"No way!" Joey cried. "I couldn't have just seen what I thought I did!"
"Then we're all hallucinating, because I saw it too," Tristan said grimly. "Bakura disappeared into thin air!"
"He could never do that before, even when it was his Yami in control and not really Bakura himself," Yugi remarked. "Whatever happened to change Bakura like this, it must have happened during the time before we found him playing pinball."
"Do you suppose his Yami did something to him?" Marik suggested.
"It's possible," Yugi said slowly, "except for one important factor—no matter how hard Yami Bakura tries to deceive us, I find it quite obvious that he is fond of Bakura. I don't see what he could have done to him or why he would do it. No," the boy decided now, "I don't think Yami Bakura is responsible at all."
"Then who the heck is?!" Joey cried in frustration.
Yugi turned to go. "In order to get any answers, we must find Shadi," he declared grimly.
Marik suddenly paused. "I forgot," he said slowly. "I was to meet Ishizu back at her room quite some time ago. She said she had something important to tell me."
"Then you'd best go speak with her," Yugi told him. "Perhaps she, also, can shed some light on this puzzling case."
Marik soon left, and as the other teens continued on down the hall, the sounds of a vicious struggle became louder and more intense.
"Someone's fighting!" Tea exclaimed in horror.
A pitiful scream echoed throughout the corridor and the teens all jumped.
"It's Kaiba!" Tea shrieked now. "Oh, he's hurt!"
Quickly the young people dashed down the winding halls until they came upon the fight scene and stood still in shock. Seto was flipping a dangerous-looking man over onto the floor, while at the same time trying to get the upper hand against a second man who was grabbing him from behind and trying to strangle him. Angrily the boy reached for the man's arms and wrenched them away from him. "You'll never get the better of me," he vowed, squeezing hard on the man's wrists.
"Stop! Stop!! You're cutting off the circulation!" the man screamed.
"Looks to me like Kaiba's doin' okay for himself," Joey shrugged, wincing at the man's pain.
Seto glared at his captive. "Agree to turn yourself in and I'll let go."
The man continued to struggle. Now an evil grin spread across his face. "Of course, Mr. Kaiba," he said smoothly, abruptly kicking the poor boy right in the stomach.
Seto cried out in agony and released his grip. The man sneered and hit him hard over the head before grabbing his friend and turning to run in the opposite direction.
Immediately Yugi stepped out and stood in their path. "Just where do you think you're going?" he said sternly.
"Getting away from that kid," one of the men replied. "He's a dangerous monster! We were just minding our own business when he started following us and decided he wanted to get into a fight!"
"You're lying," Yugi replied stonily. "Seto Kaiba wouldn't go around picking fights. We all saw what was really happening."
Tea knelt down next to the battered boy, who had slumped against the wall and was looking dazed. "That's right!" she agreed firmly, then turned her attention to getting a response from her friend. "Kaiba?" she whispered urgently, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Oh please . . . open your eyes!" She suddenly gave a cry of alarm as blood trickled onto her hand from a cut on Seto's neck.
"He picked a fight with us," the other man insisted, quite unconcerned that the boy had been hurt.
Seto groaned now, struggling to regain his bearings. "I'm not unconscious," he muttered to Tea. His blue eyes flew open and he stumbled to his feet, glaring at the two liars he had been fighting with.
"You okay, man?" Joey asked.
Seto grunted and didn't answer. "You treacherous snakes," he growled, pointing his forefinger at the men. "You drew a knife on me and threatened to harm Mokuba if I didn't just let you go about continuing your criminal activities!"
"He lies!" the men cried indignantly.
"We believe our buddy, not you creeps," Joey said, glaring at them. "You want a piece of me?!"
Seto held Joey back. "This is my problem, Wheeler," he said, moving forward. "I'm not going to allow these slime to get the better of me!"
One of the men moved forward as well and tried to punch Seto harshly, but the boy grabbed his arm and wrenched it around. When the other man came in for the attack, Seto punched him hard on the jaw, delivering a knock-out blow.
"Now see here!" an angry voice cried. All the teens looked up to see the stern, uniformed man from earlier coming towards them. "Brawls aren't allowed on this ship! Who started this?!"
"He did!" the one man cried, pointing at Seto and struggling to pull free from his grip.
"He's lying!" Tea cried indignantly.
"You're all giving me a headache!" the uniformed man grumbled.
"Hey, who are you, anyway?" Tristan demanded.
"Robert Webb, head of security," was the reply. "And will someone tell me what in the name of Heaven is happening?!"
Seto's eyes narrowed. "These men are—were—my employees. They were embezzling money from my company and trying to escape. I recorded them discussing their plans, so no amount of lying will help them now." He glared at them both, annoyance evident in his eyes. "Then they pulled a knife on me here in the hall and I had no choice but to defend myself."
"He's a teenage brat! Don't believe him!!" the conscious criminal growled.
Webb rolled his eyes. "I've heard enough. You and your friend apparently just don't know when to give up," he said to the embezzler.
"We don't have to give up," the man sneered in reply. Chanting something in another language, he and his friend both vanished!
****
Mokuba, meanwhile, had managed to pry the grid off the ventilation shaft and climb in just before the intruder got the door open. Now he watched, his heart pounding wildly, as a Egyptian man came in and looked around furtively.
"No one is here," he declared to someone else, and then Mokuba gasped in utter astonishment as Bakura peeked in.
"What do you wish me to do?" the boy asked.
The man shrugged. "You know what my ultimate goal is. How convenient it is that all of the Millennium Item holders are traveling on this ship!" he said with a nasty smirk. "You, my friend, should go find them and bring them to me."
"Of course," Bakura nodded, leaving the room.
Mokuba watched in disbelief. This couldn't be right! Bakura would never be helping someone to collect all of the Millennium Items! He knew he had to catch up to the boy and find out what was going on . . . but how could he leave this strange man in the room? And what would the man want? Neither Mokuba or Seto was a Millennium Item holder.
The strange man continued to wander about the room, but eventually he seemed satisfied that there was nothing inside to interest him and abruptly left.
Now Mokuba hurried to climb back out of the ventilator. He had to go find someone who could tell him what was happening—and fast. If Bakura was hypnotized or something, they had to do something to snap him out of it.
****
Yami Bakura wandered through the corridors, looking into every room he came upon for the missing boy. "What a dolt," he muttered. He had already tried to connect with Bakura through their mental bond, but the boy was obviously ignoring him. Something had drastically changed Bakura since early that morning when Yami Bakura had routed him out of the pool hall, and now the old thief had a feeling that the boy may be being controlled by a dark force—but why? What would someone want with Bakura? He didn't know . . . but he did know that he needed to find that boy before something else happened.
****
The teens and Webb stared at the spot where the two men had been standing only moments before. Where could they have gone?
After a moment Webb shook his head and turned to go. "I've been having a long day," he muttered, deciding that everything had probably just been a hallucination.
Seto growled in irritation. The next time he encountered those two criminals, they wouldn't be so lucky as to escape. He would make sure of that.
"Seto!!" a familiar voice cried now, and everyone turned as Mokuba came running up and embraced the older boy.
Seto blinked in surprise. "Mokuba," he said softly, "what are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay in the room!"
Mokuba looked up at him. "It's not safe in there, either, big brother!" he exclaimed, telling of the strange phone call and how that man had broken in.
"That's terrible!" Tea said, her eyes wide.
"And that's not all," Mokuba continued shakily.
"What is it, kid?" Seto asked now.
Haltingly Mokuba explained of Bakura's presence and odd behavior. "I . . . I don't know what was wrong with him," he said slowly, "but he was gonna go find the other Millennium Items for that guy."
"What?!" Tristan and Joey cried in disbelief.
"No way would Bakura be doin' something like that!" Joey declared.
Yugi was very grim. "Someone is obviously here who possesses great and terrible powers," he said slowly, "and they are apparently using Bakura as their minion."
"Poor Bakura," Tea said softly, her eyes shining worriedly.
"What are we going to do?" Tristan wondered.
Yugi headed off down the hall. "We need to find Marik and see what Ishizu wanted to talk to him about. And we also need to find Shadi, now more than ever."
Joey looked completely frustrated. "Why can't anything ever make sense around here?!" he cried.
Now Mokuba looked up at Seto worriedly. "Oh, big brother, are you hurt?" he cried.
Seto smiled at him tenderly. "No, kid." By now he had managed to clean the worst of his injuries from the fight—a minor stab wound—and was looking pretty much presentable again.
"And how in the heck did those crooks manage to disappear?!" Joey burst out now. "That's four different people who've vanished mysteriously today!"
Yugi shook his head. "It's all a puzzle," he admitted. "And I don't like the way the pieces are fitting together."
****
Marik slowly opened the door to his stateroom and went in. Ishizu hadn't been in her room when he'd arrived, much to Marik's surprise. The boy was hoping that Rishid might be around and could tell him where she was, but his brother didn't seem to be anywhere in the room.
"Rishid?" Marik cautiously advanced deeper into the room, feeling an odd sense of unease. Someone was here who obviously shouldn't be.
The Egyptian boy clicked on the light, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Who is here?" He picked up a blunt object to use as a weapon.
No sounds came from anywhere in the room, but Marik still felt another presence nearby. "Reveal yourself to me!" the boy cried threateningly.
"As you wish," a soft voice replied, and without warning something hard and heavy struck Marik on the head before he could do a thing about it. The boy groaned, crumpling to the floor and knowing no more.
****
Bakura stood over Marik's prone body, the Millennium Rod held tightly in his hand. "I am sorry, my friend," he apologized. "But I am no longer the kind, innocent Bakura you knew. I follow a different path now—and soon I will be the most powerful person history will ever know!"
"Then we're all hallucinating, because I saw it too," Tristan said grimly. "Bakura disappeared into thin air!"
"He could never do that before, even when it was his Yami in control and not really Bakura himself," Yugi remarked. "Whatever happened to change Bakura like this, it must have happened during the time before we found him playing pinball."
"Do you suppose his Yami did something to him?" Marik suggested.
"It's possible," Yugi said slowly, "except for one important factor—no matter how hard Yami Bakura tries to deceive us, I find it quite obvious that he is fond of Bakura. I don't see what he could have done to him or why he would do it. No," the boy decided now, "I don't think Yami Bakura is responsible at all."
"Then who the heck is?!" Joey cried in frustration.
Yugi turned to go. "In order to get any answers, we must find Shadi," he declared grimly.
Marik suddenly paused. "I forgot," he said slowly. "I was to meet Ishizu back at her room quite some time ago. She said she had something important to tell me."
"Then you'd best go speak with her," Yugi told him. "Perhaps she, also, can shed some light on this puzzling case."
Marik soon left, and as the other teens continued on down the hall, the sounds of a vicious struggle became louder and more intense.
"Someone's fighting!" Tea exclaimed in horror.
A pitiful scream echoed throughout the corridor and the teens all jumped.
"It's Kaiba!" Tea shrieked now. "Oh, he's hurt!"
Quickly the young people dashed down the winding halls until they came upon the fight scene and stood still in shock. Seto was flipping a dangerous-looking man over onto the floor, while at the same time trying to get the upper hand against a second man who was grabbing him from behind and trying to strangle him. Angrily the boy reached for the man's arms and wrenched them away from him. "You'll never get the better of me," he vowed, squeezing hard on the man's wrists.
"Stop! Stop!! You're cutting off the circulation!" the man screamed.
"Looks to me like Kaiba's doin' okay for himself," Joey shrugged, wincing at the man's pain.
Seto glared at his captive. "Agree to turn yourself in and I'll let go."
The man continued to struggle. Now an evil grin spread across his face. "Of course, Mr. Kaiba," he said smoothly, abruptly kicking the poor boy right in the stomach.
Seto cried out in agony and released his grip. The man sneered and hit him hard over the head before grabbing his friend and turning to run in the opposite direction.
Immediately Yugi stepped out and stood in their path. "Just where do you think you're going?" he said sternly.
"Getting away from that kid," one of the men replied. "He's a dangerous monster! We were just minding our own business when he started following us and decided he wanted to get into a fight!"
"You're lying," Yugi replied stonily. "Seto Kaiba wouldn't go around picking fights. We all saw what was really happening."
Tea knelt down next to the battered boy, who had slumped against the wall and was looking dazed. "That's right!" she agreed firmly, then turned her attention to getting a response from her friend. "Kaiba?" she whispered urgently, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Oh please . . . open your eyes!" She suddenly gave a cry of alarm as blood trickled onto her hand from a cut on Seto's neck.
"He picked a fight with us," the other man insisted, quite unconcerned that the boy had been hurt.
Seto groaned now, struggling to regain his bearings. "I'm not unconscious," he muttered to Tea. His blue eyes flew open and he stumbled to his feet, glaring at the two liars he had been fighting with.
"You okay, man?" Joey asked.
Seto grunted and didn't answer. "You treacherous snakes," he growled, pointing his forefinger at the men. "You drew a knife on me and threatened to harm Mokuba if I didn't just let you go about continuing your criminal activities!"
"He lies!" the men cried indignantly.
"We believe our buddy, not you creeps," Joey said, glaring at them. "You want a piece of me?!"
Seto held Joey back. "This is my problem, Wheeler," he said, moving forward. "I'm not going to allow these slime to get the better of me!"
One of the men moved forward as well and tried to punch Seto harshly, but the boy grabbed his arm and wrenched it around. When the other man came in for the attack, Seto punched him hard on the jaw, delivering a knock-out blow.
"Now see here!" an angry voice cried. All the teens looked up to see the stern, uniformed man from earlier coming towards them. "Brawls aren't allowed on this ship! Who started this?!"
"He did!" the one man cried, pointing at Seto and struggling to pull free from his grip.
"He's lying!" Tea cried indignantly.
"You're all giving me a headache!" the uniformed man grumbled.
"Hey, who are you, anyway?" Tristan demanded.
"Robert Webb, head of security," was the reply. "And will someone tell me what in the name of Heaven is happening?!"
Seto's eyes narrowed. "These men are—were—my employees. They were embezzling money from my company and trying to escape. I recorded them discussing their plans, so no amount of lying will help them now." He glared at them both, annoyance evident in his eyes. "Then they pulled a knife on me here in the hall and I had no choice but to defend myself."
"He's a teenage brat! Don't believe him!!" the conscious criminal growled.
Webb rolled his eyes. "I've heard enough. You and your friend apparently just don't know when to give up," he said to the embezzler.
"We don't have to give up," the man sneered in reply. Chanting something in another language, he and his friend both vanished!
****
Mokuba, meanwhile, had managed to pry the grid off the ventilation shaft and climb in just before the intruder got the door open. Now he watched, his heart pounding wildly, as a Egyptian man came in and looked around furtively.
"No one is here," he declared to someone else, and then Mokuba gasped in utter astonishment as Bakura peeked in.
"What do you wish me to do?" the boy asked.
The man shrugged. "You know what my ultimate goal is. How convenient it is that all of the Millennium Item holders are traveling on this ship!" he said with a nasty smirk. "You, my friend, should go find them and bring them to me."
"Of course," Bakura nodded, leaving the room.
Mokuba watched in disbelief. This couldn't be right! Bakura would never be helping someone to collect all of the Millennium Items! He knew he had to catch up to the boy and find out what was going on . . . but how could he leave this strange man in the room? And what would the man want? Neither Mokuba or Seto was a Millennium Item holder.
The strange man continued to wander about the room, but eventually he seemed satisfied that there was nothing inside to interest him and abruptly left.
Now Mokuba hurried to climb back out of the ventilator. He had to go find someone who could tell him what was happening—and fast. If Bakura was hypnotized or something, they had to do something to snap him out of it.
****
Yami Bakura wandered through the corridors, looking into every room he came upon for the missing boy. "What a dolt," he muttered. He had already tried to connect with Bakura through their mental bond, but the boy was obviously ignoring him. Something had drastically changed Bakura since early that morning when Yami Bakura had routed him out of the pool hall, and now the old thief had a feeling that the boy may be being controlled by a dark force—but why? What would someone want with Bakura? He didn't know . . . but he did know that he needed to find that boy before something else happened.
****
The teens and Webb stared at the spot where the two men had been standing only moments before. Where could they have gone?
After a moment Webb shook his head and turned to go. "I've been having a long day," he muttered, deciding that everything had probably just been a hallucination.
Seto growled in irritation. The next time he encountered those two criminals, they wouldn't be so lucky as to escape. He would make sure of that.
"Seto!!" a familiar voice cried now, and everyone turned as Mokuba came running up and embraced the older boy.
Seto blinked in surprise. "Mokuba," he said softly, "what are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay in the room!"
Mokuba looked up at him. "It's not safe in there, either, big brother!" he exclaimed, telling of the strange phone call and how that man had broken in.
"That's terrible!" Tea said, her eyes wide.
"And that's not all," Mokuba continued shakily.
"What is it, kid?" Seto asked now.
Haltingly Mokuba explained of Bakura's presence and odd behavior. "I . . . I don't know what was wrong with him," he said slowly, "but he was gonna go find the other Millennium Items for that guy."
"What?!" Tristan and Joey cried in disbelief.
"No way would Bakura be doin' something like that!" Joey declared.
Yugi was very grim. "Someone is obviously here who possesses great and terrible powers," he said slowly, "and they are apparently using Bakura as their minion."
"Poor Bakura," Tea said softly, her eyes shining worriedly.
"What are we going to do?" Tristan wondered.
Yugi headed off down the hall. "We need to find Marik and see what Ishizu wanted to talk to him about. And we also need to find Shadi, now more than ever."
Joey looked completely frustrated. "Why can't anything ever make sense around here?!" he cried.
Now Mokuba looked up at Seto worriedly. "Oh, big brother, are you hurt?" he cried.
Seto smiled at him tenderly. "No, kid." By now he had managed to clean the worst of his injuries from the fight—a minor stab wound—and was looking pretty much presentable again.
"And how in the heck did those crooks manage to disappear?!" Joey burst out now. "That's four different people who've vanished mysteriously today!"
Yugi shook his head. "It's all a puzzle," he admitted. "And I don't like the way the pieces are fitting together."
****
Marik slowly opened the door to his stateroom and went in. Ishizu hadn't been in her room when he'd arrived, much to Marik's surprise. The boy was hoping that Rishid might be around and could tell him where she was, but his brother didn't seem to be anywhere in the room.
"Rishid?" Marik cautiously advanced deeper into the room, feeling an odd sense of unease. Someone was here who obviously shouldn't be.
The Egyptian boy clicked on the light, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Who is here?" He picked up a blunt object to use as a weapon.
No sounds came from anywhere in the room, but Marik still felt another presence nearby. "Reveal yourself to me!" the boy cried threateningly.
"As you wish," a soft voice replied, and without warning something hard and heavy struck Marik on the head before he could do a thing about it. The boy groaned, crumpling to the floor and knowing no more.
****
Bakura stood over Marik's prone body, the Millennium Rod held tightly in his hand. "I am sorry, my friend," he apologized. "But I am no longer the kind, innocent Bakura you knew. I follow a different path now—and soon I will be the most powerful person history will ever know!"