As promised, here is the first chapter to be revamped… I hope you guys enjoy it. A lot of things here will be the same, and some things will be…not so much. Though this can't be in complete compliance with canon, I fear, because my computer blocks Jenniyah's… EVIL COMPUTER! DIIIIEEEEEEE!

Anyway, this will be the only author's note for the duration of the story, unless I need to say something important… Review replies will be implemented, though. I like them…

Don't own YGO! Ha. Ha. HAHAHAHAHA—what am I laughing about? O.o;;

Thanks to Unrealistic for the suggestion; I believe she was the only person to offer anything…

This is going to stink, isn't it? (posts)

********

Kaiba really didn't enjoy school all that much. There were various reasons for this, some of which had to with the cafeteria… But out of everything he disliked, one thing stood out like a sore thumb:

Computer class.

Yes, it would seem that he would enjoy computer class. And he might have, if the teacher had realized that the CEO of a gaming company might understand computers a little bit better than the rest of the class. Or if the teacher had actually shown some disciplining skills.

But as he had neither…

"Take two steps forward," sang something on someone's computer. Kaiba blinked, and looked. It was Téa's computer, upon which she was moving several…wiggling…hamsters? I can't believe this… (Everybody: hamster dance!) Kaiba's eyes flickered desperately over to the computer teacher. Maybe once, just this once, he might enforce a rule… The teacher was humming the song. Never mind, then… A color flickered across his own screen. He blinked at it, then ignored it as a glitch, and went back to his Flash animation—which was what they were actually supposed to be working on in the first place.

There was a silence (except for the hamsters and typing) in which everyone worked on their respective projects. Then the teacher said, staring at the screen…

"Mister Kaiba, are you aware of the problems your monitor is having?"

"Yes…"

In a fit of concern for student safety, the teacher ordered Kaiba to turn his computer off. Annoyed, the teen quickly saved his animation, and went to "Start". That was about as far as he got before the screen suddenly went black.

I guess it crashed… thought Kaiba, tapping it. He was supposed to be tapping, at least. His fingers ended up going through the screen—and stuck there. Or perhaps they did more than stick…

The hand had disappeared by now. And his arm was going fast.

There was general pandemonium in the rest of the classroom, and a few people ran up to pull him out. (He noted dryly that the teacher was not amongst them. Figured…) They were the people he would expect to do that—Yugi, Téa, Joey, and someone else he didn't know very well; Yugi's friend Ryou Bakura.

Amidst the pulling and the digging in of heels and the grunting, something happened. The vanished hand abruptly felt leaves beneath its fingers. And then he was completely sucked in…and the other four with him.

********

Mokuba turned on the TV, feeling bored. His school had let out early, but Seto wasn't home yet… He decided to watch the news. A man, wearing a blue suit, was on. His face was attempting to look concerned but was plainly saying oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy-I-have-the-scoop-of-the-century-oh-boy-oh-boy-oh-boy…

"Right now, at Domino High, a great tragedy has occurred…"

"Domino High?"

"Seto Kaiba, when engaged in computer class—"

"Seto??"

"—was mysteriously sucked down a black hole—"

"BLACK HOLE???"

"—on his monitor. Scientists have been contacted, however, any attempts to test this hole have led to the instruments disappearing. Along with Seto Kaiba, students Téa Gardner, Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, and Ryou Bakura. More to come as this develops…"

Mokuba stared in shock. What on earth…? Could it be the Big Five again? Pegasus? Noa? Marik? Amelda? Dartz? He ran through his list of People Who Have Threatened Seto. None of them seemed very probable…

There was only one solution. He'd have to find the computer, and go down it himself.

********

Téa pushed herself from a large amount of sand, spitting some out from her mouth, then looked around her. There were…buildings. And a few people who were staring at her as if she had just fallen from the sky. Joey was also just getting up, when a beaker fell the air just above him and hit his head.

"Ow!"

A funnel.

"Ow!"

A spoon.

"Ow!"

A tuning fork.

"Ow!"

A broom.

"O—AH!"

(Meanwhile, the Domino Scientific Reasearch Committee and the Domino Society for the Study of the Paranormal debated whether or not shoving the janitor's favorite broom into the monitor was a very wise move, after all. The janitor was looking for a broom to hit them with. However, this is of little importance except to explain the falling objects.)

They walked quickly away from the still-falling items, before anything sharp fell on Joey's head. Or poisonous. Or acidic. Téa, smiling, tapped a man on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir, but we're lost. Could you tell us the way to Domino High?"

The man stared at her as if she were babbling nonsense words, then set off into a high indignant stream of words that sounded completely unfamiliar, then shouted something that Téa was glad she couldn't understand, and ran off.

"…That was pointless," said Joey.

"Shaddup."

"Well it was…"

"And I suppose you could do better?"

"Sure!" said Joey. He walked up to the first girl he saw, and flashed the Award Winning Joey Wheeler Smile™. "Hey, Ms. Beautiful, wanna help me, the greatest guy on earth—"

("That'll be the day," muttered Téa behind him.)

"—(shut up, Téa) the best thing since sliced bread—or pizza—or those things in olives—and jelly doughnuts—get home, and maybe I'll add you to my—"

The girl, apparently getting his message, promptly slapped him in the face and started screeching in a high, shrill voice. Joey grinned at Téa.

"I think she fell for me."

"…Oh please…"

"C'mon Téa! Different cultures, different expressions. I mean, just listen to her!" cried Joey victoriously.

"I'm listening. Are you looking?"

"Eh?" Joey turned as he noticed the long shadow in front him. What was apparently the girl's father was pounding one heavy, tanned fist roughly the size of Joey's head into the other hand.

"…Eeeeeeeeeep…"

"Different cultures, different expressions, Joey!" sang Téa with a grin.

"You're right Téa, you're right for the rest of your life, just plleeeeeease save MEEEE!"

"Okay…I suppose I could help…"

********

Kaiba had fallen on a potted plant. After extricating himself from his head-first position in the urn, he had a few choice words to say:

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Stupid plant. I'll sue. Ow."

Getting up, he looked around. He was in a palace, by a now-destroyed plant, in a hallway, which contained identical plants. A fat man came running up to him, puffing,

"Pharaoh! Falling into potted plants! You're destroying palace property! (Although it is your property…but…) Shame…"

"……………Pharaoh? Yugi's going to get a kick out of this. And, you know, there are no pharaohs any more. They're gone. After Cleopatra died and Rome took over…"

"Cleopatra? Rome? What are you talking—"

"Look," interrupted Kaiba. "I don't know why I was sucked through a computer screen to talk to a fat, short mental patient who keeps calling me 'pharaoh', but I don't—wha?"

Set, who had just entered the hallway, took a few steps backward and walked into another potted plant. Kaiba moved to step in front of his own plant. The fat man was now overwhelmed by the destruction of palace property.

"Two pharaohs? Two destroyed plants? This was not in the yearly budget… Oh dear…"

Set started to finger the Millennium Rod. "Ten seconds to tell me why you are here before I have you dragged outside and branded for destroying my personal property."

"It's a plant," stated Kaiba flatly. His eyes flickered over to Set's plant. "Yeah."

The fat man had now passed out, thereby destroying another plant, after hyperventilating for the duration of the conversation. Which wasn't all that long…

"You lose plants quickly, don't you?" Not waiting for an answer, the CEO turned to go. "This was pointless."

"HEY! GET BACK HERE! YOU HAVE…plants to answer for? Wait a second…"

Kaiba strode down the hallways, acting completely careless. Everyone thought he was Set, so no one was attacking him. All he had to do was walk out the door, rent a plane, fly to Domino, and sue everyone. He was thinking about this when he ran into someone, right at the gates.

A rather pale woman looked down at him as he got to his feet, and suddenly smiled. "Lord Set…"

"Eh?" said Kaiba. Set must be that idiot I left in the hallway…

"Lord Set…" she said again. "You…the Dragon—"

"Look. I'm not Set. He's in a hallway, mourning plants. All right?"

Her smile flickered. "Tell him…" She slowly started to dissolve. "Tell—"

Kaiba reached out, half in alarm, half hoping this was the solution to returning to Domino High and the strange computer. She was no longer solid, and his hand went straight through her, and as she faded, the air that had once contained her was icily cold.

One hand reached out to almost touch him, though the fading fingers did not really connect. "Promise me…"

Then she was gone. Kaiba stood in the gateway, with the sun nearly baking him, and inwardly felt very, very cold. The woman couldn't have been real. Just a heat mirage. Or cafeteria food…

But I ran into her… She knocked me over. How the?

Oh well. This is just one giant asylum, anyway…

He ran out the gateway and into the city. And he stood still, realizing this was not modern day anything. Or a movie set. This was…

Ancient Egypt?

"Egypt!" said a tanned, strangely dressed Yami. He turned to Yugi. "Egypt!"

Since when, thought Kaiba, does he have a tan? Or his own body, for that matter… And when did I start believing in his existence in the first place?

"Yes, I know. It's Egypt," Yugi said flatly. It was apparent they had been over this several times. "And you're happy. People are staring, you know…"

"Why not? I am the Pharaoh! …Hey, why aren't they bowing?"

"Um—hey, look! Kaiba!" said Yugi, happily changing the subject. Kaiba groaned. Stuck in Egypt, with a euphoric Pharaoh and a short naïve kid. (Albeit a kid his own age.) At least, say, Joey wasn't here. Then this would just be—

"All right, Téa," floated a voice with a Brooklyn accent. "I won't argue with you again. Promise. Now tell me if that gorilla found us!"

"He didn't."

"…You mean I just promised to never argue with you for nothing?"

"Yup."

"Nyah… Kaiba?"

"Great. Wheeler."

"Hey, maybe we can sick the gorilla on him…"

"No, Joey."

"Why?"

"EGYPT!"

"Hey, Yugi split. That makes life easier…"

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaase?"

"NO!"

********

There was silence in Kuru Eruna. There always was, for people who could not hear the ghosts. As most couldn't, it was still, except for when the wind blew dust or when the occasional person wandered in, lost from the desert, and ignorant of the spirits which inhabited it. The ghosts usually left such as that alone. They had attacked once, when the murderers came.

But now someone entered Kuru Eruna, saw its ghosts and spoke to them. He had, after all, been one of them. But that was before they were dead. Now that they were spirits, he could not properly be in their number without dying himself. But that would never happen.

His name used to be Bakura; Thief King Bakura. Someone else had taken up that name, however, which meant he was now merely Thief. A name didn't matter greatly, anyway. It did not affect his plans or the actions he would take.

Thief walked through the screams and wailing of the ghosts, down to an underground chamber, to the long slab of stone that lay there, seven niches carefully shaped into their respective Items.

He went and crouched on it; then sat, waiting, and thinking thoughts of revenge. The life he had been leading up to the time he had walked into the village disappeared into the shadows of his mind. It was not until he noticed that his own Millennium Item, the Ring, was not there that his mind thought of anything but death.

.

Someone else was in Kuru Eruna. His name was, as it happens, Bakura. He did not see nor hear the ghosts, but he felt them. The village, despite the sun, was cold. Not physically cold, but…

Bakura shivered violently. The Millennium Ring twitched and the gold that dangled off of it pointed every which way, flashing and spinning and going wild. He fingered it, listening for the presence of his other self.

No one spoke to him; nothing stirred within the Ring. There was just the empty village, the dust, the burning, relentless sun…and the cold that racked his body at random.

"Hallo?" he called, tentatively.

Hallo? Hallo? Hallo… called back his echo.

"Is there anyone? …Anyone at all?"

…At all, at all, at all…

Bakura sat, silent, picking up an old knife from the ground, the hilt gone and the blade near-gone with rust. It left a stain on the ground, a blood-colored stain that made it seem like the earth was bleeding.

It grew colder and colder. Kuru Eruna was furious at his intrusion, and it was telling him. The knife dropped from Bakura's numb fingers to leave red streaks on the ground.

"Perhaps I should leave…"

…Leave…leave…leave… said the echoes, weaker and slower, now. Bakura sighed, turning on his heel to walk away from the town, through the desert, to the next, and hope there was something that was alive.

"Leaving Ghost Town so soon?" asked a harsh voice behind him. Bakura did not turn around; he was apprehensive of what he might see. Instead he fastened his eyes on the red earth, and murmured,

"So that's the name of the town…"

"No," answered the voice. "But it is Ghost Town. Nothing lives here; they only exist."

Bakura nervously began to walk away, but a hand stopped him. "You cannot leave like that," said the harsh voice. "You have something of mine…"

Now he had to turn, and he looked behind him to see the disappeared other half, possessed by insanity and staring at the Ring with hungry, twitching eyes, the scar over his right eye twisting as his face convulsed and quivered.

Just for a moment, the cloud lifted off his face, and he stared at Bakura for a moment with a quizzical look.

"Ryou?"

Then he collapsed.