coming straight towards us. My eyes widened and I rushed out into the street with everyone else following after me, I looked into the distance as I cancelled the hearing spell and saw a massive sand cloud coming towards us.

Within the cloud was the distinct silhouette of many bikers, the legion of motorcycles came to a stop near us and I immediately pushed everyone behind me as much as possible with Jounouchi and Honda jumping out to be in front with me. Whoever these people were, I was almost fairly certain that they were here because of that blasted Doma organisation, this whole situation stank of being a set-up, which probably meant something had happened to my uncle… again.

"We don't have any money! So get lost!" Honda snapped. I felt the flare of the Millennium Puzzle go off, indicating that Yami and Yugi had switched places which was probably a good idea given the situation; the bikers revered their engines at us. "What do you want with us?" Honda demanded. Yami made the wise question of if they happened to be Doma's puppets but the only answer we got was the revering of more engines. "Damn them!" Honda cursed.

"Guys! Run towards the car!" Jounouchi yelled. Everyone started to fall back towards the car as the engines roared louder as we ran, the bikers soared ahead and immediately curved into our path; in response me and the boys immediately formed a protective ring around Anzu and Katherine as Honda stated the obvious, that we were in serious trouble right now.

The bikers picked up a metal pipe each as Jounouchi insulted them, I unleashed a sigh before raising my gaze to lock onto the bikers directly in front of me; reaching back I tapped Katherine's shoulder and felt her pat my hand as we stepped away from the others and heard them cry out our names. I stretched my hands out and knew that Katherine was making the same movements that I was.

"You made a big mistake challenging us," Me and Katherine stated in English. Both of us began to gather our magical power, causing the air around us to crackle and pop with the gathering energy. "We sisters call upon the elements, rain down righteous punishment on these fools that dare to threaten us. Wipe out their weapons," We chanted as one. In response to our cries, many of the elements that made up our world appeared beside us.

The elements then started to fly at the at the surrounding bikers, knocking the weapons from their hand either by force of earth, surge of water and wind or heat of flame. A few of the magical attacks actually hit the riders themselves and sent them flying off the bikes, one of the riders decided to be brave and roared the engine to close in on me; I switched my position so that my hands were extended in front of me with one below the other.

A sudden object darted passed my vision and struck the approaching rider, knocking him down and the riders who'd been too scared to approach before where so fearful now that they completely froze up. In that moment another engine roared, I looked in the direction and saw another bike coming towards us, but the rider was obviously female from what the exposing outfit showed; the woman threw out a Duel Monster card.

It struck another biker as the elements that me and Katherine summoned began to fade away, more cards were thrown and more bikers were rendered disabled as the woman continued to tear through the people who threatened us. Honda encouraged us to take the chance and we did so, Katherine grinning like a mad woman as she ran passed us and I knew exactly why she looked so pleased.

I turned and began to run when I spotted that Jounouchi had stopped to stare at one of the Duel Monsters cards that the woman had thrown as her weapon and he even bent down to pick it up. The woman's bike suddenly soared towards us and she plucked the card right from Jounouchi's hand, she turned her gaze back to look at us and I briefly managed to see into her visor and caught sight of a blonde clump of hair and a violet eye.

"Come on Jounouchi," I insisted. The boy had been still since the woman glanced back so I took his arm and towed him towards the car so that we could escape from Doma's blasted trap. "By the way, yes and yes," I answered the boy's unspoken questions. A grinding metal sound escaped from behind me as I shoved Jounouchi inside and looked up as my eyes widened in shock at the sight.

One of the motorcycles had been knocked on its' side and sent flying towards the fuel station, it had crunched into one of the pumps and then started to burn, I decided it would be best to get in the limo and get things underway. Opening the front door, I climbed in and immediately turned the car on, I then promptly stomped my foot against the accelerator causing a squealing sound to erupt as the smell of rubber burned my nose slightly.

Jerking the steering wheel to the side forced the car to turn as I pushed it to get as far away as possible; an explosion echoed behind us, but I didn't dare risk stopping in order to see what had happened. Instead, I kept pushing the car to move, a quick glance in the wing mirror did reassure me that the woman who'd rescued us had survived as Anzu wondered who the woman could be.

"It's Mai. I'm sure of it," Jounouchi insisted. The others seemed shocked by the words, not that I blamed them since they hadn't seen her cards or that brief glimpse of her face and none of them could sense Mana like me and my sister; Katherine started to nod her head rapidly to show that what the blonde said was the truth of the matter.

"I can understand your surprise but that was definitely Mai. The Mana signature matched hers' plus me and Jounouchi saw her Harpie Lady card and her face for a brief moment," I added on. The others fell silent when they heard my words, so I kept pushing the car to move forward to the location of Industrial Illusions headquarters given how worried I was for my uncle.

Unfortunately, a nasty sound soon occurred in front of me and I tensed up before slamming on the breaks just in time for an unsettling bang to occur and smoke immediately started to pour from underneath the hood of the car. A huff escaped from me as I unclipped the seatbelt and threw the front door open, I climbed out and walked to the back door so that I could talk to the wildly chattering people located back there.

"Give me some time, I need to check the engine," I stated. I walked around to the back and opened the boot lid, allowing me to reach my suitcase and more specifically my toolkit which I took around to the hood and quickly opened it up. I started to root around inside, pulling out various tools as snarls and groans… alongside a few curses in both languages I spoke, got through my lips as each tool failed to fix the problem. "Get out! We're walking!" I called.

"What's wrong?" Katherine asked. She had immediately hopped out of the car at the words I'd spoken and was looking at me with concern, I could normally fix almost anything but in this situation I definitely couldn't fix it this time around; I reached into the engine and pulled out a piece of cylindrical rubber which I showed to Katherine.

"I think the limousine is actually much older than it appears and this coolant line ended up tearing as a result of my wild driving to get us away from those hooligans," I explained. Understanding appeared in everyone's eyes and they promptly piled out and retrieved their luggage, we immediately set off as we still needed to put some distance between us and Doma's thugs. "Sorry about this you guys," I apologised.

"Don't be Kylie, you were only trying to keep us safe. That magic attack you and Katherine used was amazing," Anzu commented. I restrained my impulse to raise an eyebrow at her words given that we still didn't get along splendidly, sure we weren't biting words at each other every two minutes, but I wouldn't call us friends either.

"We don't normally attack with our magic but given that Doma seemed intent on stopping us, I think mine and Kylie's patience had worn thin," Katherine admitted. Unfortunately, the conversation dissolved into an argument between Jounouchi and Honda when Honda went onto blame Jounouchi for the car breaking down due to his lingering stance at the fuel station. "Not to point fingers but Kylie also stood around for a few moments," Katherine chirped. She was probably trying to stop the fight, but it didn't work and neither did Anzu's plea for the knuckleheads to stop.

"Knock it off you two!" Yami commanded. I contemplated slamming their idiot skulls together if they decided to carry on with the fight. "Now's not the time to be fighting each other," Yami insisted. Anzu and Katherine tossed up their agreements with Yami whilst I did the smart thing and stood between the two boys with a hand on their shoulders in order to stop them. "Anyway, all we can do is go to Industrial Illusions," Yami admitted.

"Agreed. I'm seriously concerned about Uncle Pegasus now," I admitted. Those words stopped the fighting as everyone else realised what the assault upon us most likely meant for Pegasus. "Of course, there's the problem of how to get there. It's a fair walk from here to Industrial Illusions," I admitted. Before anyone could answer, another rumbling engine sounded, we turned in the direction and saw a flatbed truck coming towards us.

Seeing the opportunity for a ride, Honda and Jounouchi somehow twisted Anzu's arm into getting us a ride from the driver, I told her how to signal for a hitchhike in America and then the rest of us dived behind a rock as the driver was more likely to stop if it was only Anzu. Once the squeal of tires sounded, the rest of us stepped out from behind the rock and I watched as the driver's joyful expression turned into a sour one.

We piled into the flatbed with our luggage, but it was a rather tight squeeze as the two knuckleheads continued to argue, this time over whose luggage was in the way. Eventually this led to the opening of Honda's suitcase which was filled with unimportant stuff, I just let out a groan and shook my head at the absurdity that these two displayed sometimes.

"Hey, Jounouchi, Katherine-chan and Kylie, was the person who saved us really Mai-san?" Anzu asked. I looked at the girl along with everyone else as Jounouchi quickly confirmed our knowledge that it was the blonde vixen and assumed that Mai was fighting against Doma as well from how she took out the bikers and admitted he was relieved knowing that; Honda agreed with him. "Yeah! She's so cool, that Mai-san!" Anzu added on.

"True… but, given that it was Mai, why didn't she say anything to us?" Katherine commented. The gazes switched to my sister who was looking out the back of the flatbed, back towards where we'd seen Mai. "Something about this doesn't feel right," Katherine admitted. Mai's time in the Shadow Realm might have left an impact on her, greater than any of us realised.

*Yu-Gi-Oh*

"Is this Industrial Illusions?" Anzu asked. We'd been driven straight to the building thanks to the driver we'd hitchhiked from and I'd paid him for the service before he left, we were in front of the headquarters now as everyone talked about how impressive the structure was. Well except for Yami who insisted that we keep moving.

Stepping into the lobby, I saw it was deserted and that sent my nerves on edge as Honda stated the obvious about the lack of even a single person's presence and even wondered if today happened to be some kind of company holiday. Anzu pointed out that if that was the case then the doors wouldn't have been left open like they had been, Katherine's expression screamed nervous worry as her eyes darted about.

"Industrial Illusions only closes down on significant dates like Easter Sunday, Christmas and Fourth of July for instance," I admitted. Yami's expression was tense as Anzu approached the reception desk and reached for a phone that was on the surface; unfortunately it was dead. "I'm going to sound like a broken record at this rate. This is a bad sign," I stated. My entire body seemed to be humming with nervous energy as I waited for whatever was bound to go wrong to happen.

A creaking sound came from behind me and I couldn't be bothered to look as I knew that was the shutters being lowered over the door, effectively trapping us inside with whoever had wanted us here; the three Japanese and one Egyptian members of our group began to freak out. Katherine meanwhile stayed beside me, her Gauntlet clad hand pressing over her lips, as if she was trying to hold in bile… but then a rumbling engine caught all of our attention and I immediately pressed Katherine behind me as I looked up.

A motorcycle shot over the balcony that was above our heads, a red motorcycle that looked very familiar, it smoothly landed on the tiles in front of us and the rider easily guided the vehicle to a stop. The bike and outfit were the same but until the helmet was removed, I refused to assume the person's identity, even if my Mana Sense was certain that it was the same individual who'd helped us at the fuel station.

Hands reached up and pulled the red helmet free, allowed long and curly blonde hair to tumble down the woman's back and framing her mature face. Everyone called out to the blonde vixen as they gathered around us, but I didn't let Katherine out from behind me nor did she try to move as I kept a hard look on the woman. She was dressed differently to the last time I saw her, Mai wore a black corset crop top under a dark purple vest with dark purple shorts, black thigh-high high heeled boots, black fingerless gloves with silver arm bands and a dark choker.

"See? Just like I said! Speaking of which, that was a pretty extreme entrance there Mai!" Jounouchi stated. The look Mai gave us would have been enough to freeze over all fiery pits of Hell before she proceeded to get off the vehicle. "Mai, did Pegasus call you here too? But be careful. Something weird is going on," Jounouchi explained. The woman finished climbed off her vehicle and turned to look at us and I saw the green stone hanging from her collar.

"Pegasus is no longer here," Mai stated. Her voice was quiet and calm, completely without emotion instead of the normal cheery or flirty tone it had when she wasn't in the middle of a Duel, she reached for her Deck – and I felt my blood chill when I saw her Duel Disk – and pulled the top card free. "Pegasus… I've disposed of Pegasus!" Mai stated. She then extended the card she held to show it to us and I felt intense fury rage to life within me as a snarl twisted onto my lips and my eyes narrowed into a glare.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" I bellowed. In Mai's hand was a Barrier of Oreichalcos with my Uncle's visage behind that freaky star, everyone was having difficulty believing this sudden twist as Katherine let out a small sob, Jounouchi demanded answers when laughter came, I looked up and saw four of the five Musketeers standing them.

"Simply put, Kujaku Mai said she wanted to take care of you groupies with her own hands," The brunette boy stated. I recalled his name was Valon and the light allowed me to see that he was dressed in typical biker clothing made up of a red sleeveless shirt, jeans and black boots, with goggles, dark gloves and padding on his shoulders and elbows. His thick head of chocolate brown hair was styled in thick flares out in all directions and he had crystal blue eyes and a tanned complexion. "Mai! You were only supposed to go after Pegasus! Nameless Pharaoh, Jounouchi and the Hope sisters are our opponents!" Valon commented.

"I'll be taking these four on! So, you four better keep your hands off them!" Mai snapped. I looked at the remaining three with my eyes focused on the raven haired girl who seemed on the verge of ripping Mai's throat out; she had long hair that flowed down her back with grey eyes like flint, a dark blue tube top wrapped around her torso with dark jeans, black heeled boots and a dark blue jacket throw over the top of it, I noticed that her skin tone was a light brown that seemed to be hinted with a slight red undertone… that looked Native American.

The pink haired girl stood beside her, her hair cut short only to the base of her neck in a pixie style hair cut with her blue eyes seemingly emphasised by the hairstyle, she wore a purple tank top with dark jeans, flat dark brown boots and a dark pink jacket over the top, she was incredible pale unlike the other woman. She seemed unconcerned by the lazy position she had of being half draped over the railing that she gazed down from.

As for Rafael's, his blonde hair was raised and pointed upwards behind his head with two locks in front of his ears turning through ninety degrees and pointing forward with narrow green eyes. He wore a large open full-body coat with padded shoulders and belted sleeves and fingerless gloves with studded knuckles, underneath was a turtle neck grey-green shirt, he also had part blue pants and black boots.

"What are you saying Mai?" Jounouchi asked. His tone was tortured and his expression reflected that clearly from the wide eyes and paling skin. "Why would you?! What the hell is going on here?! You have a lot of explaining to do" Jounouchi demanded. Honda demanded to know if the blonde was going to betray us, but Anzu was quick to jump to the woman's defence by claiming there had to be a reason.

"Anzu! Mai has Uncle Pegasus' soul! What reason could she have to do that!?" Katherine cried. Yami demanded to know if Doma had blackmailed the woman or something along those lines; but she gave no answer to that, instead she stated that if we wanted to leave then we had to beat her in a Duel first and showed off her Duel Disk… the same Duel Disk that Gurimo used.

"Fine! You want a Duel, let's Duel!" I snarled. I was beyond furious, enraged or any other definition of the word that could be used to describe being angry as I glared at the woman who had once been one of the people, I considered myself close to; but now she had done the most unforgivable thing I could think of when it came to trying to betray me.

"No Kylie! I'm going to start with Jounouchi!" Mai snapped. I snarled at the woman as Jounouchi tensed up at hearing those words, I just about lunged forward but hands clasped onto my arms; two different hands and I could guess who it was as I was pulled away from the woman. "My turn! Draw!" Mai declared. Jounouchi had given no agreement, but she was clearly going to start the Duel without his permission.

Jounouchi – LP: 4000

Mai – LP: 4000

"Jounouchi… I'm not the Kujaku Mai you once knew. I have been reborn! By obtaining new strength! The power of the Oreichalcos! O Magic Card, dyed in the darkest black! Awaken thy soul of darkness! Field Magic! Barrier of Oreichalcos!" Mai declared. She slid that accursed card into the Field Magic zone and immediately a green light surrounded her and whipped out towards us.

In response my bracelet burst to life and a shield materialised in front of me, Katherine and Yami, Honda and Anzu were quickly called over and they took refuge behind the wall of silver light. But Jounouchi was trapped, the Barrier had ensnared him in its' sickening trap and the blonde haired boy begged Mai to stop this; but a sinister aura had surrounded our friend turned enemy and I could see her hands shaking as small pained sounds escaped from her, when she looked up I saw the seal stamped on her forehead.

"Come out! Harpie Lady! Gain the power of Oreichalcos!" Mai declared. The others had mourned the event that had just occurred, knowing that one way or another someone was going to be lost when this Duel ended, yet Mai showed no hesitation at this knowledge as she immediately brought out her ace Monster, something that had only just earlier save us… but why had she saved us if those thugs worked for Doma?

Harpie Lady – Attribute: Wind, Type: Avian Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1400

Harpie Lady – ATK/1300 – ATK/1800

"Inside the boundaries of the Oreichalcos, all of my Monsters become Dark Monsters. And their Attack Power goes up by five hundred points!" Mai explained. I hadn't forgotten any of those accursed effect that made this card way too powerful. "Turn end. Now, Jounouchi… it's your turn," Mai stated. I looked at the blue jacket clad back of the blonde, wondering what he was going to do.

"No… I… I… I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU LIKE THIS!" Jounouchi cried.