"Come on, Ryou. Lets get a move on."

Ryou took a deep breath as he continued to trudge through the woods after Soy. She had grown tired of carrying him, commenting that she wasn't a taxi. And made him walk. Ryou had no real complaints about it, except that Soy kept complaining about how slow he was. She may have been used to traveling in the woods. But he sure wasn't.

Soy looked back at him. He looked a little tired. Maybe they should stop for a while. It would take them longer to get the gateway stone, but they weren't in any rush really. None that's he knew of at least. Ryou might be in a rush, but she sure didn't know of anything.

"You surviving back there, Ryou?" she asked, making sure that he wasn't going to have a heart attack. After all, humans were pretty frail. At least the ones that she had met were.

"I'm fine, Soy." He answered. "But how much farther?"

She looked around and sniffed the wind. "Not too long. How's your better half doing in that ring?"

Ryou took a second to contact his Yami. "He's fine."

"How come he never comes out?" Soy asked.

Ryou started to answer, but was cut off by sudden movement from Soy. The half fox had spun around, throwing her scythe blade into the trees behind them. Ryou ducked away as Soy yanked on the chain, pulling the blade back.

As she pulled the blade, something fell from the tress and hit the ground hard, dead. Ryou looked over at what Soy had pulled out. it was what appeared to be a woman, but she had no face. It was just a smooth, blank area where the face should have been. Soy's blade was embedded in its chest.

Soy walked over and pulled the blade out. She licked the blood off as Ryou backed away from the dead body. "What is it?" he asked.

Soy put her blade back. "It's a body collector."

Ryou felt a small chill. "A body collector?"

Soy nodded. "Ever heard of taxidermy?" She pocked the body. "That's what these sickos do. They stuff bodies and keep them like trophies or something."

'Ryou, I don't like the sound of that. I'm coming out.'

A few seconds later, the former tomb raider appeared. Soy barely cast a glance at him. She was too busy scanning the tress around them.

"These guys always hunt in packs. So be on the lookout, you two." She placed a hand on her katana, preparing herself for trouble.

Bakura narrowed his eyes at her. "If they are such a threat, we don't we leave?"

Soy didn't answer.

"Oh, all three of you look so alike. You will make perfect little trophies."

Soy tensed and whirled around at the sound of the voice. she found herself face to face with another of the body collectors, this one appeared to be a male, but like the other, it had no face.

"I'm very upset at what you did to my little sister." It said, and leaned closer to Soy. "I recognize you. Tsk tsk." He shook his head. "You of all people should know how painful it is to lose a family member."

Soy twitched and glanced at Ryou. "I'll take care of this bastard, but stay on your guard."

She narrowed her eyes as Ryou and Bakura both stepped back. The collector just laughed. "It's too bad your daddy cut Takna up so badly. Your brother would have made a splendid trophy."

That did it. Soy growled and jumped forward, aiming her katana at the collector's chest. The beast managed to dodge, and threw something small and white at Soy. She stopped it in time and managed to dodge it, yelling back at Ryou.

"Don't let that touch you!"

For once, neither Ryou nor Bakura took the time to consider, they jumped out of the way, letting the small white object hit the tree behind them. As it hit, the tree was engulfed in white goo, and several slimy strands shot out to any near by objects.

Ryou watched in shock as the slime began to constrict, squeezing the tree until water began to spill from the trunk. The tree began to wither, turning hard as a rock.

Bakura narrowed his eyes. Soy and the collector were engaged in battle, Soy shifting between attacking and dodging the goo that was being thrown. The entire forest around them was starting to petrify.

Soy jumped out of the way as another ball of goo was flung her way. She could keep dodging these things forever, but she was worried that Ryou would be hit. If he was, there wasn't a way she would be able to save him in time.

She made another slash at the collector, but he had figured out her weakness. He stopped throwing at her, and aimed all of his goo at Ryou.

Ryou ducked, knowing he would never get out of the way in time. Even Bakura couldn't do anything to help. So he dropped to the ground and shut his eyes.

But the hit he expected never came. Slowly, he opened his eyes. To his surprise, Soy was standing in front of him. She had taken the blow for him.

A gasp escaped him, as Bakura grabbed and pulled him away, taking him to where it would be safer, should the goo thread like it had been doing before. Soy spasmed, as the goo started to spread all over her. She managed to free a hand, and slashed the goo before it could cover her face. She gasped for air as the goo started to constrict and cut off her air.

"Soy!" Ryou yelled, horrified at what was happened. He had never expected her to make such a sacrifice for him. He couldn't think, he just kept staring as Soy twitched and gasped for air.

Bakura grabbed him by the arm, shaking him out of his daze. "Come on!" he yelled, trying to get Ryou to stand.

But the silver haired teen just stared. He couldn't move couldn't think. Bakura grabbed him and shook him violently. "Ryou! We have to get out of here!"

Slowly, Ryou turned his head to looked at his Yami. His dark eyes were glassy and looked to be a million miles away.

"Ryou!"

Ryou shook his head, clearing his daze. He knew they had to escape, but he didn't want to leave Soy. If she was going to die, he didn't want her to die alone. "No…we can't leave her." He whispered.

Bakura growled and resisted slapping him to bring him to his senses. "We don't have a choice!"

Ryou slowly shook his head, his eyes fixed on Soy, whose eyes were tearing up from the pain of being squeezed. She glanced at him, her eyes slowly blinking.

"Ryou!"

Finally, Bakura dragged him from the scene, pulling him through the dense woods and leaving Soy behind.


Thanks for the reviews everyone! Please tell me what you thought of this chapter and sorry I haven't updated for a few days!