I hate my life. I just took 3 days off school to go to Las Vegas w/my parents and aunt, and now my homework has piled up so high it's not funny. I wanna thank CB for actually asking my to update w/in a week, and though I couldn't, that was probably the only reason I've bothered to type this up. Thanx a lot.

*grin* *points at reviews* 104 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you all you who've reviewed for me in the last three/four chapies!!!

I'm so sorry to anyone who tried to go find Guardians of the Shadow Realm but couldn't cuz I changed the title to Shadow Guardians… *weak smile* sorry

Disclaimer: do I really have to tell you?

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Chapter 20: Ready

Caleia stood in the bathroom waiting for the da*&ed pregnancy test to work. She had started getting nausea and lightheaded every once in a while in the last week, and when she skipped her period, for it was almost a week late now, she started suspecting… something, but didn't go get the home pregnancy tests yet.

On the eve of leaving on her 'quest,' she decided not to put it off any longer and went to buy the tests. She read the directions, peed on the stick, and set it on the counter to wait. A few minutes later she did the same with the other test.

It seemed like an eternity for the results to come up. Caleia was almost to the point of pulling her hair out. The seconds ticked by like hours and she started banging her head against the wall, then checked herself when she realized that someone outside would most likely hear her. She wanted to blow up the stupid test but didn't for fear of screwing up the results…(a/n: *sweatdrop*)

In her mindquest to think of ways to let out her frustration, Caleia didn't realize that time actually passed. Both tests were finished. When she realized this, she looked at the tests and sighed before discarding them in the trashcan.

Bakura, currently needing to use the bathroom badly, paced in front of the door impatiently as he waited for Caleia to finish. Now the pressure in his full bladder was becoming quite intolerable. He banged on the door. "Caleia! What in the seven hells is taking you so long?" he demanded, raising his fist to hit the door again, but halting as the girl chose this very moment to exit the bathroom. Bakura rushed in, slammed the door shut behind him, and within moments, Caleia, who was still in the process of leaving the vicinity, heard him sigh a breath of relief. She blinked a few times and proceeded to leave once again. She walked to the living room where everyone, minus Bakura, obviously, was waiting. Bakura walked in a minute later.

"If any of you want to back out of this now, I won't blame you," Caleia said softly. No one budged. "Thank you," she whispered gratefully. "Now, I've come up with a plan. It will, though, require us to split up into two teams." Everyone nodded. "Isis and Shadi, you two stay in the mortal realm-- just in case we fail. You two have better light magic skills and powers to fight in this realm." The two nodded. "Father and Bakura-- and yes I'm calling you that now since your hikari isn't here-- you two will come with me into the shadow realm. I'll…need your help," she said. A few moments of silence passed. "Okay," Caleia said finally. "Let's go."

Yami, Bakura, and Caleia stood together, facing a wall. As each of them connect to the Shadow Realm, the Eye of Horus flashed onto their foreheads and their respective millennium items, or in Caleia's case, the Sunstar crest on her chest, glowed. Isis and Shadi's items also glowed from the sudden presence of the Shadow Realm ad dark magic. A portal opened. Without hesitation Caleia walked in, followed by Yami, then Bakura. Isis and Shadi looked on as the three disappeared into the darkness and the portal shrunk until it revealed the bare, cream-colored wall once again.

"May the gods be with you, Caleia," Isis whispered.

***(not the end of chappie!!!)

Caleia, Yami, and Bakura arrived at the outskirts of the shadow Realm-- where duels are played-- but this wasn't where they wanted to go. They walked through the shadow, seeming to go nowhere, but each knew that they were getting closer to the border into the inner regions of this realm.

A surge of dark magic exploded in front of them. Yami and Bakura instinctively took defensive positions, but Caleia alone remained unfazed, though her muscles did tense, ready to spring at a moment's notice if need be. A dark figure appeared-- a girl donning a dark green dress and cape in the style of the ancient Egyptians. In her hand she held a staff bearing the crescent and star symbol as it's ornament, the star suspended in the crescent by unseen magical energies. She thrust it into the ground in front of her. "Stop," she commanded. Waves of silver, green, and black-- energy-- radiated from her like fire. "Who trespasses into the inner Shadow Realm?" she demanded coolly. Caleia smirked slightly as she walked forward a step so the girl could see her clearly.

"What kind of way is that to greet you own cousin, Annya ShoRan?" she said. Annya furrowed her brows as she actually looked at Caleia.

"Caleia? Is that you?" she ased, the waves of energy disappearing.

"The one and only," Caleia replied. Annya gave her a big hug.

"It's good to see you," she said, then saw Yami, and bowed her head to him. "Pharaoh--" Yami looked at her like he was about to scold her, "--I mean Uncle Yami," Annya corrected. Yami smiled in a way that said, 'I won.' Moving on, Annya looked past Yami to see who the third figure was, and saw Bakura staring at her with unbelieving eyes. A staring contest soon ensured.

"B-B-Bakura?" Annya stammered finally, not believing her eyes. A tear rolled down her cheek and fell into the shadowy nothing of the Shadow Realm outskirts. Bakura still didn't move.

"Annya." In the softest whisper he finally spoke, seeming as if he was afraid that she would disappear if he said her name louder. Annya ran over and hugged him, which he returned quickly.

"I missed you so much," she said, her crystal tears rolling onto Bakura's shirt.

"You-- you never told me you were…" Bakura began, but stopped as he could not bring himself to say the words. Minutes passed as the two just hugged each other tightly. Finally Annya tore herself from Bakura and turned around, but still Bakura's arms hung loosely around her waist.

"So, why are you here to do?" she asked Caleia.

"Gee, Ay, why would you think that we have business to do?" Caleia asked sarcastically.

"Cuz you never come into the inner Realm unless you have something to do," Annya replied simply. Caleia shrugged.

"Annya, where is your sister?" Yami asked.

"Off dealing with a situation between the magicians and dragons again. She's been gone for a day now, and probably won't be back for a while. You know some of the more *cough* powerful magicians; they don't respect me-- and the Blue Eyes don't listen to me after dueling ends. Serashi's the only one they all listen to-- except, of course, you two--" she motioned to Yami and Caleia, "--and of course, in the Blue Eyes case, Seto also." Caleia tensed at the mention of the name, the slight strain of her muscles noticed by her cousin. "Is something wrong, Caleia?" she asked.

Caleia, with Yami's help, explained the situation. "Oh my god…" Annya said. "How can I help?"

"Well, we know he's in this realm somewhere. Would you, by any chance, have a guess as to where?" The Shadow Guardian shook her head.

"I can sense any being in this realm-- or actually, Ser can-- but if we had anything about Morsei, we would have pursued him ourselves at the first sigh." Caleia sighed, but Annya's face suddenly lit up as a thought came to her. "Wait a sec," she quickly modified her words. "Would Morsei be powerful enough to create a void area in the realm that we cannot sense into?" Caleia nodded.

"Probably." Annya looked straight at her.

"Then I may know where he is."

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wheee!!!!!!!! I'm hyper now, it's almost 11 at night…. Blah blah blah…. I should be studying for my bio test tomorrow, but I'm not…

*deep breath* okay… now I'm okay. I know you all want the action to really start, and I promise that's next chapter… cuz I already wrote it up! I just have to type it up but… *grimace* I really really don't wanna do this but the rate of reviews coming in per chapter has continually grown smaller with each new chapter, so to get people to review I'm not going to post till I get at least ten reviews. *grimace* I will, though, email the next chapter to the people who've reviewed pretty much every single chappie in this ficcy, I think there's three of you or so… but please still review, and I need your email addresses if you want me to email you.

SO PLEEEEASE REVIEW… I ASK FOR ONLY 10!

I'm so sorry for having to do thisL just please review, I know more than 10 ppls read this cuz of all the reviews I got for the earlier chappies! C'mon people!