For better

'Go back!'

'I shan't! It's not fair on the others!'

'I order you to go back!'

'You can't make me. Not any more.'

'Oh, yes I can!'

'Well, maybe you can, but think about it. The further I am from Xatrina, the further I am from 'powerful positive emotions' or whatever you call it.'

The spirit was silent for a moment, then:

'I must admit that you may be correct, which gives me great displeasure.'

'Good. Perhaps now we can keep going.'

Bakura stepped out of the semi-paralysis the spirit had brought him into, and continued along the ridge of the hill.

The sounds of the city were growing fainter by the moment, and the chill of the oncoming countryside began to break in.

'Wait.'

Bakura rolled his eyes, but stopped.

'There are several millennium items in Domino City that are not in my possession. And then there are the Egyptian God Cards.'

'Oh, here we go again.'

'You must turn back.'

'Certainly not!'

Feeling stronger than ever, Bakura broke out once more and kept going. The webs of frost crackled beneath his snow-drenched sneakers, and he began to shiver.

He couldn't stop now.

Vivian had printed out the pictures.

Xatrina flicked through them.

There was Joey, sneaking up on Mai with a fistful of snow, Duke, Tristan, Joey, Mai, Trina and Yugi in a frenzied snowball fight, the beginning of the construction of the 'snowMai', the group laughing at the finished creation, Téa, Yugi and Serenity making snow angles, Duke acting like an idiot holding two snowballs up in front of his eyes, Téa turning a cartwheel...

Xatrina stopped. She held the next photograph close to her face, so she could see every detail.

It was the one with her and Bakura on the bench.

She smiled sadly. They both looked so happy.

And now he was gone...

She threw the sheets aside, not even glancing at the last two (the group photo and the friends enjoying hot chocolate by the fire), stood up and wandered across to the window, her throat like sandpaper.

'We'll find him, don't you worry, hon.' Mai was sitting on the couch, at the back of the room. 'You really liked him, huh?'

'Yeah.' Said Xatrina, 'And I'm not ashamed at all. Not like you and Joey.'

Mai spluttered.

'Wha'? Joey? That little dork? Well excuse me, if I liked him, I'd have a reason to be ashamed.'

'Oh, come on, Mai!' smiled Trina, 'It's obvious!'

'Maybe to you!' grinned Mai, and they said no more about it, although Xatrina did nudge Mai under the table at lunch time, when Joey offered to go and make her a coffee.

Xatrina, Joey and Mai were the only members of the group still in the mansion. The others were at Kaiba's, attempting to use his duel disk tracking system to find Bakura's disk.

Xatrina was ashamed. She should be out looking for Bakura, not here playing charades with two friends, which was just what they did that afternoon.

'The Incredible Hulk?' Mai was getting incredibly bored with this game,

'Tall? Stupid?'

Joey nodded, thumbs up. Then he made a shape with his hands at the back of his head.

'Stabbed in the head? Hair?' Mai yawned.

'Ponytail?' suggested Trina.

Joey nodded again and held up four fingers.

'Well that's easy.' Shrugged Mai, 'Four.'

Then Joey made a grabbing movement.

'Grab? Steal? Get?' Xatrina was guessing away.

Joey nodded again, then mimed opening something and counting several small things.

'Money?' suggested Mai, 'Purse? Wallet?'

Thumbs up again.

'Ok, so we've got 'Stupid ponytail four get wallet.' Like that makes sense.' Grumbled Mai.

Joey smacked himself on the forehead. 'You guys are so dumb!' he complained.

'I got it!' said Xatrina, 'He means Duke's forgotten his wallet.'

'Yup!' grinned Joey, pulling the leather pouch out of his pocket.

'Well, we'd better take it to him, huh?' said Mai, getting up from her seat and pulling on her purple designer jacket.

'Yeah, any excuse to quit this stupid game!' added Joey, following her out.

'There's no doubt about it – the computer says he's still at home.' Kaiba leant back lazily, a mug of coffee in his hand.

'But we checked there!' persisted Téa, 'Zoom in again. Maybe we can find out where exactly he is in his house.'

'No need.' Kaiba tapped a word into his laptop and sat back. Some text flickered across the screen.

It read Ground floor, extreme bottom left.

Téa peered at the map that was on display on the monitor.

'But that's the sitting room.' Said Téa, 'Trina and I searched there.'

'I remember now.' The others spun round to find Trina standing behind them, 'He left his duel disk. It was on a cushion on the couch, remember?'

'Well, there's that plan down the john.' Sighed Tristan.

'For once, you can say that again,' agreed Duke.

'Has Yami figured how to track down a millennium item yet?' asked Serenity.

'Er...guys?' Joey called from the entrance hall of KaibaCorp's office block, 'Slight problem here!'

Everyone except Kaiba and Mokuba left the room and rushed downstairs.

Joey and Mai stood there, pointing outside.

Yami sat stock still on the sidewalk, attracting nervous glances from passers-by. He was cross-legged and his eyes were tightly closed.

'Can someone tell him to come in here?' said Mai, 'He's an embarrassment to the name of Pharaoh!'

'Yo! Yug, ma man!' Joey strode up to his best buddy, 'I think you better quit that now.'

Yami's eyes snapped open.

'He's cold.' He announced, 'Very cold. He's walking and he doesn't want to stop. I think he's talking to the spirit.'

'Ok, just tell us inside.' Mai looked incredibly embarrassed.

'Fine. That was the only way I could concentrate without being interrupted by you simpletons.' Grumbled Yami.

Once inside, Yami told them exactly where he had sensed Bakura.

'In the hills!' gasped Serenity, 'He's mad! He'll die of hypothermia or something!'

'We gotta find him!' Xatrina had pulled on her coat again, and was already halfway out the door.

'Wait!' Mokuba piped up, 'We agreed to help, so we will. Seto, call out the chopper!'

'Oh, brother.' Grumbled Kaiba, but pressed the silver KaibaCorp symbol on his lapel and muttered a few words into the tiny communicating device.

Minutes later, the great machine landed outside and the group piled in. The propellers whirred and Kaiba snapped a pair of headphones over his ears.

They were on their way.