Chapter 18 - Hands of the Dark

Yugi and Bakura, obviously, had no idea what just happened. Since it was normal routine for Crimson and Kaiba to have something or another going on, whether good or bad, they decided to leave it alone.

"That stupid jerk!" Crimson growled, arms crossed across her chest. She walked faster and caught up to Bakura and Yugi, muttering and blushing.

"Um..." Bakura started. "So..."

"Can you believe it?" Crimson demanded, turning to Yugi and Bakura. They jumped slightly at her loud exclamation. "Kaiba is such a...pervert!" Yugi and Bakura looked at each other. Crimson was mad.

"What makes you think he's a pervert?" Yugi queried.

"Yeah, what makes you think that?" Kaiba asked, smirking as he caught up to the three. Crimson clenched her teeth.

"I have reasons!" Crimson continued to rant about his behavior. Kaiba just looked at her like she was amusing the heck out of him, while Yugi and Bakura covered their ears.

"Watch out, Yasmine, you might make someone deaf."

"Kaiba! If you dare call me Yasmine..." Crimson stopped as she realized the more she talked, the more she would be provoked. Instead, she looked away and tried to concentrate on something else. Unfortunately, the black endless world was nowhere near distracting.

"Anyway...you are such a pain!" Crimson said. Kaiba smirked. Yugi and Bakura blinked. Everything grew quiet again.

Raiya sighed with relief as she leaned back in her black chair. Looking through her Crystal ball, she had seen Crimson's narrow rescue. Of course, she had also seen much after that, but she had no sense of humor unless it came to killing the pathetic fools that had come into her Realm.

"That was close," she mused. "Perhaps those Mortals are more intelligent than I give them credit for. That is very interesting. Still, it is time yet again." Raiya snapped her fingers and servants rushed to her. They had recently experienced her wrath and did not dare to try their mistress.

"What is it you desire?" they asked politely. Raiya looked and them and smiled slightly.

"Well, well," she said in her eerie blend of a voice, "it seems you have learned your manners. You all are lucky the Mortals are smarter than they look." The servants nodded as politely as possible.

"We are sorry. Now, what is next in our plan?"

"Let me see... well, first of all we have lured them to this place with Pegasus. Then, we sent a few monsters to test their skill. Then, we captured two annoying brunettes and a blonde. And...I nearly crushed them all between those two rocks. It seems that they've gone through quite enough. This is the last prank, then, before they face me."

"So...what do you suppose we do?" Raiya thought for a moment, her hand raking through her long black hair.

"We'll give them a big hand for getting this far..." she finally replied, sending her servants an evil grin. They carefully grinned back.

Yugi, Bakura, Crimson, and Kaiba finally caught up to the birds, slowing down their brisk pace to a walk. Bakura finally got through to Crimson and Kaiba, reminding them about the Truce. Now, Crimson was angry with Bakura for mentioning it. Kaiba shrugged and continued giving Crimson that weird smirk that made her blush and go furious at the same time.

"This is starting to get boring again," Yugi complained. That was unlike him... he never complained. The Shadow Realm was getting to him. Crimson glanced at him with raised eyebrows. She knew he didn't complain.

"Are you...okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he insisted. "It's just... we've been here for who knows how long. I'm starting to lose hope we'll ever rescue Téa, Joey, Téa, Tristan, Mokuba, or Téa."

"You said Téa three times, Yugi."

"Oh did I? Anyway, it feels so empty without them. We're down to half our group and resorting to following birds." Crimson nodded, though she was a bit worried.

Yugi has a Millennium Item... and yet, the Shadow Realm has started to bug him. If that is the case, what about Kaiba? He doesn't have any Item. As much as I hate to admit it, I really do like him and I would be devastated if anything happened to him.

"Crimson," Bakura whispered. "There's something wrong with Yugi."

"I know."

"He never complains, and he never loses hope. He's always our encourager...with the Heart of the Cards and all. What's wrong with him? And lately... I've been feeling a bit depressed and confused myself. At certain times, I felt like giving up and dying if there was a way to just do that." Crimson bit her lip.

"This could be Raiya's tricks. We can't give up hope, though. We have to help our friends."

"Has Kaiba felt this?"

"I'm not sure..." Crimson trailed off and looked over at Kaiba. His shoulders were slumped and he looked as if the only reason he was walking was because he was too tired to stop his feet. Crimson herself felt like there was no point to life. She felt like she had the first time she looked at her surroundings in Duelist Kingdom. The world was so big and she was so small...

Snap out of it! There could be danger at any time! You have to keep your attention span up! The Shadow Realm is draining your energy. Crimson went over to Kaiba and put an arm around his waist.

"Come on! Kaiba!" He turned and gave her a death glare. Crimson immediately removed her arm. "Will you act normal? Oh...wait...death glares are normal. I mean... like... annoy me!" He shrugged.

"Whatever..." Crimson raised her eyebrows. Right...this isn't working. We need something to boost our energy. Come on Raiya! If you really want to face us, give us another challenge. As if Raiya had heard her thoughts, the ground started shaking violently. Kaiba, Bakura, and Yugi immediately perked up.

"What's going on?" Yugi asked.

"I don't know!" Crimson replied before falling to her knees. The others tried to keep their balance.

"This is...really...interesting," Bakura remarked. "I wonder what...whoa!" Bakura jumped out of the way as the ground under him exploded, a tree rising up where Bakura had just stood. Around them, similar trees flew up from the ground and reached up for the sky. The trembling stopped.

"This..." Crimson said, "...is strange." She looked around at the trees that seemed to box them in a little clearing of grass. The trees were so thick and so tall that no way out was visible.

"Is it another one of Raiya's tricks?" Kaiba asked.

"Anything could be Raiya's trick," Crimson answered. "Now... something is going to happen. We have to be ready for it." Just then, something moved under their feet. A tree stump emerged from the ground. Four swords materialized on top of it.

"Right..." Bakura said.

"Those are pretty swords..." Crimson commented. The other three gathered around the stump.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Crimson bit her lip and judged the swords. A trail breeze blew across the area, making the grass seem like a sea of green waves. The sky had turned to a dark blue, though only a small portion of it was visible from below the tree. Crimson slipped a strand of her loose hair behind her ear. It was a very eerie feeling inside her head at the moment.

"Do you guys feel like something...strange is going to happen?" she asked.

"I sense something," Yugi said. "A Dark energy. It's different from the rest of the Shadow Realm." Suddenly, birds from the trees began to chirp furiously. A flapping of wings signaled that they had begun departure. Crimson, startled, clung to Kaiba's shirt.

"Let...go..."

"Sorry Mr. I'm-not-afraid-of-anything..." A rustling from the trees made her yelp and cling harder.

"Let...go!"

"Shut up-,"

"Truce!" Bakura reminded. "You have a truce." Crimson let go of Kaiba with an exasperated sigh.

"I'm not afraid!" she declared.

"You know..." Yugi interrupted. "Maybe we should take the swords to protect ourselves..."

"I don't know... maybe we shouldn't touch them..." Bakura warned.

"We have to try it," Crimson reasoned. "We can't get out of here, and these swords have to be here for a reason." Without waiting for anyone's consent, she reached over and picked the silver sword decked with rubies. She fingered it in her hand. It was lightweight and pretty small.

"Nothing happened." Kaiba also picked up a sword. It was blue decorated in silver ornate designs. It was longer than Crimson's. Again, nothing happened. Bakura chose his sword, one that was half black and half white, with pearls attached to the boundary of the two colors. The three stared at Yugi and the last sword, purple and plain.

"Well..." Yugi sighed. "I guess there's no harm to..." Yugi picked up his sword and exchanged it between both hands. "It's rather heavy..." Crimson's yelp and a clash of the sword stopped him. They turned to stare at her... or rather at her sword.

"It's glowing!" Bakura observed. Crimson carefully picked up the sword from the ground, glancing questioningly at the glowing green aura. Kaiba's sword emitted the same glow, as did Yugi's and Bakura's.

"Um... what now?" Before anyone could answer Crimson's question, the ground shook violently. From the trees appeared four pairs of black-gloved hands, each twice as big as bears. Each pair faced one of the gang, cracking knuckles.

"I least expected this..." Yugi admitted. The four pairs of hands, without further warning, shot straight at the four. They ducked just in time. The eight hands crashed into the stump, sending wood pieces flying everywhere. One pair recovered quickly, flying at Kaiba. Scrambling to his feet, he slashed at it with his sword. He repeated his move again and again. Crimson ran to an open spot. Holding the sword above her head with both hands, she eyed the approaching pair of hands.

What is Raiya thinking! None of us have really fought with swords before. The pair of hands walked on its fingers toward her. If this situation hadn't been in the Shadow Realm, Crimson would have laughed. Instead, she stared at it determinedly, tightening her grip on the sword. The hands lunged forward, and Crimson released her wrath.

Meanwhile, Yugi and Bakura were standing back to back, fighting pairs of hands that came from opposite directions. Yugi was having a difficult time, trying to make his heavy sword hit the hands. They merely shook a finger at him every time he missed. Bakura, however, was exactly the opposite. He was an expert at the sword. The hands he was battling seemed a bit tired at this time. It's a good thing I took fencing classes. He took one more swipe at the hand, sending it flying back at the trees. They retreated back into the darkness, having been cut up and all.

Bakura turned his attention back on the other hands. Crimson was doing pretty well with hers, making up sword moves that didn't really exist. Yugi was doing his best, though anyone could see he was incapable of wielding his sword without using both hands and all his strength. Kaiba...was in trouble.

Kaiba was battling one hand with his own fists while the other hand tried to shake out the sword that was stabbed through its palm. The other hand grabbed Kaiba and he tried to beat it down with his fists. Pitiful, it didn't work. Bakura knew he had to help. He ran forward and rammed his sword into the wrist of the hand holding Kaiba. It let go of him immediately, but swung around. The sword was thrown out and Bakura went with it.

"Help!" Kaiba turned to see Crimson thrown backward against a tree, her sword clanging to the ground. One of the hands took the sword, preparing to launch it at Crimson.

"No!" Kaiba took wrenched his sword from the withering hand and hurried to Crimson. Unknown to him, the hand followed him. Bakura saw.

"Watch out!" Bakura ran after him. The hand gathered a globe of black energy in its palm. Bakura ran faster. "KAIBA!" Kaiba leaned down next to Crimson, sword ready to fend off the two hands in front of him. At the sound of his name, he turned just as the hand launched the globe of black energy.

Before Kaiba could even think of shielding himself, Bakura jumped between the attack. The energy melted his sword instantly and wrapped around him. In a flash, his image broke into a million pieces and melted into the ground.

"BAKURA!"