"WHAT?!" Mokuba screamed, going pale. "Where's my brother?! Maybe he got hurt!"
Rishid shook his head. "I have not seen him." Gently he began bathing Marik's face and arms with a damp cloth.
At that moment Ishizu and Yami Yugi came out from the dining room, both trying to support a bleeding Seto.
"Big brother!!" Mokuba wailed, knowing that Seto would never allow such a thing unless he himself was unable to have a say in the matter.
Yami Yugi looked up grimly. "He was shot in the side."
Mokuba gave a shriek and ran forward. "Seto!!" He felt as if he was going to break down and cry. The two people he loved most were both hurt—and probably seriously.
Seto opened his eyes and weakly tried to pull away from his arch-rival. "I don't need your help, Pharaoh," he growled.
"You need both our help, Seto Kaiba," Ishizu said evenly. Catching sight of her brother's still form on the couch, the Egyptian woman let out a horrified gasp and nearly let go of the boy she was trying to help steady.
Lorelei rushed over. "How did this happen?" she demanded.
"The assailant was hidden," Yami Yugi told her. "Joey tried to go after them, but they got away." He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
Seto again tried to pull away, this time succeeding. "I said I don't need your help," he insisted, taking a few steps forward. Ishizu watched him and then rushed to her brother's side.
"Seto!!" Mokuba cried. "Please let them help you, big brother!!"
The older Kaiba looked down at him and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry about me, kid," he said firmly. "But where have you been?!" Now he gave the younger boy a stern look.
"Please don't be mad, Seto," Mokuba begged, explaining what had happened.
"You thought you saw me?!" Seto burst out, clenching his fists.
"I want to know what this person you were fighting with looked like," Lorelei declared.
Shakily Mokuba tried to describe him, all the while looking back and forth between Seto and Marik. "Actually," the little boy admitted now in realization, "he kinda was like Rishid—big and strong and tough . . ."
"Perhaps he was Rishid's double, then," Yami Yugi suggested.
"Most likely," Seto grunted.
Ishizu stroked Marik's hair tenderly and then looked up at the others, her blue eyes aflame with a fire that often wasn't seen on the normally calm woman's face. "Someone must find that man," she said in a low voice.
"I'll have Bart go after him," Lorelei promised. "I can't imagine who he'd be."
"Someone needs to help my brother!" Mokuba said loudly.
Seto turned to limp up the stairs. "I can take care of myself," he muttered. "The bullet went through me. It's just a flesh wound."
Téa, just happening to be coming out from where she had been searching, suddenly met up with him at the landing and gave a cry of alarm. "Kaiba!! Look at yourself!!" she burst out.
Seto walked around her and headed for his room. "Don't pay any attention to what the others may tell you," he said, closing the door. "I'm fine."
Knowing it was useless to protest, Téa hurried downstairs and into the den. "What happened to Kaiba?!" she cried.
"Someone shot him!!" Mokuba wailed, torn between going upstairs with his brother and staying downstairs with his best friend.
Sensing Mokuba's confusion, Ishizu gathered her younger brother into her arms and held him close. "Go to your brother, little Mokuba," she said softly. "Rishid and I will tell you when Marik awakens."
With a grateful smile, Mokuba hurried up the stairs and to the room he shared with Seto.
Téa watched all of this with an expression of utter disbelief and horror. "This is terrible!" she moaned.
"What is?" Joey asked, coming up behind her.
Téa jumped a mile. "Don't do that!!" she screamed at the Brooklyn boy.
Yami Yugi crossed his arms and turned to look at Joey. "It seems that our problems cannot cease for even a moment," he remarked, completely serious.
"Yeah? And what about those people locked in the basement?" Joey wanted to know, suddenly remembering about them.
Lorelei perked up. "What people locked in the basement?!" she demanded.
"I dunno. Just some lady and her granddaughter," Joey replied with a shrug.
Lorelei's eyes narrowed. "You know somethin'? I'm getting tired of everything going on under my nose!" she said angrily, heading for the door that led out to the small entranceway where the stairs were. "How could something like this happen?!" She threw her hands up in vexation and then slammed the door shut on the others.
Joey winced. "Man, she's pretty mad."
Téa gave him a Look. "As if someone wouldn't be mad to find out that people have been held prisoner right in their own basement!"
Yami Yugi crossed the room to the door and tried the knob. "Just as I suspected," he murmured.
"What is it?" Rishid asked, looking up from where he and Ishizu were tending to their brother.
"We have been locked in," Yami Yugi replied grimly.
****
Alyson looked up at Shadi in wonder. "How did you get the panel open?" she wanted to know. "I thought it could only open from the other side!"
"The youth unlocked it," Shadi replied, indicating Tristan.
Tristan glared. "Look, I want some real answers!" he yelled in frustration. "What's the point of not getting these people out of here?!"
Shadi regarded him calmly, then suddenly looked ahead and narrowed his eyes. "This was the safest place for them to be . . . but now it seems that things have changed."
"Huh?" Tristan blinked. "What do you mean?!"
Saying nothing, Shadi instead lifted Alyson and placed her on her grandmother's lap, then took out the Ankh and prepared to open a portal. "Because of new developments, they shall not survive if they remain here now."
"Why not?!" Tristan yelled.
Alyson hugged her grandmother and looked up at Tristan. "The bad people are coming after us again," she explained. "But Shadi's gonna protect us!"
Tristan crossed his arms and looked frustrated.
The elderly woman suddenly gave a gasp of dismay and her eyes widened. "I had another vision," she whispered. "I've seen people being attacked all over the ranch tonight. And suddenly I remember why it's happening!"
****
Yugi wandered down the long halls, calling for his Yami and glancing about nervously.
"Why would someone shoot Kaiba?" he asked himself. "Was it a random attack or did they have a specific reason?"
"What?!" Bakura gasped, coming up behind him. "Someone shot Kaiba?!"
Yugi jumped a foot into the air. "Bakura!!" he exclaimed. "Yeah, someone did shoot him! It happened right in there." He pointed back toward the dining room. "The shooter just vanished! No one can find him or her anywhere!"
"Oh my!" Bakura's eye widened. "How dreadful! Is he hurt badly?!"
"Well, you know how Kaiba is," Yugi sighed. "But what about you, Bakura? Are you feeling any better after what happened earlier?"
Bakura nodded shakily. "Y-yes, I'm alright," he replied. Oreo peeked up out of his shirt and meowed.
Yugi chuckled. "Where's your Yami?" he asked.
"Well, I thought he was in one of the other rooms," Bakura said slowly.
At that moment there was a crash and an angry yell from a room just across the hall. While Yugi and Bakura watched in astonishment, Yami Bakura emerged from the room with a lampshade on his head.
"Yami! What on earth?!" Bakura cried, trying to keep a straight face.
"Shut up," Yami Bakura growled in reply.
"Is someone in there?" Yugi asked, also struggling not to laugh.
"No," Yami Bakura grunted. At least, he added to himself, not anyone mortal.
Abruptly Bart burst in through the back door and stood, dripping wet, in front of the trio and their cat. "The water's coming this way," he said. "We have to put masking tape on all the windows to try to keep them from breaking."
"Oh!" Yugi cried, his eyes widening.
"How much time do we have?" Bakura exclaimed.
"Probably not nearly enough," Bart replied, dashing off down the hall.
****
Mokuba watched as Seto cleaned and bandaged the gunshot wound, his blue-gray eyes filled with worry and alarm.
"Big brother, are you *sure* you're alright?!" he cried. "You were bleeding so much!"
Seto smiled at him and went to wash the blood off his hands. "I'm fine, kid. Really. These wounds always look worse than they actually are."
Without warning a frantic knocking came at the door and both Kaiba brothers jumped.
"Get that, will you, Mokuba?" Seto said, disappearing into the small dressing room to replace his shirt and trenchcoat.
"Sure," Mokuba replied, running to the door.
"Mokuba?"
He could make out Bakura's worried voice and the little boy quickly hauled the wooden door open. "Bakura! What's up?" he asked.
"Well . . ." Bakura scratched his cheek. "Can I come in and put tape on your windows?" he asked, feeling a bit silly.
Mokuba blinked. "Huh?!" he exclaimed.
Quickly Bakura explained about the approaching flood and Mokuba's eyes went wide.
"Sure!" he cried. "Come on in!"
****
"Locked in?!" Joey burst out. "What the?! Why would Lorelei lock us in?!"
"Maybe it was an accident," Téa suggested.
Yami Yugi paused, seeming to sense more danger. When Téa glanced about, she noticed that Ishizu had perked up as well.
"A torrent of water is coming," the Egyptian woman said softly. "It is almost here."
"She is right," Yami Yugi said grimly.
Without questioning them, the others quickly went about preparing things and praying that the entire house wouldn't be washed away by the flood.
"It will be alright," Ishizu said evenly before turning her complete attention back to her brother and holding him close.
Marik shuddered and snuggled closer to her in his unconsciousness.
In the next instant the sound of rushing water grew increasingly imminent and loud. Suddenly it was pounding against the house viciously as it ripped past, slamming into the windows and cracking them and nearly tearing the door off its hinges. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it was gone, heading off toward the forest and the creek.
Téa dared to look up from her position underneath a desk. "It's over?" she said in surprise.
"I believe so," Yami Yugi replied.
"Alright!" Joey grinned, leaping up. "Now to bust this lock. . . ." With that he crashed into the door, weakening it.
"Lorelei will be pretty angry if you break her door," Téa remarked.
"Hey, she'll havta deal with it," Joey shrugged.
Rishid didn't pay any attention to them. Instead he moved closer to Ishizu and gently took Marik's limp hand into his own. Rishid knew only too well how painful being struck by lightning could be, and he hated seeing Marik have to go through it. At least the boy is unconscious and cannot feel the pain, he said to himself.
Marik grabbed onto Rishid's hand and squeezed it tightly, almost as if he were holding on for dear life.
"It's alright, Master Marik," Rishid whispered comfortingly.
****
Shadi turned to look at the woman sternly as he made his portal. "You have kept the memories of the criminal's identity suppressed for years," he remarked. "Now suddenly they are coming to light again?"
The woman nodded shakily. "I . . . I don't know what it is, but suddenly I remember," she said.
Abruptly the door broke in and a shadowy figure stood there.
"Too bad you'll just have to forget again . . . permanently," it hissed, throwing a small grenade into the portal with them just as they vanished.
"What the?!" Tristan gasped, his hazel eyes widening. "There's a bomb in here!!"
"If we can arrive at our destination before it goes off, we will be safe," Shadi replied.
"Yeah?! And just what are the odds of that happening?!" Tristan demanded, his voice climbing.
Before Shadi could answer, they emerged from the other side of the portal into one of the other rooms of the house—just as the grenade went off!
Rishid shook his head. "I have not seen him." Gently he began bathing Marik's face and arms with a damp cloth.
At that moment Ishizu and Yami Yugi came out from the dining room, both trying to support a bleeding Seto.
"Big brother!!" Mokuba wailed, knowing that Seto would never allow such a thing unless he himself was unable to have a say in the matter.
Yami Yugi looked up grimly. "He was shot in the side."
Mokuba gave a shriek and ran forward. "Seto!!" He felt as if he was going to break down and cry. The two people he loved most were both hurt—and probably seriously.
Seto opened his eyes and weakly tried to pull away from his arch-rival. "I don't need your help, Pharaoh," he growled.
"You need both our help, Seto Kaiba," Ishizu said evenly. Catching sight of her brother's still form on the couch, the Egyptian woman let out a horrified gasp and nearly let go of the boy she was trying to help steady.
Lorelei rushed over. "How did this happen?" she demanded.
"The assailant was hidden," Yami Yugi told her. "Joey tried to go after them, but they got away." He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
Seto again tried to pull away, this time succeeding. "I said I don't need your help," he insisted, taking a few steps forward. Ishizu watched him and then rushed to her brother's side.
"Seto!!" Mokuba cried. "Please let them help you, big brother!!"
The older Kaiba looked down at him and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry about me, kid," he said firmly. "But where have you been?!" Now he gave the younger boy a stern look.
"Please don't be mad, Seto," Mokuba begged, explaining what had happened.
"You thought you saw me?!" Seto burst out, clenching his fists.
"I want to know what this person you were fighting with looked like," Lorelei declared.
Shakily Mokuba tried to describe him, all the while looking back and forth between Seto and Marik. "Actually," the little boy admitted now in realization, "he kinda was like Rishid—big and strong and tough . . ."
"Perhaps he was Rishid's double, then," Yami Yugi suggested.
"Most likely," Seto grunted.
Ishizu stroked Marik's hair tenderly and then looked up at the others, her blue eyes aflame with a fire that often wasn't seen on the normally calm woman's face. "Someone must find that man," she said in a low voice.
"I'll have Bart go after him," Lorelei promised. "I can't imagine who he'd be."
"Someone needs to help my brother!" Mokuba said loudly.
Seto turned to limp up the stairs. "I can take care of myself," he muttered. "The bullet went through me. It's just a flesh wound."
Téa, just happening to be coming out from where she had been searching, suddenly met up with him at the landing and gave a cry of alarm. "Kaiba!! Look at yourself!!" she burst out.
Seto walked around her and headed for his room. "Don't pay any attention to what the others may tell you," he said, closing the door. "I'm fine."
Knowing it was useless to protest, Téa hurried downstairs and into the den. "What happened to Kaiba?!" she cried.
"Someone shot him!!" Mokuba wailed, torn between going upstairs with his brother and staying downstairs with his best friend.
Sensing Mokuba's confusion, Ishizu gathered her younger brother into her arms and held him close. "Go to your brother, little Mokuba," she said softly. "Rishid and I will tell you when Marik awakens."
With a grateful smile, Mokuba hurried up the stairs and to the room he shared with Seto.
Téa watched all of this with an expression of utter disbelief and horror. "This is terrible!" she moaned.
"What is?" Joey asked, coming up behind her.
Téa jumped a mile. "Don't do that!!" she screamed at the Brooklyn boy.
Yami Yugi crossed his arms and turned to look at Joey. "It seems that our problems cannot cease for even a moment," he remarked, completely serious.
"Yeah? And what about those people locked in the basement?" Joey wanted to know, suddenly remembering about them.
Lorelei perked up. "What people locked in the basement?!" she demanded.
"I dunno. Just some lady and her granddaughter," Joey replied with a shrug.
Lorelei's eyes narrowed. "You know somethin'? I'm getting tired of everything going on under my nose!" she said angrily, heading for the door that led out to the small entranceway where the stairs were. "How could something like this happen?!" She threw her hands up in vexation and then slammed the door shut on the others.
Joey winced. "Man, she's pretty mad."
Téa gave him a Look. "As if someone wouldn't be mad to find out that people have been held prisoner right in their own basement!"
Yami Yugi crossed the room to the door and tried the knob. "Just as I suspected," he murmured.
"What is it?" Rishid asked, looking up from where he and Ishizu were tending to their brother.
"We have been locked in," Yami Yugi replied grimly.
****
Alyson looked up at Shadi in wonder. "How did you get the panel open?" she wanted to know. "I thought it could only open from the other side!"
"The youth unlocked it," Shadi replied, indicating Tristan.
Tristan glared. "Look, I want some real answers!" he yelled in frustration. "What's the point of not getting these people out of here?!"
Shadi regarded him calmly, then suddenly looked ahead and narrowed his eyes. "This was the safest place for them to be . . . but now it seems that things have changed."
"Huh?" Tristan blinked. "What do you mean?!"
Saying nothing, Shadi instead lifted Alyson and placed her on her grandmother's lap, then took out the Ankh and prepared to open a portal. "Because of new developments, they shall not survive if they remain here now."
"Why not?!" Tristan yelled.
Alyson hugged her grandmother and looked up at Tristan. "The bad people are coming after us again," she explained. "But Shadi's gonna protect us!"
Tristan crossed his arms and looked frustrated.
The elderly woman suddenly gave a gasp of dismay and her eyes widened. "I had another vision," she whispered. "I've seen people being attacked all over the ranch tonight. And suddenly I remember why it's happening!"
****
Yugi wandered down the long halls, calling for his Yami and glancing about nervously.
"Why would someone shoot Kaiba?" he asked himself. "Was it a random attack or did they have a specific reason?"
"What?!" Bakura gasped, coming up behind him. "Someone shot Kaiba?!"
Yugi jumped a foot into the air. "Bakura!!" he exclaimed. "Yeah, someone did shoot him! It happened right in there." He pointed back toward the dining room. "The shooter just vanished! No one can find him or her anywhere!"
"Oh my!" Bakura's eye widened. "How dreadful! Is he hurt badly?!"
"Well, you know how Kaiba is," Yugi sighed. "But what about you, Bakura? Are you feeling any better after what happened earlier?"
Bakura nodded shakily. "Y-yes, I'm alright," he replied. Oreo peeked up out of his shirt and meowed.
Yugi chuckled. "Where's your Yami?" he asked.
"Well, I thought he was in one of the other rooms," Bakura said slowly.
At that moment there was a crash and an angry yell from a room just across the hall. While Yugi and Bakura watched in astonishment, Yami Bakura emerged from the room with a lampshade on his head.
"Yami! What on earth?!" Bakura cried, trying to keep a straight face.
"Shut up," Yami Bakura growled in reply.
"Is someone in there?" Yugi asked, also struggling not to laugh.
"No," Yami Bakura grunted. At least, he added to himself, not anyone mortal.
Abruptly Bart burst in through the back door and stood, dripping wet, in front of the trio and their cat. "The water's coming this way," he said. "We have to put masking tape on all the windows to try to keep them from breaking."
"Oh!" Yugi cried, his eyes widening.
"How much time do we have?" Bakura exclaimed.
"Probably not nearly enough," Bart replied, dashing off down the hall.
****
Mokuba watched as Seto cleaned and bandaged the gunshot wound, his blue-gray eyes filled with worry and alarm.
"Big brother, are you *sure* you're alright?!" he cried. "You were bleeding so much!"
Seto smiled at him and went to wash the blood off his hands. "I'm fine, kid. Really. These wounds always look worse than they actually are."
Without warning a frantic knocking came at the door and both Kaiba brothers jumped.
"Get that, will you, Mokuba?" Seto said, disappearing into the small dressing room to replace his shirt and trenchcoat.
"Sure," Mokuba replied, running to the door.
"Mokuba?"
He could make out Bakura's worried voice and the little boy quickly hauled the wooden door open. "Bakura! What's up?" he asked.
"Well . . ." Bakura scratched his cheek. "Can I come in and put tape on your windows?" he asked, feeling a bit silly.
Mokuba blinked. "Huh?!" he exclaimed.
Quickly Bakura explained about the approaching flood and Mokuba's eyes went wide.
"Sure!" he cried. "Come on in!"
****
"Locked in?!" Joey burst out. "What the?! Why would Lorelei lock us in?!"
"Maybe it was an accident," Téa suggested.
Yami Yugi paused, seeming to sense more danger. When Téa glanced about, she noticed that Ishizu had perked up as well.
"A torrent of water is coming," the Egyptian woman said softly. "It is almost here."
"She is right," Yami Yugi said grimly.
Without questioning them, the others quickly went about preparing things and praying that the entire house wouldn't be washed away by the flood.
"It will be alright," Ishizu said evenly before turning her complete attention back to her brother and holding him close.
Marik shuddered and snuggled closer to her in his unconsciousness.
In the next instant the sound of rushing water grew increasingly imminent and loud. Suddenly it was pounding against the house viciously as it ripped past, slamming into the windows and cracking them and nearly tearing the door off its hinges. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it was gone, heading off toward the forest and the creek.
Téa dared to look up from her position underneath a desk. "It's over?" she said in surprise.
"I believe so," Yami Yugi replied.
"Alright!" Joey grinned, leaping up. "Now to bust this lock. . . ." With that he crashed into the door, weakening it.
"Lorelei will be pretty angry if you break her door," Téa remarked.
"Hey, she'll havta deal with it," Joey shrugged.
Rishid didn't pay any attention to them. Instead he moved closer to Ishizu and gently took Marik's limp hand into his own. Rishid knew only too well how painful being struck by lightning could be, and he hated seeing Marik have to go through it. At least the boy is unconscious and cannot feel the pain, he said to himself.
Marik grabbed onto Rishid's hand and squeezed it tightly, almost as if he were holding on for dear life.
"It's alright, Master Marik," Rishid whispered comfortingly.
****
Shadi turned to look at the woman sternly as he made his portal. "You have kept the memories of the criminal's identity suppressed for years," he remarked. "Now suddenly they are coming to light again?"
The woman nodded shakily. "I . . . I don't know what it is, but suddenly I remember," she said.
Abruptly the door broke in and a shadowy figure stood there.
"Too bad you'll just have to forget again . . . permanently," it hissed, throwing a small grenade into the portal with them just as they vanished.
"What the?!" Tristan gasped, his hazel eyes widening. "There's a bomb in here!!"
"If we can arrive at our destination before it goes off, we will be safe," Shadi replied.
"Yeah?! And just what are the odds of that happening?!" Tristan demanded, his voice climbing.
Before Shadi could answer, they emerged from the other side of the portal into one of the other rooms of the house—just as the grenade went off!