~*~*~*~*~
Rrring. Rrring. Rrring.

"Ow," Blair muttered, fumbling for his phone in the dark with bandaged hands. It wasn't too bad, Jim's aloe had soothed most of the burn, but the little red spots stung. "Ow, ow, ow...."

And to add insult to injury, a damp-haired Ryou Bakura had promptly curled up in his sleeping bag and dropped off, boneless and silent as a snoozing snow leopard. As if he weren't at all worried about potential retribution.

Let's see. Dragon on the chair, Yugi and Kaiba in the next room, and Bakura's got his deck under his hand, Blair toted up blearily. Unless Jim pulls out a grenade launcher from somewhere, I think we're outgunned. "Sandburg," he mumbled.

"Blair? Everybody still there?"

Rafe. An all too awake Rafe, at that. "Yeah," Blair muttered, switching on the small flashlight attached to his key-chain to check the room. Jerked it down as Jim winced. "Sorry."

"Anything weird happen around 4:40?"

Blair blinked sleep-sand out of his eyes. Glanced at the shadowy form of his partner. Caught the sentinel's shake of head. "Ah... no. Why?" And why am I sure I don't want to know?

"Get them over here. Fast. Homicide doesn't know what to do with this, Simon's next on my call list, and as soon as the administrator works up enough nerve to get the mayor on the line, we're going to be buried in enough red tape to sink a cruise liner."

"Okay..." Blair said reluctantly, watching white scales rise and fall to silent breaths. Oh boy. How the hell are we going to get these kids up without losing a hand? "Here where?"

~*~*~*~*~
"Brain Control," Solomon said firmly, wrapping a sympathetic hand over Nurse Houlihan's as they sat in visitor's chairs near the nurses' desk. "That's undoubtedly what you saw."

"Brain Control?" Rafe asked, eyes wide. Down the hall Henri and Blair were picking up the pieces with Homicide; Brian Pelletier had been hauled off screaming his innocence, and as of half an hour ago, the doctors were giving Joseph Black a fifty-fifty chance of making it off the table. "You can control someone's mind?"

Standing in the background, Jim sipped Cascade General's cafeteria coffee, wincing. Now Blair's insistence he carry his own ceramic mug for coffee made sense. The only contaminants in his cup were those in the hospital water, rather than a deadening aftertaste of Styrofoam. As it was, he'd pay for the caffeine overload later. Right now they all needed to be awake.

"I can't, no," the elderly shop-owner corrected. "And a Duelist couldn't for long. It's a magic card that takes control of one of your opponent's monsters. But only for one turn."

But Brian Pelletier wasn't one of their monsters, Jim almost said, listening down the hall where a bunch of groggy Duelists were currently mauling an early breakfast. He worked for-

And closed his mouth, letting the pieces he thought he knew fall into a new shape.

Damn.

Set it aside, as Rafe took Houlihan aside to walk through her statement one more time. Let the new theory sit and solidify, while he picked up a few other pieces. "Not sure I said thank you for getting them up, Solomon," Jim said. "That took guts." The older man had knocked firmly on the bedroom door, calling persistently until Yugi blearily opened it. Just like Blair. Definitely not a morning person, the sentinel thought, amused.

And then not, remembering how he'd heard Kaiba slither out of the sheets minutes before Yugi roused.

A glint of metal caught his eye down the hall. The CEO's wrists were armored once more, all trace of scars hidden as his dark heart.

Damn you, Seto Kaiba. Why the hell did you have to cross paths with an innocent like Yugi?

"Nonsense." Solomon chuckled softly, evidently unaware of his thoughts. "I should be thanking you for your caution. It simply hadn't occurred to me that we might find trouble again so early." A gray brow arched, and he sat up a hair straighter. "Though I'd argue that we didn't find this one."

"I'd have to agree with you, sir," Jim admitted.

"Really?" Solomon blinked, surprised.

"I wish I didn't." And here came his partner, with the piece that would either make or break the puzzle. "Blair?"

"You're not going to believe this." Blair practically bounced, now that he was away from the scent of spilled blood and terror. "Brian Pelletier and Joseph Black both worked for-"

"Questscape security," Jim finished.

His guide's good humor dimmed a shade. "What have I told you about listening in without someone around to shake you out of a zone?"

"I didn't." Jim shrugged. "That part of the park was a Questscape beautification project. Ship's a silent asset. Dan's body was another guy from security. And Mrs. Johnston's one of our witnesses. Questscape's the only thing all these... incidents have in common." He growled. "Hell if I know why."

Blair stepped into his personal space, angled a glance toward the Duelists. "Do they have any ideas?"

"Only that this is about revenge." Solomon frowned, drumming fingers on his knee in a pattern so familiar Jim had to crosscheck his ears with his eyes to make sure exactly where his guide was. "It usually is. Unless you've practiced a great deal, it takes strong emotions to summon Monsters. Love, or fear... or hate."

"Explains Kaiba's dragons," Jim muttered, relaxing into his guide's presence. Absently he let his senses roam, checking for anything out of place, anything they might have missed-

Megan's voice, sudden and unexpected as a gunshot. "Assault in progress - stone the crows, those bones are moving! Get us some help, here! God-"

"Jim! Blair!" Henri skidded around the corner, shouts and gunshots still spilling from the phone in his hand. "The Natural History Museum-"

A ghostly elephant's trumpet wailed from the speaker, and the line went dead.

~*~*~*~*~
"Connor!"

"What!" the Aussie snapped, shooting down a persistent saber-tooth skeleton. There goes another bloody million-plus in damages... Simon's going to have our guts for garters.

"Next time you get a brainstorm," Joel discharged three rounds through a tarred hyena's skull, dropping the undead beast in a clatter of bones on his feet, "Leave me home!"

"Only if I can stay too, mate!" And it'd seemed like such a good idea. As head of the accounting division, Preston Montgomery was the most likely person to know where Questscape's purloined funds had gone. Which meant he needed somewhere to stash those funds, at least quasi-legitimately, in such a manner that the books would look balanced. And what better way to hide them than in a donation to one of the company's favorite charities, the Natural History Museum?

So when one of Joel's friends on the staff - Sayh Golden, lovely young woman with streaked-red dreadlocks and a wicked sense of humor - called in with a tip on a very early-morning visit to the curator by Montgomery, his lawyer, and a few heavies, she and Joel had come running. Sayh had let them in, pointed them toward the Pleistocene exhibit, and hurried off to her own job while the detectives ensconced themselves near the Stone Age dioramas.

And sure enough the smarmy crew had come by, the curator making all the right appreciative noises for the donation while the lawyer nit-picked, the pair of heavies looked vicious, and Montgomery looked lustfully over tarred bones.

Megan had caught Joel's triumphant grin as he switched on his tape recorder to catch every legalistic phrase. In and of itself the recording might not do much, but combine it with the paperwork they'd be able to seize based on probable cause, and they'd have Montgomery wrapped in money trails with a murder as a pretty little bow on top. She'd slipped Joel a flirtatious wink back, basking in the warm glow of knowing, knowing she had her prey in sight-

And the scent of ozone had tickled her nose, and a gunman shrieked as a skeletal mammoth trampled him underfoot.

That's the last time I turn my back on anything with this many teeth, Megan vowed now, back to back with Joel as more skeletons closed in. The curator was hiding behind a case of stone axes, the last heavy had just gone down under a pack of skeletal jackals, Montgomery was shrieking in the background as he fended off a reconstructed condor with his briefcase, and the lawyer was slowly choking in an impossible bony trunk. Backed into a corner, running low on rounds....

"Stop!"

~*~*~*~*~
Oh man, somebody help me, Blair thought, sweating as he faced down bones and Shadow magic. Glowing points of crimson stared at him from the mammoth's eye-sockets, cold and malevolent as a yawning grave. I don't have a clue what I'm doing.

Behind him he heard the safety click off Jim's gun, a whispered "Mammoth Graveyard" from Solomon, a faint screech of tires outside that had to be Henri and Rafe, finally here after having made a semi-sane way through Cascade traffic. Before him the lawyer was futilely prying at the bones around his neck, wheezing. In the corner Joel and Megan were reserving what had to be their last rounds, waiting for their saber-toothed assailants to lunge.

"Gun," Jim breathed in his ear.

"No. Look." Blair swallowed dryly, as shadows crept from the saber-tooth Megan had shot, swirling into the eye-sockets of a mounted cave bear. The undead beast shook itself aware, claws clicking out of bone as it took one long stride toward Joel-

"Stop!"

The beast halted. Turned toward him. Snarled, fangs gaping impossibly wide.

Man, this is one time I wish Jim had an SUV, Blair thought fleetingly, feeling a noted absence of angry Duelists behind him. His sentinel's trusty pickup only seated three, and in Jim's haste to assist a fellow officer they'd maybe been a little too quick to take Yugi's word that the card-carrying bunch would be right behind them. We just need a look at Mrs. Johnston, Yugi had reassured him as the three had dashed into the elevator. Don't worry, we'll find our own way there....

I should've known better, Blair knew, swaying. He is my nephew, he knows how to dance around the truth. He saw something he didn't want us to know about - and he's definitely not here. And the world was grayed somehow; scents faded, sounds thin, shadows thick and violet and listening.... "Help."

"On it." Jim was a bright blaze of color beside him, ghostly panther snarling at his side.

"No. No shooting." One gunshot, and the fragile truce would break.

But every moment holding it hurt, as if the seconds slashed his skin with knives of ice. A minute more, and he'd slip. And Megan and Joel would die....

Solomon's hand was solid warmth on his back, trickling in a burst of strength. "Arrest him."

"What?"

"This is a Duel, Blair." Solomon's voice was cool and measured, almost as level as Yami's. "You're a Guide, not a Duelist. You can't command creatures of the Shadow Realm. But they will listen to you. And without an enemy, they won't attack." Hard violet was fixed on the choking lawyer. "Arrest him. Take him off the board."

"Blair?" Jim's gaze touched his, asking, trusting.

I can't... hold this much longer. "Do it."

The detective's grin turned feral. "You have the right to remain silent...."

And the sucking chill - vanished.

Blair dropped to one knee, sucking in oxygen as Jim disentangled the whimpering attorney from a lax undead trunk. Cuffs clicked home, metal counterpoint to the wary footfalls of two detectives making their way past waiting skeletons. God. I hurt. I hurt everywhere.

"Holy-" Safeties clicked as Rafe and Henri dashed into the room.

"Hold it!" Jim's tone matched his warning hand. "Easy, guys. Blair talked them down. Don't start anything."

"Blair? Talked...." Henri shook his head, as if to dislodge the notion. Rafe stared beside him, reluctantly pointing his weapon toward the polished floor. "Why do we always get the weird ones?"

"Major Crimes, H," Jim smirked. "You want normal, transfer to Homicide."

"Sandy?" Megan's hands rubbed Blair's shoulders, warm as a bonfire. "Lord, you're like ice!"

"Magic takes energy." Solomon held up his other side, keeping watch as undead creatures clicked back toward their dioramas. "Keep your guard up. This isn't over."

"They stopped fighting, we got the bad guy," Joel argued. "What else is there?"

Jim's head came up; he dropped the lawyer in a sniveling heap. Sniffed, and snarled. "That."

Shadows were draining from the skeletal beasts, crimson light winking out of empty skulls. One by one, the undead collapsed in a cloud of dust and violet.

"Um... that would be a good thing, right?" Blair asked, getting to his feet as he eyed the gathering swirl of shadows. Please tell me I'm right? Please?

"No." Solomon's voice was the death of hope. "They're being sacrificed."

An ogre in a blue chef's outfit appeared, sizzling shadows in his skillet as rough laughter filled the room. He flourished a spatula with a fanged smile, flipping a shadowy patty that grew and floated and gathered lettuce, tomatoes, and a bloody bun about itself.

"Hamburger Recipe," Solomon groaned. "Used to summon...."

The ogre vanished with a tip of his puffy hat. The blood-smeared bun sprouted fangs, and the snarling creation bounced out the door.

"Hungry Burger." Solomon buried his face in his hand. "Oh, dear."

As one, the group rushed to the museum entrance, just in time to see a man-sized, toothy burger bouncing through three lanes of traffic.

"Montgomery," Megan snapped her fingers. "Of course!" She hesitated. "But why?"

"Never mind why!" Jim burst out. "A man-eating hamburger? What kind of a sick game is this?" He glared at Solomon. "And where the hell is your grandson?"

Shrugging, the older man pointed toward Cascade General.

And lightning split the sky.

~*~*~*~*~
"Just in case you were wondering, Mr. Kaiba, this is against hospital policy!" Nurse Houlihan shouted over the rising wind.

Seto nodded once, eyes on Mokuba as his brother clung to Jenna Johnston. The brunette herself was gripping her daughter's gurney with white knuckles, helping Houlihan hold it in place on the hospital rooftop as Bakura and Mai lashed it down with the tomb robber's rope. Yugi finished a slow circle around Corinna's limp form as Mai tied the last knot, stepped back with a look of determination. "You're right!" he called, words slicing the gale with shadow's edge. "Her ka's not here!"

Kaiba's lips thinned. He didn't want to admit it. Didn't want to think that he could look at an unconscious girl and see nothing but a shell of a soul, a wailing half-self lost and wandering in the shadows....

But want had nothing to do with it. The girl was a Duelist. Magic had frayed and snapped around her, casting her soul into the Shadow Realm, allowing her hate to slip between the cracks of here and elsewhere.

And she knew the name of her enemy.

Sea-blue eyes narrowed against the wind. "We should let her kill him."

"Nii-sama!"

"Kaiba, come on," Mai started.

"No." Jenna paled, shrinking from the darkness in his gaze. "Not my daughter!"

"She's defending you, Johnston," Kaiba said coldly. "Protecting you from the enemy that took her father, and tried to take her; an enemy that sees you as a clear and present danger. As long as he's alive, he won't stop trying to kill you both."

Coiling up his rope, Bakura snorted. "For once, the sorcerer speaks sense."

"No!" Jenna stood between them and the windswept gurney, pale and shaking. "My daughter's not a killer!"

"No? Wait a few minutes." Kaiba crossed his arms. "It'll be a quicker death than the one he meant for you."

"God, no-"

"Seto." Yugi's quiet voice cut across Jenna's tears. "It doesn't have to be this way."

Kaiba met warm amethyst, trying not to flinch. You know I'm right, Yami. You know it. Even if your lighter half won't see it. "You know what she is. What we are!"

"I know what we are," Yugi admitted. "And I know what we've done. When we didn't know what we were doing. And when we did."

"Clue me in?" Mai yelled at Bakura.

"Shadow Games, woman!" The tomb robber called back. "You of all humans should know their cost!"

"Shimatta...."

"But Corinna doesn't know what she's doing, Seto!" Crimson was creeping into amethyst, Shadows dancing around them both. "You know what it's like to be broken. You know it! And maybe we can't fix you, and maybe we can't fix me - but we can stop her, Seto! Here. Now!" Yugi held out beseeching hands. "Please, Seto."

No.

"Help me stop her."

I can't....

"I can't do this alone."

I'm a killer. We both know it. I don't deserve to save a life-

"Nii-sama?" Gray-blue eyes pleaded with him, loyal to the last. Trusting, as Mokuba had always trusted his big brother, all too aware of the darkness in his soul.

...I'm going to regret this. "I suppose you have a plan," Kaiba bit out.

Yami inclined his head. "We're going to find her."

"In the Shadow Realm." Wonderful.

"Who better?" A grim smile danced over the ancient spirit's features. "But hate and Shadows are laced about her spirit; I doubt she'll come quietly." His crimson gaze swept the three Duelists. "You'll remain here, and keep her Monsters occupied."

"Think again, pharaoh," Bakura sneered. "Risk my neck, for a slip of a girl?"

"A girl as innocent as your host," Yami said evenly. "And hers is not the only life that hangs in the balance."

The thief snorted. "Oh, yours. As if your life meant more to me than chaff scattered in the wind!"

"No." Mai stepped forward, face pale. "Mine." She caught Bakura's gaze, held it. "I'm going to do this, Ryou."

"Valentine," Bakura warned, hand straying near his Ring. "You've barely summoned. You've less of a grasp on magic than Wheeler. Don't be a fool!"

"I know." Mai looked at Corinna. "But she's just a girl. I have to help, Ryou. I have to."

"Then it's decided." Yami lifted a hand, and violet mist swirled up.

"Holy-" Houlihan stumbled back from the lightning-struck dome where three people and a gurney had stood. Ropes parted with a snap, severed ends curling away, trailing smoke and shadows.

"Get behind me, woman!" Bakura glared as Mai dealt herself a hand, snatching his deck out with a hiss. "That snake-spawned idiot of a pharaoh-! Ruins my best rope, makes me play hero... I swear, I'm going to kill him!"

Mokuba. He took Mokuba into the Shadow Realm! "When he gets out," Kaiba said dryly, sliding cards into his hand, "Get in line."

~*~*~*~*~
"We're chasing a hamburger with teeth," Joel pointed out as Megan tore through traffic with all a mad Aussie's disregard for speed limits, sanity, and the laws of physics. And for all that, she drove saner than the blue and white pickup ahead of them. "Just so you know."

Megan tried not to wince. She'd heard that detached note in her partner's voice in survivors of train derailments; the brain had hit its limit of terror, and decided everything past that was just a bad dream. "I know, Joel."

"This is all Jim's fault."

Megan arched a red brow, dodging a silver-trimmed black Mercedes that didn't quite comprehend that flashing lights meant they had to move, too. "Really."

"I don't know how," Joel admitted, casually tightening his seatbelt. "But it is."

"Ah," Megan said noncommittally. Time for a bit of quiet with the shrink for you, laddy-buck. "Be a love and get the radio, hmm?"

She dove back into playing 3-D bumper cars as Joel talked with Dispatch, catching fragments of roadblock, spike strips, and a mad yell that had to be Simon. We should ask Rhonda if she's come up with a way to fix the coffee machine yet, Megan thought absently. Relying on the beverage cart is not helping his temper....

"Okay." Joel clicked the radio off, almost shrugging. "If we keep going this way, they've got spike strips set up a half-mile down."

Under a kilometer and closing. Good.

"So." Joel's voice was deceptively calm. "I get that you think when we stop Preston, it'll stop and go after him. What I don't get is, what the hell do we do when we catch it? Hit it with special sauce?"

Ah. There was sanity left beside her. Good. "I rather thought we'd turn Jim loose on it," Megan shrugged. "He's always sneaking out of formal dinners to visit Wonderburger anyway. This should be the chance of a lifetime."

"Connor?"

"Hmm?" There were the blue-and-gray Cascade patrol cars, lights flashing warning ahead as Montgomery's SUV hit the spike strips and screeched. More lights blazed crimson as Jim jammed on the brakes, granting just enough time for black-and-yellow strips to be yanked back before he tore through after the limping, burger-pursued SUV.

"You're nuts!"

Megan flashed teeth in a wicked grin as blown tires finally lurched to a smoking stop. "Decent of you to notice."

~*~*~*~*~
Violet mist rolled in. Shadows grew and quivered, waking the ghosts of bloodstains across the concrete rooftop. A whispery beat filled the air; like ambulance helicopter rotors on approach, like a fading heart struggling to survive.

Mokuba Kaiba looked around, and shivered. The Shadow Realm. "Nii-sama's going to kill you."

"He'll try," Yami nodded, frank and accepting. "But I need your help, Mokuba."

The twelve-year-old blinked. "Me? Why?"

"Where the hell are we?" Mrs. Johnston's hands clenched on the gurney, eyes wide and staring as a stallion about to bolt.

"That's why," Yami said in an undertone. Moving around Corinna's still form, he laid a comforting hand over Jenna's. "Where doesn't matter. We're following the track of your daughter's spirit. You must stay calm, and stay with us. We have little time." He raised a hand, warding off dawning questions. "Not for her sake, but yours."

"He's right." Mokuba moved in to hug Jenna's side, already feeling the first breath of chill across her skin. Chill that wasn't touching him; not yet. But I'm going to be a Duelist. Like nii-sama. "I've been here before. It sucks the energy right out of you. Yami's going to keep us safe, but we've got to hurry."

"Call your daughter," Yami urged. The spirit stepped back, Puzzle glowing gold, ruby eyes on the watching shadows. "Tell her she's safe. Bid her return. You're her mother. Blood binds you. Call her."

Jenna's fingers wove into Mokuba's. "Corinna!"

'Rinna... rinna... Echoes rolled through the mists, waking whispers, growls, screams. Paired glows shimmered into being in the shadows, crimson and jade and white-gold as fire....

And a slash of steel, as three blades aimed for their hearts.

"I summon the Dark Magician, equipped with the Sword of Deep-Seated!"

Shadows swirled at Yami's call; an emerald staff shimmered, gained an amethyst blade to become a lance that met metal in three swift parries. The Dark Magician warded them in a flow of violet robes and armor, driving the blade-tailed warrior back, sea-green eyes narrowed as the sword-bearing half-snake tried to wriggle nearer.

"Armaill. Oh god," Jenna whispered.

"Don't give up!" Mokuba urged. Yami's features might have been graven from stone as he drew another card to his hand, all the spirit's concentration focused on maintaining his Monster as it stood between them and their armored enemy. Only stone didn't sweat. "Please!"

"Don't-" Jenna's face was white and pinched as she laughed, hysterical. "You think I don't know what's going on here? Electric Snake? Armaill? Brain Control? That's my daughter's deck! My daughter's doing this! She did it to that man, she did it to Questscape...."

"She's scared!" Mokuba defended the unconscious girl. Like nii-sama is, only he never lets people see it. "Keep trying!"

"God, kid, don't you get it?" Tears were streaking what was left of Jenna's mascara, tracking darkness down her cheeks. "My daughter's trying to kill us!"

"I know." I know what people do when they're scared. When they think there's no way out. When they hurt.... "Please. Please, try!"

"Cory!" Jenna called to the shadows. "Cory, baby, come home...."

~*~*~*~*~
"Help! Somebody help me!"

Joel shook his head, gun drawn as he watched the Burger demolish Montgomery's SUV one shred of metal at a time. "I've heard of getting more iron in your diet, but this is ridiculous."

Not good, Jim thought, approaching the rattling SUV with Blair and Solomon. He didn't think the Burger had spotted them - but then, if Solomon was right, the Burger wasn't zeroing in on anything as physical as sight. "Megan?" he asked, carefully casual.

The redhead's glance slid to her partner, and she made a circling motion with one forefinger near her temple.

Terrific. Jim looked over his shoulder at four bug-eyed uniforms, waved them back with a grim shake of head. Ordinarily he'd want the help, but what the hell were regular cops supposed to do against magic?

Rafe's sleek sports car braked hard at the side of the road; Jim blew out a breath of relief as the two Major Crimes detectives scrambled out the passenger-side door to avoid still-passing traffic. Just hope they're holding up a little better than Joel-

Screech! The SUV's door tore loose in a scream of tortured metal; Montgomery scrambled into the back, whimpering as the Burger tried to ram itself through the doorway.

"And I thought wide patties were a bad thing," Blair whistled.

"Not this time," Jim agreed. "Take it down!"

Lead seasoning, the sentinel thought wryly, aiming for the center of mass. The Burger writhed under their hits, bits of bread, tomato and meat flung across the highway. Maybe if we punch enough holes in it-

Sunlight faded, turned cool and chill as a gibbous moon. Leather boomed in the air behind them, like sails catching the wind. A uniform shrieked-

Oh. My. God.

A horde of black imps with scythes had seized Rafe, Brown, and the uniformed officers, vanishing into violet smoke.

"Stop shooting!" Solomon pulled out a phone with frantic haste. "That's Gravekeeper's Servant!"

Jim saw red. Fingers clenched on his sidearm's grip; he barely kept himself from pulling the trigger. "And what the hell is that?"

"Continuous magic card," Solomon said hastily, punching in numbers. "Every time one of us attacks, a card from the top of our decks is sent to the Graveyard."

Jim restrained the urge to shake the man. His partner was already reaching for elderly shoulders, only held back by Megan's swift grip. "They're not cards!" Blair growled.

"They were opposing creatures, not on the field, not in defense mode. Allies you could have called in later. Evidently that was close enough." Solomon listened to the rings, fingers drumming on his jacket. "I just hope they can keep their heads long enough to stay alive to be rescued...."

Click. "The world had better be coming to an end, or you're fired!"

Kaiba. And from the shouts, snarls, and shrieks in the background, the CEO was having just as interesting a time as they were.

~*~*~*~*~
"Harpy Lady, attack her Beaked Snake!" The crimson-haired harpy shredded scales with a happy shriek. Mai winced as Corinna's Servant snatched the top card off her deck. "Damn! So much for Mirror Wall."

"Portrait's Secret-" A Worm Drake wrapped itself around the Portrait's painted claws, tearing Bakura's defenses to kindling. The Ring's spirit swore.

"Ryu-Kishin, strike!" Backed against the globe of darkness by two Sinister Serpents, Kaiba tried to balance a phone in one hand and cards in the other. Strategy, he needed a strategy; he'd almost had it, before the phone tore him from the pure concentration that was the Heart of the Cards. At least it's only Serpents. The gargoyle could take them both with one blow-

And a disembodied viper's head struck Ryu-Kishin's throat, fangs driving black poison into his monster's veins. Snake Fang!

Striking as one, the Sinister Serpents tore his gargoyle to shreds of smoke.

Kaiba stifled a wince, feeling as if their fangs had slashed his own limbs. So. The girl can play Traps.

"Where's Yugi?" Solomon's shout came over the phone.

"Trying to get himself killed before our rematch!" The serpents were turning flickering tongues toward him, now, and - dissipating?

Sacrificed, the Duelist knew, seeing shadows swirl into one violet pool of magic. Strike now, before it can come through-

And fiery lava roared around him, searing at his spirit.

Final Flame. Kaiba staggered as the fires vanished, sucking in air seared desert dry. The girl's playing for keeps....

"What's going on?" Ellison demanded. "We've lost people over here! Solomon says they got yanked into the Shadow Realm-"

Violet erupted in light, a glitter of gold and diamond-blue and crystalline wings. A dragon shaped from the purest of crystals soared free, white fire building in its jaws.

"Hyozanryu," Kaiba breathed.

"What-"

A shower of sparkles wrapped him; blinding, brief torment. Sparks, the Duelist recognized through the breath-stealing assault. Her mother should have told us she likes direct attacks on her opponent's life points....

And something in him snapped.

"Kaiba! Kaiba, talk-"

Kaiba? Who in the netherworld was Kaiba?

Seto dropped the squawking object in his coat pocket, absently wondering why he'd held it in the first place. This was a Duel. Nothing - nothing, not even Pharaoh's own words - was more important than a Duel.

And a dragon was waiting for him.

He blinked at the cards in his hand. Dyed papyrus, not graven stone?

But never mind, never mind; the magic in them was deep and rich as any he'd called out of enchanted carvings. Fingers pulled a last card from his deck, and he laughed at his hand. Mystic Probe, Shadow Spell, and.... Old friends. My own.

*We are here!*

Somewhere in the distance, part of him tried to believe this was impossible. In the game, a Blue Eyes was a level 8 monster. In the game, he'd need to sacrifice two other monsters to call even one out.

This wasn't a game.

Seto sank his mind into the spirit of lightning-split sky, light made flesh and scales and silver-white wings. Reached inside himself, calling on all his rage and love and fierce joy in power.

"Blue Eyes White Dragons, arise!"

~*~*~*~*~
"Seto!" Mokuba's hand clenched near his locket. "We've got to help him!"

//Whoa.// Yugi whistled in his soul room, feeling the fire that had scorched down the Puzzle's link to Kaiba, the irresistible call now vibrating through the Shadow Realm. //Um... he knows we're trying not to bring down her life points, right?//

He knows, aibou, Yami nodded, feeling Yugi fit together strategies as he bent his concentration toward supporting the Dark Magician. Steel rang on amethyst and emerald, chiming around Jenna's mumbled entreaties to her daughter's wandering soul. But I suspect he's not quite himself at the moment.

His other winced. //Then we've got to move fast.//

Yami felt his aibou's plan form in his own thoughts, and grinned darkly. Yes. That will do, indeed. "Block Attack!"

Armaill screeched as magic dragged him into defense mode, swords crossed before his armored chest.

"Dark Magician, attack with dark magic!"

The Magician flung out a hand, shattering his opponent in a burst of violet-black flame.

"Mokuba." Yami drew in a breath of shadows, watching for signs of a new summoning as the Magician snapped his lance up to guard. "You have your deck. Draw."

Gray-blue eyes looked up at him, wide and wary. "I can't-"

"You can touch their Heart," Yami said gravely. He set his hand on the child's shoulder. "As for the power... that we will lend you. If you are willing."

Mokuba nodded. "What do I do?"

Brave little one. Yami wrapped his own magic around Mokuba's fledgling strength, shadowed titanium about new steel. "Draw. And call."

Eyes closed, Mokuba pulled a card free. "Dreamsprite!"

Silver-green shadows shimmered into an autumn-winged azure fairy, red bubbles of forest magic floating between her slender hands. "Wisely drawn," Yami murmured. "Lady of forests, hear me!"

Red wings spread as the plant fairy fluttered to Mokuba's side, head cocked in curiosity.

"Child of dreams, help your caller search for one lost in nightmare here," Yami said courteously. "Guard him well, as only you can. Those who attack you, direct to us."

The Dreamsprite's autumn-red head nodded. She smiled at her caller, blowing a bubble of raspberry-red magic to float around his hair.

Mokuba was stiff against Yami, face pale. "But that means, if Cory's Monsters go after me-"

"Their attacks will strike us, instead." Yami nodded. "We can weather it better than you, little dragon. You know that." Smiling, he ruffled dark hair. "Go on, Mokie. Find our lost Duelist. Lure her home."

Taking Dreamsprite's small hand, Mokuba took a shaky step away. And jerked to a halt. "Why'd you call me Mokie?"

"Er...." Why had such an unlikely nickname sprung to mind? Little dragon, yes, certainly. But Mokie?

And why did it feel so much like Yugi?

//Oops.// Yugi's laughter echoed down their bond, along with wry thoughts of - payback? What in the worlds? //I guess the leak goes both ways.//

Leak? What did he - oh, Ra. "Yugi," he groaned.

//Remember that the next time you start swearing in Egyptian!//

Mokuba giggled. "You picked that up from Seto!"

Yami opened his mouth to protest, let it close again as Mokuba skipped off in the sprite's wake. Now why did that make him happy, aibou? He knows how much his brother values his privacy of mind....

//And now he also knows Seto still thinks of him as Mokie, even if he doesn't say it,// Yugi pointed out. //Mokuba's always believed in Seto. He's always had faith that somewhere under all that dark and cold, the big brother who took care of him in the orphanage was still there. No matter what Gozaburo did to destroy him.//

And I once thought the boy blind. Yami smiled reluctantly, raising his hands as the shadows stirred once more. Perhaps he sees more truly than any of us.

~*~*~*~*~
"Nephthys, lady of shrouds, ward us from the chaos you wedded," Bakura breathed as white scales filled the air. Mai was backed against him, breathing hard, vest and gloves dotted with dark holes from the Sparks attacks that had hit them both. Hyozanryu wheeled overhead, glittering like sun-struck snow as it dodged three angry Blue Eyes Whites.

//Which just leaves a Worm Drake,// Ryou pointed out, sweating in his soul room. //And we can't summon yet.//

No matter. Bakura regarded the beast's dripping jaws with contempt. Once Mai switched her Harpy to defense, the Drake would destroy itself in a single attack. "Now, Valentine!"

Harpy Lady hovered above, unmoving as her mistress.

Jaws dripping, the Worm Drake lunged-

"Headless Knight, defend!" Scales shattered on gilt-edged steel; Bakura seized his partner's shoulder, calling magic out of his Ring to bolster her faltering strength. "Stay awake, woman!"

Mai forced her head up, eyes hard. "Elegant Egotist!" Her Harpy Lady blurred into the three Sisters; crimson hair splitting to orange, violet, and midnight blue. "I...."

"Sleep and die, Valentine!" Bakura snarled, yanking them both down as white wingtips sliced air a foot over their heads.

"Mystic Probe!" Seto's voice cut the wind; a stone tablet materialized in the Servant's path, squashing the card-stealing imp temporarily flat. "Violator of ma'at, prepare to perish! Seize her beast, my own!"

Lifting her head in time to see the Blue Eyes soar sunward, Mai swore. "More Egyptian, damn it... what's Kaiba saying?"

Bakura snorted. "After that many spells? I'm not certain that is Kaiba right now."

"Not-?" Mai gulped. "You mean - but he knows we're trying not to hurt her!"

"Sorcerers are rather like black belts." Fangs glistened in a wry grin. "Hit them too hard, and good intentions go straight over the cataracts."

Ryou winced. //And Seth is having a very bad day....//

"Horus, lend them your speed!" Emerald shadows danced around Seto, rising in jade flames as he flung a hand up to the dragon-filled heavens. "Dive, and smite it from the very sky!"

"Down!" Bakura yanked Mai roofward once more, gripping concrete as three Blue Eyes body-slammed the diamond dragon into the middle of the helicopter pad.

"Ow...." Mai groaned.

//Ow,// Ryou agreed, feeling the bone-jarring jolt of scaled muscle all the way into his soul room. //That's not Seto.//

"Sometimes I hate being right." Bakura chafed warmth back into Mai's arms. "Lean on me, woman. I'm not facing that maniac of a high priest on my own-"

Concrete cracked. A Fissure split the rooftop in a cloud of choking dust, swallowing his Knight whole.

Flat on the roof, Bakura could only stare. "That girl is starting to annoy me."

~*~*~*~*~
Snap. Crunch. Snarl.

"Aieee!"

Jim growled something in Quechua under his breath; Blair would have laid odds on it being rude, crude, and physically improbable. "Okay. We can't shoot the damn thing. What else can we do?"

"Attacking is only part of the game," Solomon informed them. "A Duelist can defend, set traps, activate magic...."

"Save we've no Duelist here," Megan pointed out.

"But we could set a trap," Blair said absently.

Four gazes skewered him.

"What?" the anthropologist said defensively. "Magic's magic, but a trap can be anything-"

Joel grinned. "Hell, yeah!" He slapped Jim on the shoulder. "You guys figure out how to yank Montgomery out of there. I'm going to get some stuff from the car."

"Stuff, as in?" Megan said under her breath.

Blair traded a grin with his partner. "Oh, yeah."