"Oh my…" Bakura murmured quietly.
"Oh crap." Tanith added wide-eyed. Conniption calmly peered back and forth between the startled guards and the startled teens.
"You're that red haired she-witch!" one of the guards exclaimed. The men behind him brought their spears to arms.
"Tanith, clear a path!" Bakura ordered. With a nod and a wave of her hand, the girl parted the men like the Red Sea and ran through them followed closely by Bakura and her cat.
"Stop!" they yelled behind him as they raced through the passages.
"Hey Bakura, they want us to stop."" Tanith exclaimed as Bakura dashed ahead of her.
He glanced behind them, grabbed his partner's hand and put on more speed then said, "Do they think we're crazy?"
Tanith laughed, "Must be."
Suddenly she gasped and fell back. Bakura pulled on her hand but she continued to slow and weaken. He turned to glance behind him at her and saw her cough up blood.
"Bakura stop!" she gasped and collapsed into his arms face first. His face turned white upon seeing a spear protruding from her back. She turned around and glanced at the ceiling as the guards quickly approached. Immediately, the ceiling caved in front of the men blocking them from reaching the teens.
"That should stop them." Tanith whispered and relaxed in Bakura's arms.
"Come on, let's get out of here." He whispered gathering her up. She shook her head.
"Leave me."
"I'm not leaving you." Bakura told her firmly.
"That cave in won't hold the guards and I'm already--"
He laid her down and placed a finger over her lips, "You're going to get out of here."
Tanith shook her head, "No you and I know that's not true."
Bakura fought the tears that threatened to come, "No! You and I are getting out of here and when we do and you get better, we're going to rob the biggest, richest tomb in Egypt. Then we're going to drink the drunks under the floor."
Tanith laughed quietly, "That sounds like a good plan. But it's not meant to be. Leave me here Bakura, I'll be fine."
He shook his head this time, "The guards--"
"Will what? Kill me? No, I know exactly what they'll do and I'll be fine. Go. I want to know you got out safely."
"But how?"
"Follow my cat." She whispered, "She'll lead you out. I know she will."
Bakura looked down at the cat peering at them just inside the light of the fallen torch and sighed. He gently laid Tanith against the wall, being extra careful of the spear jutting out of her back then he rose to his feet.
"Goodbye Princess."
"Goodbye, my friend."
Then he and the kitten were gone.
She waited for what seemed like dark hours to pass until she moved the rocks aside and allowed the guards to approach her dying body.
"Take me to Master Akunadin." She told them weakly. "Please?"
The guards looked to one another for guidance until one brave man came up to her, broke off the spear inside of her and lifted her up into his arms.
Tanith felt as if the world was slowly blurring and slipping away from her. Her eyes gazed at the dank dungeon and only saw blurred darkness with streaks of white. Time was slipping away.
She closed her eyes for only a moment and when she opened them, she found herself gazing at her Master's sorrowful lavender orbs.
"Tanith." He whispered as a single trail of tears fell down his face. "My poor beautiful child." She smiled and cupped his dry cheek, "Don't be sad master. It was meant to be, I can see that now."
Akunadin took a hold of her hand and placed a tender kiss on it. "You cannot leave me."
Tanith didn't seem to hear him, "The destruction of my home, you and I meeting, Bakura and I meeting and now this. It was all meant to be. Can you not see it too? The gods' plan for us all?"
"What do you see?" he asked.
She gazed up at only something she could see "I can see the end of the pain you bare. I see you and Seto standing side by side. I can see the end of Pharaoh's pain too. He is happy."
Then her gaze became more distant and she laughed.
"You'll get your just deserts." She said before she died and everything went dark.
*********************************************
The present
"Are you sure Rashid?" Isis said into the speakerphone. She still didn't quite understand why Bakura came marching into her office at the museum trailed by Yami, Ryou, Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristan. Something about her brother kidnapping Tanith Rivencroft?
Why would my brother kidnap a girl he swore up and down he hated, Isis asked herself leading to her to call her brother's trusted servant and check up on her wayward sibling.
"Yes, for the past week there has been strange happenings here." Rashid replied. "Odd deliveries and recently pictures and windows rattling for no reason. Master appearing covered in blood not of his own just a few moments ago."
It was confirming everyone's worst fears. Marik was back!
"Did you know Tanith Rivencroft is missing?" Isis inquired as the other people in her office began to fidget. Well Tea was fidgeting, Bakura and Ryou were pacing Yami was plotting Marik's demise—again. Yugi was watching his yami plot while Joey began cracking his knuckles imagining a fight between him and her brother. Tristan just lounged against the wall casually.
"By Ra, he didn't--" Rashid muttered.
"Apparently he did!" Bakura exclaimed angrily. "That psycho used his Millennium Item to get my hitokage alone and now is doing only Ra knows what to her!"
"Bakura." Yami said quietly. The other yami shot him a dirty look but was silent.
Everyone heard Rashid sigh. "I shall go search for where Marik has her."
"No don't do anything yet." Isis told him. "We'll come and confront my brother's yami."
"As you wish." And they both hung up the phone.
"I can't believe Marik's back." Tea announced with a shudder. "I thought after that last fight between Tanith and him he left."
"Apparently he was biding his time." Yugi replied. "Planning, preparing."
"If he's hurt her--" Ryou began shaking with anger. Bakura gave him a strange look as Tea put her arm around him.
"I'm sure she's fine." she told him reassuringly. "Tanith's dealt with Marik and Malik before."
"But she's--" Ryou argued but Bakura cut him off.
"She knows how to defend herself. She's done it before, let's just get over to her before that fruitcake does something to her."
Isis led the way.
A lovely hedge maze led up to the front of the fortress type mansion. Flowers and ivy sprang up along the stone walls and were neatly trimmed at the start of the massive oak doors. Each first story wall showcased a lovely bay window with a view of the distant rose gardens full of deep red blooms.
The windows look like they have bars on them, Ryou thought with a shudder.
"Jesus!" Joey exclaimed as Isis drove her sedan up the drive, revealing the beautiful building. "An' I thought Kaiba's place was big."
Isis smiled faintly, "My brother always was fond of castles and such."
"And motorcycles" she added as an afterthought as she park the vehicle and everyone got out of the car. First came her and Yami followed by Bakura and Yugi. Then came Ryou, Joey, Tea and Tristan.
As they walked up the steps to the front doors, Bakura spied Malik's Harley sitting in the middle of a herb garden at the side. He shook his head and followed everyone inside.
There to greet them was Rashid. He didn't seem worried but he also wasn't exactly his calm I-can-handle-my-master-is-a-possessed-psycho self.
"He's locked himself in his room." The man announced. "And I heard a very distinctive 'And where the heck are you taking me now, ya loopy loony' right before the door was slammed."
Bakura chuckled as Yami announced, "Sounds like Tanith to me."
"She's ever so inventive with her insults." Ryou added.
Meanwhile inside Malik's room, Tanith watched ever so amused as Marik tied her to a chair. She might have done something to him but she was still slightly out of it from the effects of the drug he kept pumping into her every chance he got. Like now after securing her to the chair, he again injected her with the clear liquid inside a syringe.
"You know if you keep doing that I'm going to get a tad dependent on that stuff." She said with a silly grin. "What is that stuff by the way?"
"Thorazine. I put one tablet through a coffee grinder, watered it down and pour it into the syringe to use." He replied watching her face.
She tried her best Bakura glare but her vision was getting a tad fuzzy and she was already getting tired. "I'm not going to ask where you got the stuff. I can guess. Malik see his shrink before you popped back up?"
He slapped her across the face, rocking the chair with the force of the blow. Tanith just laughed.
"You hit like a girl!" she replied secretly wincing. Marik stormed away from her to go retrieve something from his walk in closet.
"Sooo, what are we going to do now?" Tanith asked a moment later. "Play more chess? Sorry, I don't have the Ring anymore."
"I don't want it." Came the prompt reply.
"Okay chess is out. You tied me to a chair so I guess sex is out."
She heard Marik make a choking noise and she snickered.
"I remember what you told me last time we met, so it was only an good assumption of why I'm here, in your room."
"You talk too much." He replied followed by the sound of junk being thrown or shifted around.
Tanith tested her bonds, very tight. "Never been told that one before. Oh well! So what am I doing here Marik? You like me, but you don't want to screw me. But still, I've been stalked, kidnapped, drugged, tied to a chair and you don't want a Millennium Item I no longer possess. What do you want?"
He appeared carrying a box with a devious smile and gently set it under Tanith's seat. Once that was done, he backed away from her and began staring as if appreciating a fine work of art.
"I want a body." Marik told her. She frowned so he continued. "A body like you made for the stupid pharaoh and your yami friend."
"I got news for you; I don't know how I did it. All I remember of the matter was thinking of grabbing everything I could of 'Kura and keeping it together. The next thing I know, poof, Bakura has a body and I get a phone call announcing Yami has one too."
He slapped her, "Don't lie to me. You have Shadow powers."
She growled and shook the slap off, "I don't have Shadow Powers! Even back in Egypt I didn't" she then realized what she let slip out. She winced and swore in the Ancient dialect.
"You have an Ancient Egyptian past as well, hm? What was that past?"
Tanith laughed nervously, "I was some dude named Akunadin's apprentice."
Marik looked shocked and back away from her, "The Dark Priest's apprentice?! By Ra! What spells must be locked inside that head of yours!"
"Uh Marik, I didn't learn any spells. The guy didn't trust me to learn, he just wanted me to teach him how I moved things. And what is with the 'Dark Priest' bit?"
He didn't seem to hear her and continued muttering, "The power of darkness can be mine. All I have to do is.."
The sound of the door being rammed interrupted his thoughts.
"Tanith?! Open the door Ishtar! We know she's in there!"
She laughed, "Bakura! You lucky son of a jackal where've you been?"
On the other side of the door, the tomb robber smirked and joined Yugi, Joey and Tristan in again ramming the door. Yami oversaw the work while Tea nervously fidgeted. Ryou bit his lip trying to decide whether to join the boys in the ramming or remain behind to watch Rashid and Isis who were gearing up for another fight with Malik's yami.
"The door's reinforced oak, you can't get in!" Marik told everyone outside.
"Feels like reinforced steal." Tristan quipped rubbing his shoulder. Bakura shoved everyone aside, and pulled out his deck.
"Oak won't stop my Headless Knight!" he replied summoning the monster into this world and commanded it to break the door down.
Tanith cheered as the door crashed open into pieces and fell into a fit of giggles at the sight of Marik's angry face.
"Hey boys, welcome to the party." She greeted as everyone stepped inside. "I'd greet you properly but, as you can see, I'm a little tied up."
Bakura's glance shifted from his giggling hitokage to the angry yami and demanded, "What have you been using on her?"
Marik smirked and replied with a shrug, "Nothing of consequence."
Yami stepped up then and spoke, "Free Tanith this instant, Marik!"
His enemy merely smiled, "Oh I would, scary as you all are, but you see that box under Tanith? Until she gives into my demands, it will ensure she stays with me."
Bakura and Yami looked puzzled at the mysterious box until Ryou gasped in revelation then began slowly backing up.
"I hate to say this but Marik's right." He barely whispered. About that time, Yugi caught on.
"It's a bomb!" he exclaimed in fear.
Bakura and Yami frowned and didn't quite get why everyone except Isis and Rashid were beginning to edge toward the door with the uttering of three words. Tanith took pity on the confused yami's and explained.
"A bomb is a lovely device that causes things to catch fire real quick, destroy things and make anyone within a range of oh, ten feet, die real fast. Real painfully."
Bakura's face turned red in fury, "You. Set. That. Thing. Under. MY. Hitokage?!"
Marik looked proud, "Why yes I did. Until she gives me a body just like she's done you and the pharaoh, she going to wonder when her last moments are."
Bakura began to laugh along with Tanith. Everyone looked at the yami as if he joined his shadow into madness.
"You kidnapped Tanith, just because you wanted a body. That is so.."
Tanith finished for him, "Mad!"
"Actually I kidnapped Tanith so she could give me a body and then we could make mad love to each other." Marik clarified.
Tanith stopped giggling, "I'd rather make mad love to Bakura or Ryou."
Everyone's eyes slid to the blushing hikari or the smug yami.
"I never knew you felt that way about us." Bakura replied with a smirk. "Makes up for that time I sneaked a peak at you while we were still sharing a body."
"You sneaked a peak at me!?" she shouted fighting against her bonds. "When I get loose I'm gonna throttle you, Thief!"
"Then I won't tell you about that time I caught Ryou doing the exact same thing once when you spent the night with us."
Tanith glared at both of them, "You two are going to pay for this."
Marik went over and put his arm around her, "Don't you just hate being betrayed."
She shifted her glare toward him, "Can it, Ishtar."
Marik shrugged and backed away from her, "Fine, but you are going submit and give me a body."
"No, she's not." Bakura retorted. "The only way she can is if she has a connection to you. Other than being her stalker." He added.
"She and Bakura have a past." Yami told him. "Her and his souls are interconnected."
"Then how did you get a body?" Marik snapped.
"Feedback." Yugi replied. "It must have been left over power from Tanith."
Bakura snickered and cut a look at his nemesis, "Doesn't feel good to know you're just left overs?"
"Bakura!" Ryou scolded and received a cutting glare from his yami that sent him cowering.
"So I'm out of luck on receiving a body." Marik said with a resigned sigh.
"Afraid so." Tanith replied with a chipper smile.
"So if you don't mind we'll be taking Tanith back." Joey told him taking a step toward the girl.
Marik chuckled, "I don't think so." He said pulling a remote from his back pocket and pressed a button on top. From under Tanith's chair, the bomb began to beep.
"Tanith's mine." He said coming up behind and holding her close. "If I can't have her, nobody will."
