My thanks to my reviewers! I'm sorry I edited out your replies, but that was the guideline violation. Now fixed, and everyone's happy.

Ryou was in darkness. His breathing and heartbeats sounded, to him, as though they were being amplified a hundred fold. He couldn't see anything, not even his hand in front of his face. The blackness was surrounding him on all sides. He would never find anyone, or anything, but just be lost, isolated, trapped inside this increasing darkness. He was totally alone in the suffocating shadows.

Yugi was chained to the bottom of a pool. The pool was slowly filling with water. In the rising water, Yugi strained to break the manacle around his ankle, which was preventing him from escaping. He knew if he didn't break the chain, if he didn't get out of this pool, if he didn't escape from this, he would drown, the manacle restraining him from getting above the level of the water to oxygen.

Malik was trapped. The flames around him burned furiously, the smoke becoming thicker with each passing second. There was no way out. He was trapped, trapped inside a fence of blazing flame. The flames were coming closer, slowly working towards him. He was going to be burned alive if he didn't somehow stop them, somehow escape. He was going to die from burns and smoke inhalation, die with no time to think. He could only think of the intense heat, the brightness of the flame, the thickness of the smoke…

Ryou was having a panic attack. He was never going to see light again. He was going to be forever condemned to walk alone, in this never-ending gloom.

"Where am I?" he cried aloud to the darkness. His voice sounded soft and thin in the heavy darkness.

"Alone…" murmured a dark voice inside his head. "Alone and lost…forever…"

"No! I can't believe it! I refuse to!"

"Ah, but Ryou, you must look around. There is no one here. Nothing. You will have to believe it someday…"

"NO!"

Ryou tried to look down. He could vaguely see his hands. They were faintly there, where they hadn't been before. He was sure the darkness had been too thick to see them previously.

"I'm not alone! I have Bakura! He couldn't leave me completely – we're yami and hikari! We're each other's other half."

With each passing moment, Ryou started to see more around him. A light was growing in the dark, about two feet in front of Ryou. Every time Ryou stated something countering what he had been thinking, the light grew stronger.

"I have friends, and I know they'll never leave me. I've met so many new, good people. Yugi and Yami, and Malik and Marik, the other four who share a yami/hikari bond! They would never leave me behind…we always stick together."

The light was now growing in size, slowly taking the form of a human.

"And the others…Téa, Tristan, Joey, Seto, Maï…we always stick by each other! I'm never alone!"

The light stopped growing. It was in the form of a human, and no longer building, in brightness or volume.

Ryou took a step towards it. As soon as he touched it, he felt something, a feeling, let go of him.

Ryou opened his eyes. He was standing in darkness that had no boundaries. A few meters away, Yugi stood, swaying slightly, as though in water, his eyes closed. A few more meters past Yugi, Malik stood, eyes closed, sweating, his hands raised in a defence. He was coughing.

Ryou didn't know what was going on. He ran up to Yugi, who was closest, and shook him by the shoulder.

"Yugi!"

Yugi was about to drown. The water had reached his neck, and was still climbing. Yugi knew he was going to die. The chain was too strong for only one person to break. The chilling water reached his chin. Yugi was sure no one was going to come. He couldn't get out of this situation alone.

As Yugi took his last breath, and the water rose above his head, he thought he heard someone calling his name.

As the oxygen decrease started to take its toll, and Yugi started to feel faint, he thought he saw Ryou above him, calling to him. He closed his eyes to the vision, knowing it was probably just an illusion.

Yugi opened his eyes when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Ryou was in the water, helping him to escape the manacle. Ryou put his hand under Yugi's arm and they both pushed off from the bottom of the pool. The strain was too great for the chain, with two people pulling it. It broke.

Ryou and Yugi swam up to the surface…

Yugi's eyes opened. He was standing, and Ryou was next to him, one hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ok, Yugi?"

"No…I mean yes…I mean…I don't know what I mean…I was inside a pool, chained to the bottom of it, and you saved me… helped me break the chain and escape it…I thought I would drown…"

"I think it might have been all in your head…I didn't move, I only shook you by the shoulder. I did it for about five seconds, and you…well…woke up…"

"Do you think Malik's trapped inside his head too?"

"Yeah. Come on. We need to get him out."

"Ryou, grab Malik's arm. I'll grab the other. We could be able to literally pull him out. On three, pull…one…two…"

Ryou tensed; ready to pull Marik from whatever sort of nightmare he was trapped in.

"Three!"

Malik coughed. The smoke was getting thicker, the flames were getting higher. And closer…they were getting closer to him, ready to scorch flesh, to cause pain and to end life…

The smoke was making Malik's eyes water. He could hardly see at all, as the flames were so bright, dancing in front of him. The smoke was also slowly suffocating him. It was filling his lungs; thick, solid, dark grey smoke.

Malik wiped sweat from his forehead. The intense heat was building, over powering him, and he was growing dizzy and light headed.

He fell to his knees, as the smoke, combined with the heat, slowly started the killing process. Malik prepared for death, prepared to endure such pain as when the flames reached him.

He was about to give up, but seeing two familiar faces through the flame made him stand back up.

Yugi and Ryou reached out a hand each. Where they stood the flames became half their original size. Malik grasped both hands, and Yugi and Ryou pulled him over the flames.

Malik opened his eyes. Yugi and Ryou had pulled him forward from where he had been originally standing.

"Yugi? Ryou? What…"

"Malik, this will sound weird, but what did you see?"

Ryou frowned at Yugi's question. "Flame. I was trapped in fire. I couldn't get out. The smoke was suffocating me, and the fire was going to kill me, burn me alive, and burn me to death, I knew. But then…then you two arrived, grasped me by both hands and pulled me out, out over of the flame. Why?"

"Well, I was trapped at the bottom of a pool. I was chained to the bottom and it was filling with water. I was so sure that I would drown, and when the water rose over my head, and I was using the last of my oxygen, Ryou appeared, and helped me break the chain and swim to the surface."

Ryou nodded. "As for me, I was trapped in darkness. I couldn't find anyone, or anything. I kept thinking I was going to be alone for eternity, and I kept hearing this negative thing – sort of like a voice, but more a feeling, that basically told me I was totally alone. I was so isolated…but then it thought of you guys, and how we stick together, being hikaris, and how Bakura could never leave me, as he was my other half. I saw a light, so I went towards it, and then I opened my eyes and was here."

Yugi crossed his arms. "Right…and Ryou, what were we doing? Me and Malik?"

"You, Yugi looked like you were pulling at something, and were swaying like you were in water, and Malik, you had your hands up in front of your face and were coughing."

Yugi nodded. "It was, I'm sure, all in our minds. We were trapped inside our heads…and trapped inside our…?"

"Fears," said Malik. " I know I have always been afraid of being trapped in fire."

"Yeah, " murmured Ryou, "I've always had a fear of isolation…"

"And I've always been scared of being trapped underwater…so we were trapped in our fears, in our minds…"

"In the Shadow Realm," stated Marik.

The three hikaris sat bolt upright, Yugi and Ryou on stretchers and Malik on his bed.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief to see them properly alive, with mind and body back together.

"Wait," said Seto, "Yugi, Ryou, Malik, your yamis just went into the Shadow Realm to find you…what happens now?"

"What? Oh great, we have to go back in again…"

"But how do we get there?"

"Well," said Malik, "We're looking for our yamis, so in theory we should go straight there."

"But we aren't tired, and there's no one here who can trap us…" stated Ryou.

"I have an idea…Joey, can you please pass me that padded baseball bat…?"

"Malik…"

"Listen Yugi… you have to trust me…if I knock you and Ryou out with this, you can get to the Shadow Realm."

There was a small outburst from some of the others at this.

"Knock them out?"

"You could seriously hurt them!"

"Malik, I'm going to trust you," said Yugi slowly. "I want to find my yami, and if it means pain, so be it…"

"Yugi! You might get trapped again!"

"I'm really, really, sorry, Yugi…" said Malik, raising the bat.

"Téa, main word in that sentence is might…" grinned Yugi, as the bat collided with the side of his head and he fell into the Shadow Realm

Review me please! I will thank you in advance…Thank you.