Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh!

Wow, thanx for all your reviews! Thanx for all your support! Here's the next chapter, enjoy!

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It was the day before the attack. Everyone was going over their check list of things.

"Okay," said Yugi to himself, "knife, rope, gun, armor suit, underwear---Hey! Who put this in here?!" he demanded to the others. He held up a pair of underwear that had pink umbrellas on them.

"Ooh, Yugi," cooed Joey and Tristan. "I didn't know that you liked the color pink."

"Haha, very funny," Yugi said, throwing them at the laughing boys. As Joey did his checklist, he realized that his lucky shirt was gone. "Hey! Where'd it go? I never go anywhere without it!" he yelled as he scrummaged through his equipment.

"Oh, sorry," said Mai, "it was so ratty and full of holes that I threw it away."

"What!" he yelled, outraged.

"Well, it was dirty anyways," Mai said defensively, "besides, it smelled like it fell in the toilet."

The group laughed a little longer than usual as Joey turned beet red. 'They're nervous about the attack,' Tea thought. 'But so am I.' As she turned to double check her items, two slips of paper fell out. One was from Bakura, telling her to meet him in the hall. The other was from Marik, telling her to meet him in his room.

Tea sighed. It was going to come to this sooner or later. "What have you got there, Xena?" said an insulting voice. "Hello, Kaiba," Tea murmured, walking away from the room. She could feel him following her. "Do you want me to hurt you like last time?," she asked as she strode toward the hall. Kaiba smirked, "No, I had forgotten to ask you what Bakura did to you that made you blush."

"He did nothing," she said. "I was blushing because I was thinking of how many different ways I could kill you and that shocked even myself."

"Of course," Kaiba said sarcastically.

As she reached to the door that led to the hall, she turned around and faced the arrogant CEO. "Ye-e-s-s?" she said pointedly.

"Nothing," Kaiba said, quickly walking away. "That's what I thought," Tea said.

She entered the hall and saw Bakura waiting in the hall. "Hi," she said, suddenly feeling shy.

"I thought you weren't going to come," he said, his usually harsh voice soft. There was an awkward pause.

Bakura slowly looked in to Tea's gaze. "Do you--hehe.......this is hard to say......."

Tea said softly, "Bakura, I have a confession to make first." She took a deep breath, "Before......before you talked to me, that day, I had just talked to Marik......and I asked him.......if he liked me the way I liked him."

Bakura's heart shattered. He kept his mild interest on his face while inside it felt like she had just shot him.

"And...." she continued, "he didn't really give me a definite answer. And then you came....and when you," she blushed, "ah...kissed me, I felt something. But I'm not sure if it was because I had just talked to Marik, and that.......feeling was just a leftover from being that close to Marik."

"I see," he said, his face devoid of expression. "Then I'm sorry to bother you," as he turned and walked away.

"No, Bakura, it's just that......" Tea called after him, as she grabbed onto the cuff of his sleeve.

Listening to the conversation was Kaiba, and the rest of the group. They had seen Kaiba putting his ear near the door and the rest joined him, to his dismay. "Augh, Tea prefers Marik over Bakura?" whispered Joey. "Yeah," agreed Tristan, "at least Bakura didn't try to take over our minds......oh wait a minute, he did try. I forgot about that."

Ryou and Malik: x__x

"Just what?," Bakura said quietly. "Do you know how.....I feel to admit to a mortal that I have feelings for them? I, I, Bakura, has just admitted to a mortal......heh, such a weak display of emotions......"

"I-I'm sorry," Tea whispered. Bakura looked at her, "You say that you did have feelings but aren't sure if they were for Marik? Then tell me if you have feelings for him still..." He slowly put his hands around her head and pulled her to him. He softly kissed her on the lips as she trembled in his arms.

Marik had been waiting for awhile in his room. 'What should I say, what should I say,' he thought as he paced back and forth. After a few minutes had passed, he decided to seek Tea himself. 'I can do this,' he said, trying to reassure himself.

As he turned the corner, he saw Tea kissing Bakura. He stopped, his mind reeling in disbelief. 'No, this isn't possible!' his mind screamed. He turned on his heel and walked back to his room.

Tea broke of the kiss with a shudder. "I can't," she said simply (sorry Bakura fans, I think he's cute too). "Yeah, it feels like I'm in love with you, but I just can't shake this guilty feeling, like I'm cheating on someone."

Bakura looked in to the eyes of the girl he had been trying so hard not to like. He shrugged, and said with a crooked smile, "Then go to Marik, I won't stop you, " he left and walked to the door.

"Quickly, back!" hissed Mai, as they heard Bakura's footsteps. As he opened the door, he saw the group with red faces and talking to each other in false, enthusiastic tones.

Tea rushed to Marik's room. 'What does he want?' she thought nervously. She knocked on his closed door. The door open to reveal Marik with a cold face.

"Ah, Tea," he said in an emotionless tone. "I was going to talk to you but then something came up. I had a change of plans."

"Is something wrong?" Tea said hesitantly.

"Tea, when someone comes up to you and says that they love you and then later you see them kissing someone else, how would you feel?"

"Y-you saw me with Bakura," stuttered Tea, aghast. Marik smiled in assent.

"But I guess it's my fault for not admitting my feelings for you. I was....going to tell you that I saw you more than a friend......but now, I guess the tomb robber has the center of your heart."

"Marik, listen to me," Tea said intensely, "I told Bakura that although being with him might feel good, it didn't feel right. It would be like a fling," Tea said, searching for words to explain.

Marik opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Then, "I'm sorry on my part if I didn't tell you how I felt when you came to me." The door closed on her face.

'So this is how love feels when it's broken,' she thought, her mind frozen cold.

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Her friends looked worriedly at her, it was 4:30 in the morning, and they were ready to leave. Bakura and Marik were cold and distant, not speaking to anyone, both lost in their own thoughts.

"Tea, girl, don't tell me your losing sleep over those losers," Mai said.

"How did you know?" Tea said in surprise.

"Oh, Joey told me all about. He eavesdropped on your conversation and then told the whole group," Mai said not even looking at the fuming Joey.

"Now-mmph" Joey said, as Ryou clamped a hand around his mouth. "We've gotta lay the blame on somebody, we drew straws, and you lost," he hissed.

"It's nothing," she said with a wan smile. "Now, girl," Mai said giving her a look, "when you come in the room with baggy red eyes, hair unkempt,....I gotta notice."

"Thanks, but no thanks. It's no biggie. Let's try to worry about today," Tea replied back, smiling gently at her blonde friend.

Gelan, Kaith, and the other warriors came back in the room. "I want to do a quick run-over of the plan," Kaith announced. "Once we enter through the portal, we'll meet with half of the other army. The encampment is actually on an island. There is a defense shield surrounding it. Once we break the shield, which," he paused with a disgusted look. "will alert S'nauh, if he doesn't know we're attacking by then, ah, the other half will distract his side."

"Now, this is where it gets tricky. The point is to get Tea to S'nauh, however he probably has a lot of enchantments, concealed doors, traps, you know, the whole package. So that is why there will be a couple of spirits with you to break them. As you, " he said, looking at Tea, "requested, your friends will accompany you."

"Man," complained Joey, "whenever I hear that plan again, I just think, who the hell created it?"

"I think we all agree with him for once," said Kaiba, lounging indolently in a chair.

"However," Gelan cut in, "there is the problem of the destroyer spells. If he is using them, then that means he probably is using other forbidden spells."

Everyone's mood plummeted, all remembering the incident about a week ago.

"That is why," he hesitated, "this will probably a no barrier attack. We released the seals on all forbidden spells and everyone with magic will be able to use them."

Tea blinked, "Kill the enemy by their own tactics?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "But that also means a lot of innocents will be killed."

Frowning, Yami cut in, "But I thought you said all inhabitants on the island were spirits."

"Yes, but this is an all out war, other skirmishes will go on, throughout the world. Basically wherever there is an enemy camp, our people are there."

"You have that many spirits?" Yugi said, his eyes widening.

"We have a little less than the humans, but remember, we prefer not to live with the mortals," Gelan said loftily.

"Yeah, yeah, we heard this schpeel before," muttered Malik.

"But the main encampment is on this island," continued Gelan. "S'nauh is there."

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"So the naive fools are about to attack?" S'nauh said to his henchman.

"Yes sir. In about a few minutes."

'Ah,' S'nauh thought, 'how enjoyable it will be when I see the surprise on their faces. Ha! Try to catch me off guard, now that is pathetic. But expected if they're led by that pig Mizram.'

"Ferran," he commanded to the biker leader who had originally fought Tea at the school, "put an illusion defense spell in place of the real shield. Let them think that there really is a defense spell and when they combine they're energy to break it, we'll attack."

As Ferran left, S'nauh left his room and went to the balcony. "And while we take them capture, my other forces will attack their main site. My troops around the world have left their bases, leaving illusion spells. Those fools will think that my people are there when they're really back at the main site to take over their main base. They attack, and they get trapped in the ensnarement spells." He sighed heavily. "Oh how I love strategies. The crowning point will be when I take that girl Tea and her friends captive. Maybe I should put the mind breaker spell on her friends in front of her eyes," he said brightening.

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"Ready?" Gelan said to the somber group. "Okay," and a portal appeared. "Remember, be very quiet."

'Here goes everything,' Tea thought. 'One wrong step, or one tiny mistake, and we're all dead.'

As she entered the portal, she said softly as if in prayer, "Shalanelle, today your dream of defeating him will come true."

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Okie dokie, this is the end of dis. By tomorrow, hopefully, I'll put up the next chapter. Please Review and I hope the romance wasn't mushy. And now for the bad news. On August 1, I'm leaving to another tournament in San Jose, CA. I'll be coming back around maybe around the 9th or 10th. Depends how I do. But the 9/10th is probably the latest. Before that, everything is up in the air. But still review because I'll go on the library computer to check, okay? Oh yeah, and I'll still put another chapter before I leave. :) Just a treat because I've been leaving so much...hehe.