"Um, Bakura?"

"Yes?"

"Ah, nothing, it's just that...that..."

"Yes, I know. . . . I know."

"Eh, sorry about back there, you know?"

Bakura didn't say anything for a while. "It's a bit difficult to accept apologies when you're suspended over a boiling vat of oil about to be sacrificed to the gods, you know?"

"Ah. I see."

Ceryan squinted past the flame in the center of the room to the highest chair. "Hey, what's with the headdress?"

Bakura followed his gaze. "Looks like Yu-Gi-Oh's filling in for his father this time around. The Pharaoh must've gotten injured in that explosion earlier today."

"That...is a headdress, right?"

"Better be." He strained his eyes a little harder. "No, that's his hair, all right."

"Damn...!"

"No kidding. But shouldn't we be worrying about some rich kid anyhow. Where did Kaiba go, anyway?"

Ceryan looked around. Indeed, the priest who had put them here in the first place was nowhere to be found. "This could be a potential escape plan."

"Hmm?" Then the ring that he found back in the tomb slipped from under his shirt. "Actually, an escape plan may be in order after all."

___________________________________________________________________

As for where Kaiba was....

"What a timely moment for this to happen..." The thing about priests' robes back then. . . . The more expensive they were, the more difficult it was to put it on right. He really didn't have any choice but to change clothes; the ones he had worn in the tomb were quite dirty now, not at all fit for something ceremonial. The current indigo one, while probably the most fitting for the occasion, was at least two feet too long.

He tied a rope around his waist and tied it. Relatively simple. Then he scrunched up part of the robe around his waist so it wasn't dragging along on the floor, and then took a long piece of silk to cover up the scrunched up part. This was not as easy as it sounds, mind you. Because as soon as he had it around one half of his body, the other half of the robe fell down back to its normal length. And if he tried to fix that, the other side would slip down right out of the silk. And while holding both sides stationary, he usually couldn't reach the silk. So, most of the time, he was running around in circles like a dog chasing his tail. Kind of ironic.

He looked outside. By the height of the sun, it seemed he had no more than twenty minutes to finish and get to the temple. Great, just great. Eventually, he did manage to tie it correctly. This, of course, was before he realized that he had also tied his long sleeves into it. And so the process repeats....

This time around the silk was considerably less cooperative. Ten minutes later, he was completely tangled in what resembled in a very large, complicated, yet unruly spider web. Now outside it was completely dark, with purplish clouds hovering overhead.

"Need help there, kimono boy?"

"Oh, hello there, Bakura. I'm a bit busy at the moment, though, if you don't-" He did a double take. "Wait, how did you get in here? And are the clouds supposed to be purple?"

"Really, if I can go around robbing tombs, shouldn't I be able to get out of a-eh, life-threatening situation?" He paused for a moment. That had sounded pretty stupid. "You need help with the obi?" He smirked.

He untangled himself from the web and stood up straight. "First of all, it's not a kimono, it's a robe. Not a dress, a robe. Second of all, I do not need an obi. I just need this thing tied."

"Right, the...robe. What do I do?"

"Take that silk and tighten it enough so it doesn't fall down again."

"Got it..." And then he yanked the white fabric as hard as he could, which is pretty hard.

Kaiba wretched. "I'd...like...to...be...able...to BREATHE...as well!" From outside, Ceryan exploded with laughter.

"You never specified." Bakura said defensively. He took an involuntary step backwards. "Now what do you say?"

"Forget it."

"Say it."

"No!"

"Say it! Say, 'Thank you, Bakura!'"

"Okay, okay..." He groaned. "'Thank you, Bakura.'" He glanced outside again. "Now, about the clouds..."

"I didn't do it!" cried Ceryan, jumping up and down frantically. "It's Bakura's fault!"

"Me? Most certainly not. It was your idea for an escape plan in the first place."

"Listen." Kaiba sighed, pinning both of the outlaws to the wall. "I don't care which one of you did it. The fact is that it's there."

"I swear..." Bakura began, "I was SO not responsible for that massacre back there."

"Really," Ceryan continued, "nice Mr. Priest...person... Kaiba! May I call you Seto?"

"You REALLY don't need to sacrifice me to the gods... What? Oh, this? It's just my dagger. Ya... yes, it is quite sharp."

"No, sir, that's not blood. It's red dye."

"Ya, like the dye I spilled all over your best robes a few years back. Eh, heh..."

"...what are you going to do with that rod?"

Bakura looked over the golden rod Kaiba now held in his hand. "Where did you get that?"

"Back in the temple, actually." He grinned. "Does imply a sense of respect for me, doesn't it?"

Bakura laughed. "You don't even know how to use that thing!" ("Neither do you!" Ceryan hissed.)

True, Kaiba thought. There was a profound pause, then, "I know it's heavy." And he promptly whacked Bakura upside the head with it.

________________________________________________________________________

Later that night, or day... It might have been night or day, as it was quite difficult to tell in the place later known as the shadow realm.

"Kaiba!" a woman gasped, running towards him. "Thank goodness you're here! There's been a terrible accident... a dragon..."

A dragon? He raised an eyebrow intently. "Where is it?"

"Last heard of, he was headed toward the Nile..."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "The Nile could mean one of some three thousand different locations all over Egypt. Could you be a bit more specific?"

The woman pointed a shaky finger southeast.

"I suppose that's a valid answer..." And without much further ado, he made his way to the banks of the vast river.

"Need any help?"

"No, Bakura, I do not need your help. It's just a tiny thing. Like a lizard."

"Your in denial..."

"Yes, I AM in the Nile. Pronounce it correctly. And at the moment, I am cold, wet and not very happy. So, I highly suggest you go. I've got it covered, thank you." The dragon, serpentine and long, appeared to be fast asleep. He admitted that he could use Bakura's dagger...

"But..."

"But nothing. I can handle this." The dragon's head stuck out from what appeared to be a large mountain. Perfect. Just chop the stupid thing off.

"But..."

"What part of no don't you understand?" Standing at a good angle, he brought the blade down on the dragon's neck, which separated easily. "See?"

"But...Kaiba...that's...that's not the dragon."

"W-what?"

"That's his tail."

Kaiba looked up. Silence. "Ooooohh..." There was the body, about ten times the size of an ordinary temple. "I...get it. I thought it was the...dragon but it's the tail...and the whole thing...is...the...dragon."

"Ya." More silence. "Well, you wanted to get rid of me, so, goodbye!"

The dragon roared and shook itself from the water. "Oh, for Ra's sake... WAIT FOR ME!" Problem was, he couldn't really run in the tightened robe he was wearing. Somehow, some way, it always came back to Bakura... He flipped through various rituals in his book, ut nothing seemed to fit the situation he found himself in. (Gee, ya think?)

Something hit him in the back. Ceryan. He grabbed the ritual book from Kaiba and began reading off of it randomly. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he yelled.

But apparently he did know. Or perhaps not. Because, in a matter of seconds, the gigantic, yet tail-less dragon was no longer very scary. In fact, it was small, cute, and animated. Not unlike Bugs Bunny.

"Cooool...."

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As if you can't by now guess who Ceryan is supposed to be in a future life... ^^; the invention of Toon World! What can I say? I happened to be trying on a kimono at the time...