"…So let me get this straight." Joey said some hours later as him, Tristan, Yugi, Tea and Tanith sat around the living room floor. "You're some tele-ka-whatsit that just found Ryou after he spent almost a year in the Shadow Realm and now he's sittin' pretty in a coma while you try to stay one up on the Rare Hunters?"
Tanith nodded, "That's about it."
"Telekinesis, Ryou trapped in the shadow realm. It sounds too unbelievable to be true." Yugi told her, "How can we believe you?"
"Fine!" she snapped jumping to her feet then wobbling a tad before she got her balance, "Don't believe me! Me and Bakura have been doing fine on our own."
She began marching out of the room and was at the foot of the stairs when a firm voice said, "Wait." Tanith turned and saw Yami standing before her.
"Something you want Pharaoh?" both Tanith and Bakura asked. Tristan, Joey and Tea seemed freaked out that two voices came from the girl's mouth and put a bit of distance between them.
"Yes, an explanation. How is it that Ryou came to be in the Shadow Realm in the first place?" Yami demanded.
Tanith smirked and replied in Bakura's voice, "How do you think, Pharaoh. Malik and I dueled and I lost."
"How did you escape?"
"They didn't." Tanith said in her own voice and shut her eyes against a rising nausea. "There were shadows and screaming. I remember struggling and pain then a bright light." She opened her eyes and shrugged. "Then nothing."
Yami frowned and took a cautious step toward Tanith, "And how do you know this, Tanith. You weren't there."
She opened her mouth to say something then froze, getting a far off look to her face. The Ring began to glow and its glow enveloped the room when it dimmed a battered Bakura stood in Tanith's place.
"Sorry Tanith can't answer right now, she has to rest." He told the once king. Yami scowled at the Tomb Raider.
"What did you do to her." He growled at the white hair thief. "If you've harmed that girl..."
Bakura snorted, "I would never harm a hair on Tanith, it would be detrimental to my cause."
Big word, hehe. Tanith said in a small voice. Bakura inwardly scowled and shoved her back into her soul room.
Go to sleep, he said before slamming the door shut on her.
"And what is your cause, thief." Yami demanded. Bakura just smiled at the shorter man. With a growl Yami grabbed a hold of the lapels of Bakura's jacket and jerked him down face to face with him.
"What is it." Yami growled.
"Keeping my light safe and alive." Bakura replied. "I am not staying in the body of a sixteen year old girl any longer than I have to."
Yami released him and the tomb raider began straightening his jacket in the remaining silence. Once that was done he waved to everyone and started out the door.
"Hey, where are you two…er I mean…where ya goin'?" Tristan exclaimed. Bakura stopped at the door down to the shop.
"Home." He replied. "Getting thrown through a window has reminded me of a previous engagement I have with a pillow and bed."
"But what about the girl? Tani or something like that." Tristan asked and then blushed. Bakura just rolled his eyes.
"Her name is Tanith and she is going to stay in said bed with me." It was Bakura's turn to blush and mutter, "That didn't come out right…"
"I'm disturbed, is anyone else?" Tea inquired. Three hands went up during the time that Bakura slipped away.
"Stupid Pharaoh and his friends.' Bakura muttered as he walked down the still dark streets and was suddenly overwhelmed with dizziness. What are you doing in there? He snapped at Tanith.
Trying to take over, I'm not going to kick back while you try to coddle me. She replied. You being soft is a very disturbing thing.
Tough luck. You expended too much energy keeping us from getting killed and you need to recover first. So just go to sleep and leave everything to me.
No! Tanith exclaimed shoving the door to her soul room open. My body, my rules. You get in here and sleep! I can take care of myself.
Before Bakura could do anything he found himself jerked into the Ring and locked inside. Tanith found herself weak, dizzy and sick to her stomach a block from Yugi's. She stumbled briefly before starting off toward the junkyard where home rested.
"Great time to show off." She muttered as she trudged. "I'm big enough to take care of myself even when I no doubtably have a concussion or worse."
Tanith tried simply putting one foot in front of the other but tripped over her own feet landing hard on her stomach, knocking the breath out of her.
"Need some help?" A familiar voice inquired. She found herself helped to her feet by Tristan and Joey while Yami simply looked at her after speaking and Tea dusted her off.
"Oh hi," Tanith said blinking up at everyone. "I .." Joey cut her off as Tristan once again swung her up into his arms.
"Are going to stay what is remaining of the night with us."
She glared at him, doing a fair impression of Bakura as the five of them went back to the store then upstairs to Yugi's house. Once inside, Tanith was laid on the couch while the three visiting friends took spots on the floor and Yami went to Yugi's room.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked before Yami walked out of the room.
"Why not?" the pharaoh replied and walked away.
*******************************
He was cold was the first thought that went through Ryou Bakura as he floated up into consciousness.
As he opened his chocolate brown eyes the smell of disinfectant assaulted his nose. He realized he was in a hospital and he took in his shadowy surroundings.
He saw a chair near the window that was full of shadows. He spied all the machinery he was connected to, the IV drips full of clear liquids and the beeping of a heart monitor. The sight of the three needles in his pale arms made him sick.
"Welcome back." A familiar voice greeted him. Ryou's eyes shot to the shadowy chair, the only place that was not visible in the room.
Malik rose out of the chair revealing himself to the hospitalized teen with a smile that sent chills down his spine.
"Hello Ryou, how does it feel to be back in the real world after being trapped in the shadow realm for nearly a year." Malik inquired coming up beside him.
"A-year?!" Ryou replied in an unused voice that cracked toward the end of the statement. Malik nodded. "Yes, I brought you back though. For your item."
Ryou's hand shot to where the Ring was suppose to reside and found it gone. Malik chuckled when he saw the movement.
"You don't remember the girl who brought you here do you?" he asked. "Petite with red hair and dark blue eyes. Wears cut off shorts, a tube top and a ratty old duster?"
Malik chuckled again when he saw recognition cross Ryou face.
"She has it. Tanith has been safe guarding it and your yami for you."
Ryou's eyes went wide when Malik said that and yet again Malik chuckled.
"She's been a good little girl and even went as far as challenged me to a chess game to insure you and the Ring is safely out of my clutches." He told him.
Ryou glanced at his food tray and noticed the game he failed to notice before. It was at this time that Malik pulled out a syringe and slipped the contents into Ryou neck. The boy startled for a moment and then the contents began to work its magic.
"Having Tanith keep coming here is vital to my plan and so you must stay peacefully unaware of everything going on. Night night Ryou." Malik told him before he slipped back into unconsciousness.
*******************************
The real morning and not the crack-of-dawn-one-o'clock-in-the-morning type of morning began like the afore mentioned morning did. Tanith woke up to be greeted by breakfast of omelets that she gobbled up alongside a more subdued Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristan.
"Hey Tanith, was your mom a tele-ka-whatsit?" Joey asked in between bites of a four-egg omelet. Tristan elbowed him when Tanith shot him a dirty look.
"No Joey, my mom wasn't…" she replied adding silently, `Or she would have lived.`
"Ya know you look kinda familiar." Joey told as he shook his fork at her. Again Tristan elbowed him but he kept on. "I'm thinkin' on the news… that's it!"
"What's it?" Yugi asked as Joey shot to his feet. He glanced at his shorter friend and pointed to Tanith.
"She's Tanith Rivencroft, the chick who survived dat town fire!" Tea and Yugi looked at her and blinked. Tristan apparently already knew and continued to eat his breakfast while his friends gawked.
"Yes it tis me, the chick who survived dat town fire." Tanith repeated evenly.
Shall I send them to the shadow realm? Bakura inquired. Tell me I can.
Tanith disguised a chuckle as a cough and replied, No you can not. Try again when they annoy me more. Bakura chuckled.
"Wow," Joey said sitting back down. "It's like meeting some celebrity…"
"One known for surviving a slaughter under strange circumstances…" Tanith added.
"So where did you go after the fire?" Tristan asked. "To get away from the media circus I mean."
"My grandparents here in Domino and after they passed away, the junkyard." Tanith replied in between sips of her second glass of milk. "Bakura and I found a box car that we converted into a pretty nice place. With my technical know-how, we had almost all the amenities that a normal place would."
"Bakura and you?" Yugi asked incredulous. Tanith nodded.
"Yeah the first night after my grandparents were buried, I found Ryou and the Ring. Pretty neat huh?" she asked.
"So you've just been living in a train car, doing what?" Tea inquired.
"Yeah, what'cha been doin'?" Joey piped up only to have a piece of toast fly into his mouth.
"I've been making and repairing stuff. Like the generators that runs on used oil I first made while my grandparents were still alive." Tanith smiled fondly, "Poppy was going to see about patenting some of my stuff."
"Like what?" Yugi asked.
"Well there's the generators that run the fans. The welder I made to work on gas I siphoned from all the junk cars. Then there's the smaller Duel disks I cooked up for Bakura to entertain himself with."
"Duel disks!" Joey exclaimed, his voice muffled by the toast. To everyone else it sounded like "Wool whisk."
"How'd you make the duel disks?" Yugi wanted to know. Tanith got a sheepish look on her face.
"I uh, broke into Kaiba Corp. via the ventilation system, hacked into the system and stole one Old man Kaiba had in the shop." She replied. Joey began choking on the toast and when he finally got it down, began joined Tristan laughing.
"A little girl broke into Kaiba Corp and stole a duel disk!" Joey exclaimed, "I wish I could have seen Kaiba's face! He thinks he's so smart…"
"He is," Tanith argued. "He just didn't assume that the ventilation system needed an alarm too."
"I got a question." Tristan said. "I remember hearing about how the Duel arenas in Kaibaland went on the fritz and began playing monsters opposite of what they were supposed to. Did you---?"
Tanith smugly smiled, "I still get giggles thinking of how simple it was to do."
Tristan shook his head in amazement as Yugi said, "You know it took Kaiba nearly two hours to fix those."
"And it took two minutes to set up." Tanith countered then she shrugged, "But enough about me. What about Ryou? I can't just keep playing chess with Malik praying that I'll win and he'll just leave us alone."
"Maybe he'll wake up soon." Tea said. Tanith sighed.
"Maybe…"