NOTES: Another Kleenex warning **Bear with me!! Last one, I promise** and **sighs wearily** another "this is not yaoi" reminder! ^_~ What can I say? I don't want my stuff mistaken for what it's not ^^
Bakura moaned softly. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was collapsing on Yugi's floor. Where was he now? He felt warm and safe.
He slowly opened one eye, then quickly shut it again. The light was too bright, almost blinding. He rested for a few minutes, then tried again. This time the light didn't hurt his eyes.
"Ah, Bakura, you are awake, I see."
Bakura turned at the sound of the voice. It couldn't be . . . could it?
But it was. His Yami was standing next to the bed, his expression unreadable, as usual, tho Bakura could see the faintest trace of relief in his eyes.
"Yami?" Bakura's own eyes went wide. "But . . . how? They . . . they killed you . . . I saw it . . . I felt your pain as you died . . ."
Yami Bakura shook his head. "Foolish mortal. I cannot die; I'm already dead!"
Bakura blinked, confused. "Well, that's what I always thought, but . . ."
"They didn't kill me, you dolt," Yami Bakura snapped, then sighed, as if he hadn't meant to sound so rude. "Save your strength. You need to get better." He pointed a forefinger at Bakura in emphasis. He would tell Bakura what had happened later, if he felt like it. The wraiths had first sealed him in the Millennium Ring until they had gotten Bakura to the building they were using as a temporary headquarters. Then he had managed to tear free of the Ring and had tried to rescue Bakura, but the wraiths had attacked him and—in spite of what he told Bakura—they had very nearly destroyed him, but they obviously hadn't succeeded, which was a mystery even to the ancient thief. He had woken up on the floor of his soul room several hours before.
"Am I hurt badly?" Bakura asked softly.
Yami Bakura looked frustrated. "I don't know! I'm not the doctor!"
That's when two things happened at once. Tristan, who had been dozing in a chair, woke up suddenly. "What the . . . Bakura! You're awake!" he declared.
Then the door opened and Yugi and Tea rushed in. "Bakura!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Are you alright?" Tea asked.
"You really scared us, man," Tristan added.
Bakura smiled weakly. "I'm not in pain. . . . I just feel exhausted."
"I can well imagine, pal," Tristan said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You were delirious for hours."
Tea gently touched Bakura's forehead and smiled in relief. "Your fever's gone," she told him.
"That's good to know," Bakura smiled back. He blinked. "What time is it? It must be late."
Tea nodded. "It's almost midnight."
"Midnight? Oh my." Bakura looked out the window at the cloudy, moonless night. "Where are the others?" he asked, suddenly realizing they weren't there.
"That's a good question, Bakura," Yugi remarked with a sigh, then suddenly noticed Bakura's Yami, who had sat down in a chair next to the bed. "You! But you're . . ."
"You weren't expecting to see me?" Yami Bakura's lips curled up in a nasty grin. "It's already been proven that you cannot get rid of me."
"Well, what's one more strange occurrence? We've been having so many of 'em," Tristan sighed. "I wonder how Joey and Kaiba are getting along."
"Famously, I'm sure," Tea replied, and Bakura chuckled.
****
As it turned out, Joey and Kaiba were not getting along, as usual.
"Aren't you about done with that metal box?" Joey asked grumpily as Seto clicked on another suspicious-looking computer document to look at.
"Why don't you check the files, Wheeler?" Seto shot back just as grumpily, pointing to the filing cabinet.
"If the police catch us in here, we'll both be in big trouble," Joey persisted.
"It was your idea to come in here, Wheeler, not mine," Seto replied.
"But you didn't protest!" Joey said loudly.
Seto was silent for a long time, then finally said, "It won't help things any to be arguing like this." He stood up and walked to the door. "I think we have all the information we need to clear Madame Fiona's name. She seems to be working against the Cobra Colony, just as she said."
"Well, good for her," Joey muttered.
They left Madame Fiona's house via the back door and walked back up the street. "Oh man! 1313 Dead End Drive is back," Joey exclaimed, pointing ahead at the crumbling mansion, which indeed had returned to its spot in the field. "And I just saw a scarecrow run across the yard!" Without another word, the Brooklyn boy ran over to the gate and, swinging it open, dashed inside. Seto followed, feeling uneasy about something that he couldn't quite determine.
Joey followed the scarecrow in through a window and then looked around, confused. "Hey, where did it go?" he demanded. "It was here just a second ago!"
"Maybe it went outside, which is what we should be doing," Seto muttered as he climbed in after Joey.
"Go out? We just got in! I never figured you for a chicken, Kaiba," Joey taunted.
Seto looked justifiably angry. "I am not a chicken, Wheeler," he snapped. "But I don't feel good about us staying in here."
Joey shrugged. "Sounds like a case of the willies to me." He opened the door to the sitting room and wandered in.
"You're a good one to speak," Seto shot back. "As I recall, you have been the one getting scared on this case—not me."
Joey grunted and didn't answer. After exploring the sitting room and finding nothing, he opened a door at the other end of the room and then screamed as something big and white flew out and plopped over him like a net.
Seto raised an eyebrow. "See what I mean?"
Joey wrestled with the cobweb and threw it into a far corner of the room, muttering angrily.
"I doubt that this room has been occupied in this century or the last," Seto remarked.
Joey looked serious annoyed and turned to another door. "Bingo!" he said triumphantly. "Look!" He pointed to a scarecrow draped over an ancient rocking chair.
"This scarecrow isn't alive," Seto said, pinching one of its arms.
"Not now, sure, but it was," Joey said, picking the straw man up. "Let's take it with us."
"Fine," Seto growled.
Joey wandered to the door and opened it. "Hey, it's the dumbwaiter!" he announced.
"Wheeler, I'm not kidding—we need to get out of here!" Seto said abruptly as Joey started poking around the dumbwaiter.
"You're not starting that again, are you?" Joey snapped.
"I mean it, Wheeler," Seto told him.
"Yeah, whatever," Joey laughed, walking into the dumbwaiter and out the other end, winding up in the kitchen.
"Wheeler, I'm tired of arguing with you—we're leaving NOW!!" Seto ordered.
"And just who do you think you are to tell me what I can and can't do?" Joey shot back. "What—do you think I'm some scared little puppy who'll obey your every command?" he yelled, remembering some past experiences and a nightmare he'd had quite a while back at the Duelist Kingdom. "Well, guess what, pal—you're wrong!"
Seto looked taken aback, then angry.
Before he could respond, an explosion ripped through the house and both he and Joey were thrown out through the window by the force of the blast. That was the last thing Joey remembered before everything went black.
****
When Joey opened his eyes, he couldn't for the life of him remember what had happened. It was almost completely dark all around him. There wasn't even any moonlight, since the sky had clouded over.
"Oh man," he moaned, sitting up shakily. "My head hurts."
He looked around blearily. Debris was everywhere—plaster, bricks, pieces of wood. . . . There had obviously been some kind of explosion, but try as he might, Joey could not remember anything about it, nor where he was. He idly wondered why the area was so deserted. Why, for instance, hadn't the fire department been called? Maybe he was in the sticks and there had simply been no one around to call any fire department. Yeah, that made sense.
He paused, suddenly remembering something. Hadn't someone else been with him?
He stood up and stumbled on through the rubble for a few minutes before abruptly tripping over something. "Yaaaaaa!!!" he yelped as he went down, then felt around to see what he'd fallen over. A cold chill went up his spine. "Kaiba?!" he whispered, feeling his hand brush against a familiar trenchcoat. "Hey, Kaiba, get up, man," he said, shaking the other boy on the shoulder. There was no response. "Hey, what happened, man?" the Brooklyn-born boy asked nervously. "Why won't you get up?"
After a few minutes of this, Joey was starting to get very frustrated. "Hey, come on, man, don't tease me," he pleaded. Still no response. Joey grabbed Kaiba by the collar of his trenchcoat and hoisted him up.
He might as well have been holding a ragdoll. Seto Kaiba was completely limp and his skin was pale and cold.
"Hey, man, you're scarin' me!" Joey declared.
Suddenly memories came flooding back. He remembered that they had been investigating that old house that kept disappearing . . . Kaiba had wanted to leave, but Joey had insisted that they keep hanging around. . . . Then he had gotten really mad at Kaiba and had started yelling . . . And then the house had exploded, sending them both out the window.
And he remembered something else, too—Madame Fiona's prophecy.
"Oh no. Oh no. Oh man . . ." Joey sank back to the ground, Kaiba's lifeless body in his arms. If Kaiba was really . . . dead, Joey realized with a jolt that it might be his fault. He grabbed the other boy's wrist, checking for a pulse. Nothing. Kaiba didn't appear to be breathing, either.
Something trickled down Joey's face and he brushed it away angrily, expecting it to be blood. Instead he discovered a teardrop. He was crying. "Man, I never thought I'd be bawling over Seto Kaiba," he remarked. He shook the other boy roughly. "Hey, come on, man, stay with me here," he pleaded. "Your brother needs you!"
When there was still no response, Joey hung his head sadly and closed his eyes. "Oh man, Kaiba . . ." What was he going to do now?
Bakura moaned softly. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was collapsing on Yugi's floor. Where was he now? He felt warm and safe.
He slowly opened one eye, then quickly shut it again. The light was too bright, almost blinding. He rested for a few minutes, then tried again. This time the light didn't hurt his eyes.
"Ah, Bakura, you are awake, I see."
Bakura turned at the sound of the voice. It couldn't be . . . could it?
But it was. His Yami was standing next to the bed, his expression unreadable, as usual, tho Bakura could see the faintest trace of relief in his eyes.
"Yami?" Bakura's own eyes went wide. "But . . . how? They . . . they killed you . . . I saw it . . . I felt your pain as you died . . ."
Yami Bakura shook his head. "Foolish mortal. I cannot die; I'm already dead!"
Bakura blinked, confused. "Well, that's what I always thought, but . . ."
"They didn't kill me, you dolt," Yami Bakura snapped, then sighed, as if he hadn't meant to sound so rude. "Save your strength. You need to get better." He pointed a forefinger at Bakura in emphasis. He would tell Bakura what had happened later, if he felt like it. The wraiths had first sealed him in the Millennium Ring until they had gotten Bakura to the building they were using as a temporary headquarters. Then he had managed to tear free of the Ring and had tried to rescue Bakura, but the wraiths had attacked him and—in spite of what he told Bakura—they had very nearly destroyed him, but they obviously hadn't succeeded, which was a mystery even to the ancient thief. He had woken up on the floor of his soul room several hours before.
"Am I hurt badly?" Bakura asked softly.
Yami Bakura looked frustrated. "I don't know! I'm not the doctor!"
That's when two things happened at once. Tristan, who had been dozing in a chair, woke up suddenly. "What the . . . Bakura! You're awake!" he declared.
Then the door opened and Yugi and Tea rushed in. "Bakura!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Are you alright?" Tea asked.
"You really scared us, man," Tristan added.
Bakura smiled weakly. "I'm not in pain. . . . I just feel exhausted."
"I can well imagine, pal," Tristan said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You were delirious for hours."
Tea gently touched Bakura's forehead and smiled in relief. "Your fever's gone," she told him.
"That's good to know," Bakura smiled back. He blinked. "What time is it? It must be late."
Tea nodded. "It's almost midnight."
"Midnight? Oh my." Bakura looked out the window at the cloudy, moonless night. "Where are the others?" he asked, suddenly realizing they weren't there.
"That's a good question, Bakura," Yugi remarked with a sigh, then suddenly noticed Bakura's Yami, who had sat down in a chair next to the bed. "You! But you're . . ."
"You weren't expecting to see me?" Yami Bakura's lips curled up in a nasty grin. "It's already been proven that you cannot get rid of me."
"Well, what's one more strange occurrence? We've been having so many of 'em," Tristan sighed. "I wonder how Joey and Kaiba are getting along."
"Famously, I'm sure," Tea replied, and Bakura chuckled.
****
As it turned out, Joey and Kaiba were not getting along, as usual.
"Aren't you about done with that metal box?" Joey asked grumpily as Seto clicked on another suspicious-looking computer document to look at.
"Why don't you check the files, Wheeler?" Seto shot back just as grumpily, pointing to the filing cabinet.
"If the police catch us in here, we'll both be in big trouble," Joey persisted.
"It was your idea to come in here, Wheeler, not mine," Seto replied.
"But you didn't protest!" Joey said loudly.
Seto was silent for a long time, then finally said, "It won't help things any to be arguing like this." He stood up and walked to the door. "I think we have all the information we need to clear Madame Fiona's name. She seems to be working against the Cobra Colony, just as she said."
"Well, good for her," Joey muttered.
They left Madame Fiona's house via the back door and walked back up the street. "Oh man! 1313 Dead End Drive is back," Joey exclaimed, pointing ahead at the crumbling mansion, which indeed had returned to its spot in the field. "And I just saw a scarecrow run across the yard!" Without another word, the Brooklyn boy ran over to the gate and, swinging it open, dashed inside. Seto followed, feeling uneasy about something that he couldn't quite determine.
Joey followed the scarecrow in through a window and then looked around, confused. "Hey, where did it go?" he demanded. "It was here just a second ago!"
"Maybe it went outside, which is what we should be doing," Seto muttered as he climbed in after Joey.
"Go out? We just got in! I never figured you for a chicken, Kaiba," Joey taunted.
Seto looked justifiably angry. "I am not a chicken, Wheeler," he snapped. "But I don't feel good about us staying in here."
Joey shrugged. "Sounds like a case of the willies to me." He opened the door to the sitting room and wandered in.
"You're a good one to speak," Seto shot back. "As I recall, you have been the one getting scared on this case—not me."
Joey grunted and didn't answer. After exploring the sitting room and finding nothing, he opened a door at the other end of the room and then screamed as something big and white flew out and plopped over him like a net.
Seto raised an eyebrow. "See what I mean?"
Joey wrestled with the cobweb and threw it into a far corner of the room, muttering angrily.
"I doubt that this room has been occupied in this century or the last," Seto remarked.
Joey looked serious annoyed and turned to another door. "Bingo!" he said triumphantly. "Look!" He pointed to a scarecrow draped over an ancient rocking chair.
"This scarecrow isn't alive," Seto said, pinching one of its arms.
"Not now, sure, but it was," Joey said, picking the straw man up. "Let's take it with us."
"Fine," Seto growled.
Joey wandered to the door and opened it. "Hey, it's the dumbwaiter!" he announced.
"Wheeler, I'm not kidding—we need to get out of here!" Seto said abruptly as Joey started poking around the dumbwaiter.
"You're not starting that again, are you?" Joey snapped.
"I mean it, Wheeler," Seto told him.
"Yeah, whatever," Joey laughed, walking into the dumbwaiter and out the other end, winding up in the kitchen.
"Wheeler, I'm tired of arguing with you—we're leaving NOW!!" Seto ordered.
"And just who do you think you are to tell me what I can and can't do?" Joey shot back. "What—do you think I'm some scared little puppy who'll obey your every command?" he yelled, remembering some past experiences and a nightmare he'd had quite a while back at the Duelist Kingdom. "Well, guess what, pal—you're wrong!"
Seto looked taken aback, then angry.
Before he could respond, an explosion ripped through the house and both he and Joey were thrown out through the window by the force of the blast. That was the last thing Joey remembered before everything went black.
****
When Joey opened his eyes, he couldn't for the life of him remember what had happened. It was almost completely dark all around him. There wasn't even any moonlight, since the sky had clouded over.
"Oh man," he moaned, sitting up shakily. "My head hurts."
He looked around blearily. Debris was everywhere—plaster, bricks, pieces of wood. . . . There had obviously been some kind of explosion, but try as he might, Joey could not remember anything about it, nor where he was. He idly wondered why the area was so deserted. Why, for instance, hadn't the fire department been called? Maybe he was in the sticks and there had simply been no one around to call any fire department. Yeah, that made sense.
He paused, suddenly remembering something. Hadn't someone else been with him?
He stood up and stumbled on through the rubble for a few minutes before abruptly tripping over something. "Yaaaaaa!!!" he yelped as he went down, then felt around to see what he'd fallen over. A cold chill went up his spine. "Kaiba?!" he whispered, feeling his hand brush against a familiar trenchcoat. "Hey, Kaiba, get up, man," he said, shaking the other boy on the shoulder. There was no response. "Hey, what happened, man?" the Brooklyn-born boy asked nervously. "Why won't you get up?"
After a few minutes of this, Joey was starting to get very frustrated. "Hey, come on, man, don't tease me," he pleaded. Still no response. Joey grabbed Kaiba by the collar of his trenchcoat and hoisted him up.
He might as well have been holding a ragdoll. Seto Kaiba was completely limp and his skin was pale and cold.
"Hey, man, you're scarin' me!" Joey declared.
Suddenly memories came flooding back. He remembered that they had been investigating that old house that kept disappearing . . . Kaiba had wanted to leave, but Joey had insisted that they keep hanging around. . . . Then he had gotten really mad at Kaiba and had started yelling . . . And then the house had exploded, sending them both out the window.
And he remembered something else, too—Madame Fiona's prophecy.
"Oh no. Oh no. Oh man . . ." Joey sank back to the ground, Kaiba's lifeless body in his arms. If Kaiba was really . . . dead, Joey realized with a jolt that it might be his fault. He grabbed the other boy's wrist, checking for a pulse. Nothing. Kaiba didn't appear to be breathing, either.
Something trickled down Joey's face and he brushed it away angrily, expecting it to be blood. Instead he discovered a teardrop. He was crying. "Man, I never thought I'd be bawling over Seto Kaiba," he remarked. He shook the other boy roughly. "Hey, come on, man, stay with me here," he pleaded. "Your brother needs you!"
When there was still no response, Joey hung his head sadly and closed his eyes. "Oh man, Kaiba . . ." What was he going to do now?