Alrighty then! Brownies go to Hikage Kitsune, ShadowFire2, and hobbit13. Thank you very much for not giving up on this story, even with all my extreme laziness. ;) Believe me, if this continues into next school year, updates will be even more random… I'm planning to take two AP classes next year. AP classes are evil. Then why am I taking them, you ask? Because I'm strange (sweatdrops). Well, it's summer, so expect more writing… or at least, that's what you'd think. I might work on this more, but I also have a couple new fic ideas that I also want to write…

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is an awesome anime, one of my favorites. The person who owns it is undoubtedly incredibly rich by now. One, that person's name is Kazuki Takahashi, which is not my name. Two, I am not incredibly rich, which means I don't own YGO and probably never will. Oh yes, and someone else is mentioned in here… the rights to him and his movie belong to Disney, unfortunately. You'll know him when you see him.

Egyptian Shadow Destinies: Chapter Eleven

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Sometimes Kaiba wondered just how evil Seth could get. Just when he thought he had the priest all figured out, Seth would go and do something crazy and unexpected, forcing Kaiba to completely change his opinion. And most of the time, said crazy and unexpected act worked, which confused the poor boy to no end, who could never understand how anything could work without proper logic, application of skills, and use of the right scientific principles. But then again, magic was not considered to exist scientifically, nor were the monsters that he'd gotten so used to seeing in their real flesh-and-blood (or whatever they were made of) forms. And of course, Seth did strange things like that very often, causing Kaiba to never keep the same opinion of the priest for more than ten minutes at a time. And frankly, that was really starting to bother the CEO.

At the moment, though, Seth was more occupied with the two figures flying in from the south than with tormenting his reincarnation. As they flew closer, the grin on the priest's face grew even wider, reminding Kaiba inexorably of the Cheshire Cat. After a few minutes of this, he finally snapped and asked irritably, "And what's gotten you so happy, Seth?"

Seth turned to look at him, the smile not fading in the slightest. "Why, Seto! Have you not been paying attention to our conversation for the last few hours?"

Kaiba's remaining patience disappeared. "Of course I haven't, my dear previous incarnation. I find it so much more interesting to stare at all the pretty colors in the sky then to listen to you talking," he said sarcastically. "What do you think, baka? I want to know what's gotten into you!"

Seth cocked his head innocently. "Well, what do you think?"

"If you ask me, I'd say you're high on something. Probably crack."

Seth shook his head, the grin never leaving, before he turned back to face the two approaching Duel Monsters. "No," he said softly. "No, I'm not on anything. It's just that I'm so close to victory… and they may not know it, but those two are helping me towards that goal."

Seto chose not to answer that question, shaking his head impatiently. The longer he knew Seth, the more he was convinced that the priest was crazy. If this went on for much longer… he decided not to think about that. He would deal with that when the time came. For now, he just had to put up with it… for Mokuba.

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Oblivious to the troubles that were going on outside the castle, the fact that half of Domino City was in ruins, and just how many problems their friends in the real world were having, the six humans, spirits, and rebel Duel Monsters inside the castle were having their little reunion. Since the meeting was on the second dungeon level, Yami and Dark Magician Girl were naturally the first two there. Yugi and Malik showed up soon afterwards, looking unharmed but a little tired from all the excitement.

As soon as he saw his reincarnation, Yami pounced. "Yugi! Are you alright? Did you run into any trouble? I don't suppose you found Ryou…? What are those things you're holding?"

The teenager took a few moments to sort things out before answering. "Yes; no, not really; no, and I don't see him, so I'm guessing you didn't find him either; and these are stuff we picked up from the library."

Yami's brow furrowed in confusion. "The library?"

Malik sighed, flopping down to rest against the wall in exhaustion. "Yes, Pharaoh, you heard him. The library. It's Seth's own personal public library. The librarian was kind enough to let us borrow a few books and scrolls without a card, though he did warn us that there were heavy fines if the stuff was returned even a minute late."

Yami looked even more puzzled, but Dark Magician Girl was grinning. "I guess you met our friend then, did you?"

Yugi groaned as he joined Malik in sitting against the wall. "Yeah. I must say, he has quite an interesting personality."

The monster nodded. "Well, yes, he is a bit odd… but then again, that's why we chose him. He volunteered to spy, since he wanted to take a look at the books anyway, and since he's something of a loner, no one would suspect him much anyway."

Yami looked back and forth between Dark Magician Girl, Yugi, and Malik. "Who are you talking about here?"

Yugi winked at him. "Sorry, Yami, but that's classified information. We wouldn't want to give away the identity of a spy, now would we? If you get caught and tortured, it might leak out. And you never know who might be listening!"

Yami groaned. "Yugi…"

Dark Magician Girl just laughed. "Can I see what he lent you?"

Yugi passed her the pile of stuff he and Malik had brought, and she winced under the weight. "Oof. Geez, did you guys grab the whole library?" She set the stuff on the ground and picked up the first scroll. "Advanced Dueling Techniques, boring… Strategies for the Masters, sounds like a great read… How to Control That One Duel Monster That Never Takes Directions From You – hey, I resent that! Most of the time when we don't listen, there's a reason! Did you guys get anything good?"

Yugi shook his head apologetically. "Sorry, nothing that you might like. We were looking for things that might help us improve for when we fight Seth."

Yami looked interested. "Really? Let's see those…" He picked up one of the books, flipped to a random page, and started reading. After a quick glance at Malik, who was snoring as he leaned his head back against the wall, Yugi sweatdropped, shook his head, and followed Yami's example. A few minutes later, they were both completely absorbed in the ancient texts, while Dark Magician Girl stared down the hallway for signs of anyone approaching.

She didn't have long to wait. About ten minutes after Yugi and Malik had shown up, another pair of footsteps sounded. Tensing up, Dark Magician Girl slipped forward, coming to a stop in the entrance to the hallway. "Who goes there?"

"It's just us, DMG. Geez, calm down. You sound like one of those pompous castle guards." Marik and Gemini Elf walked into sight. Yami and Yugi glanced up from their reading materials and Malik woke up with a start, staring blearily at the new arrivals.

"Hey. So I take it you guys didn't find him either?"

Marik shook his head, taking a seat next to Malik. "Nope." He glanced around at the four already gathered and blinked. "Hey, where're Bakura and Chaos Mage? They should've gotten here before us, since we were one floor below them…"

Yami shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they lost track of time, maybe they got lost… anything could have happened." The other five were left to think about what "anything" could mean.

Yugi was the first to voice their concerns. "I hope they're alright…"

Marik snorted. "Knowing that tomb robber, they're probably more than 'alright.' Maybe they stopped to raid a treasure room along the way or something."

"Yeah… but if they don't show up in the next half-hour, we should go look for them."

Yami hesitated for a moment before he grumbled assent. Malik sent him a sideways glance, grinning. "Look at it this way, Yami: you can say we had to go on a mission to rescue him." Yami smiled slightly at the thought, and the group once again lapsed into silence. Marik picked up one of the scrolls, looked through it for a couple seconds, then set it down again, not interested. Malik stood up, walking to the top of the staircase behind them, and sat on the top step, watching the hallway for anything of interest.

It went on like this for about twenty-five minutes. Yami had long since set down the book and joined Gemini Elf in staring through the second-floor dungeon, waiting for Bakura. Marik had taken to pacing around the limited space they had at the bottom of the stairs. Yugi had kept one of the scrolls open and had taken out his deck and a few spare cards, adjusting it while taking occasional glances at the document. And there was still no sign of the tomb robber.

Four minutes after that, Malik came down the stairs again, staring down the hallway. "Still nothing?" he asked the others, who had by now clustered at the bottom of the staircase. They shook their heads, and he sighed. "Well, I guess that means-"

"Hey guys. Miss me?" A familiar white-haired head popped up from behind a corner, and all of them jumped.

"Bakura?"

"In the flesh," he replied, walking forward, followed by Chaos Mage. "Sorry we're late. We ran into a bit of trouble. Stupid Labyrinth Wall had us walking in circles. And you'll never guess who I picked up near Seth's card-burning room."

"Ow!" Following Chaos Mage was a large red dragon that, despite its size, was still halfway inside its shell. Ryu-Ran blinked at seeing the group gathered before him. "Oh. Hi. Hey kid, I think your friends are here."

"Hm?" The last of the four turned the corner and stopped suddenly, just looking at the six before him. His gaze traveled over the two Duel Monsters to rest on the humans (and spirits) behind them. "Oh. Hello, everyone."

Yugi, Yami, Malik, and Marik just stared at him, dumbstruck, for a few seconds before they reacted. "Ryou!"

The white-haired boy rolled his eyes. "Here we go again…"

As his friends swarmed around him, Ryou caught Bakura's smirk and rolled his eyes. The tomb robber just shrugged, trying his best not to burst out laughing. After answering all the "Ryou!" "Are you okay?" "Did Seth do anything to you?" "What happened?" "Did you find out anything useful?" and various other questions, he managed to separate himself from his overenthusiastic friends. Ryou waved his hands around frantically, trying to get them to calm down.

"I'm fine, I'm fine! I'll explain everything later, when we're out of the Shadow Realm. But do you mind explaining what you're doing here, how you got into Seth's castle, and who your friends are?"

Bakura draped an arm around his reincarnation's shoulders, grinning widely. "Rescuing you, of course. And we got in here using my tomb robber skills, of course." Yami and Marik rolled their eyes.

"Yeah right," Yugi muttered. Going through the introductions quickly, he also explained the whole plan, up to the point about what they had been planning to do after they rescued Ryou. When he finished, Ryou was frowning thoughtfully.

"So you used a distraction, and you're planning to battle Seth here in the Shadow Realm?" They nodded.

"We don't plan on this being our final fight against him, of course," added Bakura. "But it will buy us some time to look around. We're supposed to receive the message on whether our help is needed or not in an hour or two, so we have all that time to explore and see if we can come up with anything else interesting.

"Hm… well, in that case, why don't we take a look at the last dungeon level before we go?" Ryou suggested. "We might even find Mokuba, and we could try to free him… and that would mean that Kaiba would owe us. He might even decide to help us fight Seth, and we could use his help…"

"Yes…" Yami seemed to be distracted, however, and wasn't listening too closely. He was too busy thinking of the prophecy, and a certain line that caught his mind at the moment. 'Hm… I wonder…' "Okay. We'll all go down to the last level and see if we can find anything interesting. It shouldn't take too long, with all of us together, so we'll still have time to make it to the upper levels of the castle and search those too."

With that decided, the ten of them headed to the last basement level, hoping to locate Mokuba or at least find something like the rooms on the other levels. Deciding quickly that it would be easiest and fastest to just search the whole place by themselves, they split up and took ten minutes to go through the whole level. Surprisingly enough, it was less mazelike than the four above it, which only helped to convince them further that this level wasn't used as often as the others, and judging from the number of skeletons lying on the ground, it hadn't been used in a while.

"Geez," Malik grumbled once they had all met up again. "There's… nothing here. No sign of anyone, nothing at all of interest… you'd think Seth wouldn't have wasted his time and money building this last level if there's nothing here."

"Well… there is one thing," Chaos Mage pondered. "The hidden cell, where there're probably holding Mokuba. The thing is, we left the blueprint for the castle back at the sanctuary, so we'll kind of have to guess where exactly it is…"

Ryou glanced at his watch and shrugged. "We have the time. And if it'll possibly help…" He looked at the others and they nodded. "Okay, we'll do it."

"Well then…" Yami led the way to the back of the dungeon, around to the wall where the hidden cell was supposedly located. He stopped right in front of it, looking around cluelessly before turning to the others. "So does anyone remember more about where it should be?"

"Directly across from the stairs," Bakura noted, moving forward so that he was standing next to the Pharaoh. For once, he chose not to insult Yami as he inspected the wall, moving slowly to the right. "There's got to be some clue that'll show us where the cell is…"

The others stared after him for a moment before Marik blinked. "Bakura, we'd like to help and all, but could you please tell us what we're supposed to be looking for?"

Bakura didn't even look at him. "Anything and everything unusual. If you think it could be a hint as to where Mokuba may be hidden, or even if you think it isn't, tell me and I'll check it out."

The humans and spirits sighed before moving over to the other side of the wall, leaving Bakura and his experience to check the left side. The monsters elected to stand guard and watch, deciding that it would be pointless to get in everyone else's way, since it was crowded enough over there as it was. Five minutes of silence passed by before Ryou spoke, causing most everyone to jump.

"Bakura… I think this counts as unusual," he murmured, running his hand over a section of the wall. "This part seems a bit different from the rest of the wall…"

"Really now?" the tomb robber asked, still studying his work. "And why do you think that?"

Yugi moved so that he was standing behind Ryou and frowned. "Actually… I agree. See how most of the stones that were used to build the wall are a bit jagged and rough? This part," he outlined a section of the wall with his hands, "is built of stones that are smoother than the others, for some reason or another. My guess is that they're moved by magic and stacked together somehow, so that when they're piled up, they fit together better."

"Let's see…" Finally interested, Bakura stood up from where he'd been leaning over a protruding piece of wall and walked over to where the two boys were. Peering over their shoulders, he let a triumphant grin break out over his face as he saw what they were looking at. "You know, I think you have something here. Good eyes, you two. Should I consider you thieves-in-training?"

Both teenagers sweatdropped. "Please no…" Yugi muttered so Bakura couldn't hear. Ryou nodded fervent agreement.

Luckily for them, the King of Thieves was too busy inspecting what they had found to hear. "Okay, let's try this…" he muttered, reaching to the side of the section of wall and placing his magic-detector spell on it. It spread over to the part in front of the cell, and Bakura watched it closely. "Okay, there's good news and bad news. The good news, there's no alarm on this section of the wall, so we can pretty much do anything at all we want with it and it won't alert Seth."

"And the bad news?" Marik asked. He, Yami, and Malik had walked over when they noticed the others crowded around what they had found. The monsters were still on wary guard, but they cast interested glances in the mortals' direction every now and then.

Bakura sighed. "The bad news is that it's completely impenetrable, by magic, force, or otherwise. There's a spell on it that's too complex to be dismantled by anyone except the person who created it, who, from the looks of it, wasn't Seth. My guess is that he's long dead. It's keyed into the person's magical signature, but if it detects a hint of anyone else's magic, it won't open. In other words…"

"There's no alarm, but we can't open it," finished Yami. "So what do you think we should do?"

Bakura quirked an eyebrow in his direction. "What, the great Pharaoh's giving up so easily? There's a loophole in everything, but we don't have the time to find it in this spell. So I guess we're stuck with simply communicating with whoever's on the other side. Would you like to do the honors?" Giving Yami a mock-bow, he backed out of the way.

Yami rolled his eyes but said nothing as he stepped forward. Creating what looked like a small tubule in his hand, he stuck the magic between two stones and moved back slightly, watching as the part on their side grew into a funnel. Slowly, they began to hear the sounds on the other side: soft, hiccupping sobs that grew louder the more time had passed.

Yugi was the one who spoke first. "Mokuba?" he asked quietly. "Is that you?"

A small yelp came from the other side, and the sobs stopped abruptly, the person obviously trying to stifle them. "Who's there? And what is that thing?"

"We're friends," Yami explained. "And that's the thing we're using to talk around this wall. It's the same on our side, so this way, we can hear each other."

The voice was silent for a moment. "What makes you think we're friends?"

Malik chuckled wryly. "Easy. We're against Seth, we break into his castle, and find you in his top-security cell. I guess that would make you one of his enemies, so if we're both against him…" he trailed off.

The voice hesitated before speaking again. "I'm Mokuba. Mokuba Kaiba."

The others exchanged excited glances before Marik spoke up, sounding smug. "Well, I guess we were right. Hey, Mokuba, how long have you been in there?"

"I don't know. It's so dark that I kinda lost track of time…"

Bakura shrugged. "S'okay, kid. We don't blame you. So Seth's using you to get at Kaiba?"

"Unfortunately," Mokuba said sadly. "How's my brother doing? What's been going on out there?"

"Well, currently, they're not at home," Yami said dryly. "But knowing Seth, he's probably planning on using Kaiba's influence to help him control the outside world. And speaking of which… I'm sorry, but we won't be able to get you out of there. Seth has top security on this and even we can't break through."

Mokuba sighed deeply. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine for a little longer."

There was a long pause before Yugi spoke. "…Mokuba? How do you feel about how all this is going?"

"What, Seth's plans and Seto's working for him and all?" The boy took a moment to think about that. "I don't like it one bit. I don't want Seto working for that creep, no matter what the reason."

"So what you're saying is…"

"Yeah. Even if Seth kills me, I'd like it better if Seto would forget about his protectiveness towards me for once and work against him. After all, I don't want him to be evil…"

"Then why don't you tell him that?" Ryou asked gently.

"I can't. Seth's always listening, and he'd convince Seto otherwise. I just wish there was some way I could help…"

"It's okay. You've already helped us," Yugi murmured. "We have to go now, but if we find any way of breaking you out of here, we'll come back and get you out, I promise."

"Thanks. I'll take your word on that… but just tell me one thing before you leave. You're the Pharaoh and his friends, aren't you?" the boy asked curiously.

Yami chuckled. "Yes, indeed. We're sorry you had to get dragged into this, Mokuba. We'll be back to help when we find a way."

Though they couldn't see it, Mokuba smiled, the first time he had smiled in a week. "All right. But you have to go do other stuff now, right? Well then, go get 'em!"

"We will, Mokuba. We will," Bakura laughed, right before he cut off the link. He turned to the others, his smile fading. "Come on. We've still got a bit of time before the battle reports come in, so what do you say we check out if Seth has anything else interesting in this castle of his?"

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"Remind me just why we had to crash that car?" Tristan mumbled, distinctly annoyed. "Now we have to walk back!"

"Hey, would you rather have hit Isis?" Joey retorted. "At least this way, no one's dead!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. And remind me just who it was that was driving that car?"

"Let's see you do better when everything's in a panic!"

"Well, I at least would've tried to keep my cool!"

"Next time, you get to drive!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

The two glared at each other before crossing their arms and looking away, huffing angrily. It was at that moment that the remaining non-destroyed TV screens across the city lit up.

"Attention all residents of Domino City: we are entering a state of emergency and ask you to please seek safe refuge in a nearby public building, your house, or any other closed structure which will provide you with possible protection from further monster attacks. We repeat, please seek refuge in a closed structure that will provide protection from these monsters. We also ask you to refrain from panicking-" here Tristan shot Joey a pointed look, which the blond ignored, "-and would like you to lock all doors, windows, and possible entrance. And to conserve electricity for fighting against these monsters-" here both teens rolled their eyes, "-we ask you to please turn off all unnecessary appliances during this time. This is the Domino City Police Force, and we thank you for your consideration." The TV screens blinked off as abruptly as they had turned on, presumably "to conserve electricity."

"How do they figure that saving energy would help them fight the monsters?" Tristan wondered idly. "Considering it's been us fighting them this whole time. What do they expect to do, recharge our batteries or something?"

Joey snorted, possibly in agreement, before a thought struck him. "…Tristan?"

"What?"

"…I don't see any remaining structures standing that could 'serve as possible shelter in the event of another monster attack.' "

Tristan took a look around and figured out that his friend was right. "Great. So what do we do now?"

Joey sent him a sideways grin. "Summon flying monsters, ride them all over the city, and scare everyone out of their wits?"

Tristan sent him a similar smirk. "Hm, there's an idea."

But before either of them could do something they might regret, a police car turned the corner and headed straight towards them. The two teenagers just kept walking, watching as it slowed down considerably until it stopped and pulled up next to them. The guy in the driver's seat rolled down his window and leaned towards them. "Hey, you two!"

Tristan sent him an "I'm so tired of you adults acting like you know better than us about what to do in this situation" look. "What is it now?"

"Didn't you hear the announcement? You're supposed to be inside, taking shelter from the monsters!"

Joey sighed before giving the policeman a glare. "One, in case you haven't noticed, there is no shelter around here. Two, we're the ones who've been fighting the monsters. I doubt you've done much to help, so you're in no position to tell us what to do."

"Is that insubordination, young man?"

"You bet it is!"

"He doesn't mean that," Tristan interjected hurriedly. "I apologize for my friend's behavior. Look, we were out here when the announcement came, so we don't really have anywhere to go. So could we get a ride to someplace?"

The policeman considered that for a moment. "I guess. But where is it that you want to go, exactly?"

The two climbed quickly into the back. "Domino High, if you don't mind, sir," Tristan instructed. "Is the investigation on the dragon – I mean, the source of the explosion – still underway?"

"I believe so," he said slowly. "Do you two know anything about it?"

Joey draped his arms over the back of the passenger seat. "Yeah, but the guys there wouldn't listen to us. But I guess they might now, seeing as there are Duel Monsters popping up left and right now…"

"True," the man said thoughtfully. "But how did you get from the school to way out here?"

Joey and Tristan exchanged glances. "Well, ah, there was a friend of ours who had his driver's license, and his car happened to be at the school," Tristan lied quickly. "Um… he drove us out here, trying to get us to his home, but the car broke down halfway there and we kinda had to walk… except he decided to go home, while we were heading for the school."

"Literally broke down," Joey mumbled under his breath so the policeman couldn't hear. He received a sharp elbow to the ribs for his comment.

They were at the school ten minutes later, and Joey and Tristan viewed the scene before them with pure glee. The somewhat-organized scene that they had left a few hours earlier had erupted into total chaos. A section of the field near the lunch area had been roped off, and upon closer inspection, was home to what was obviously a dragon footprint. Another footprint, about fifty feet in front of it and facing the opposite direction, was also under inspection, along with a long trail that started maybe ten feet away that was the imprint of the tail of Yugi's Blue-Eyes. Some hysterical students had returned to the school, and Joey could barely hear one girl shouting, "It was a dragon, I tell you! A dragon! Two Blue-Eyes White Dragons, right here! That's what did this!" as she gestured to the demolished soccer field, the other students nodding fervent agreement. And best of all, Officer I-Think-You-Boys-Should-Be-Locked-Up was lying forgotten on one of the cafeteria tables, still unconscious.

Trying to stifle laughter, the two teenagers strode over to where the other students were being questioned and Tristan cleared his throat. "I think we have more to add to their story," he said calmly. "Well, what happened was…"

Joey soon grew bored of hearing Tristan's elaborate account of what happened, wandering off to watch the police at their work. "That's where the Blue-Eyes' tail swept," he told one woman, nodding sagely as she stared at him like he was crazy. Moving over to the crater of a soccer field, he viewed it impassively, letting out a soft whistle. "Man. That'll cost the school a fortune in damages," he said casually to the people who were nosing around it. Turning to go bother someone else, he was just in time to notice another police car pulling up and a young man come racing out to talk to the person who seemed to be in charge of the whole operation, a woman who was standing only a few feet away.

"There's a report of another attack," he gasped, and Joey was instantly alert. "It happened in one of the suburbs, a few miles north of here. Apparently, it appeared only about ten minutes ago and now it's wreaking havoc on the city… heading for Domino…"

"What monster?" Joey snapped, pushing past the woman to address the messenger. The policeman blinked, obviously wondering what this teenager thought he was doing, and Joey repeated his question. "What monster is it?"

The man shook himself out of it. "I don't know. The report didn't specify. But…" he hesitated.

"But what?" Joey demanded. "There's no time for this. What is it?"

The man lowered his eyes. "I'm no expert on Duel Monsters, but from the description, I'd say it was a Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon."

"Big and red, two heads, two mouths, and greenish claws?"

"That's it."

Joey nodded sharply. "Got it. We're off, then. Tristan!"

Upon getting no answer, Joey looked over to where his friend was and mushroom-sighed. Tristan was having entirely too much fun describing the incident, complete with hand-gestures and all. Stalking over there, Joey grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged the other boy back to where he'd been before. "Stop imitating Jack Sparrow and get over here! We're needed!"

"Ow ow ow! What is it?"

Joey finally let go of Tristan's shirt and turned to face him. "Another monster, in the suburbs north of here. A Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon."

Tristan's eyes shone in anticipation. "Tougher than anything we've ever faced before?"

Joey grinned. "Oh yes. 2800 attack, almost as strong as a Blue-Eyes."

"Well, count me in!"

"Great." Joey turned back to the policeman who had delivered the message, who was currently giving the two boys strange looks. He spotted the keys in the man's hand and reached out to grab them, racing to the police car. "Hey, can I borrow these? Thanks! I promise to return them later!"

"What – Hey, get back here!"

Tristan was hot on Joey's heels as they reached the car, and he shoved him away from the driver's side door just in time. "You said I got to drive the next time!"

"Fine, fine," Joey grumbled as he tossed the keys to Tristan and vaulted over the hood. "Just don't forget to turn on the lights and sirens!"

And that was how the two of them ended up speeding through the streets of Domino City at 100 mph, police lights on and sirens blaring as they headed towards their next target.

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Seiyaryu yelped loudly as a Whiptail Crow, a little faster than the others, dove past her, clipping one of her wings as it did so. "Hey, that hurt!" She fired a Razor Flare Blast at the monster and kept going, using the adrenaline rush from the raid to fly faster than she ever had before. She spared a quick glance at her companion. "Hey Wing, how're you doing?"

The fairy was breathing a little harder than usual as she replied, "I'm okay, so far, but we can't keep this up for much longer."

"Well, then it's a good thing the battlefield's right up ahead!" Seiyaryu yelled.

"What? Where?" Wingweaver looked ahead just long enough to get pummeled in the side by another monster. "Ow!" It took half a second to blast it into oblivion, and she winced slightly.

Beside her, Seiyaryu chuckled slightly. "That's gonna leave a bruise."

Wingweaver shot her a glare. "Shut up, baka dragon."

"Fine, fine… you could ask nicely, you know."

"Just pay attention!" Wingweaver sighed. "We're almost there."

Seiyaryu glanced up ahead, where the chosen place of battle was about half a mile ahead. "Actually, the first line of defense should be kicking in right… about… now."

"What first line of defense?" The fairy needn't have asked, as it happened right after Seiyaryu had finished speaking. As if on cue, a single Kuriboh popped up and squeaked a greeting to the two monsters in passing. They shot by him quickly, and Wingweaver looked puzzled. "That's your brilliant defense?"

Seiyaryu laughed. "You can slow down now, Wing. It'll take Seth's monsters a while to get past Kuri."

"What?" But Wingweaver slowed down anyway. As idiotic as Seiyaryu was sometimes, she at least knew how to make a plan that worked, but carrying it out was another thing entirely. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw nothing but a single puffball in the path of a bunch of angry, rampaging monsters. "Seiyaryu, that Kuriboh's going to get killed!"

Seiyaryu took a quick glance in that direction herself. "Wait for it… I'd say give it a couple more seconds."

"There are no more seconds to spare!"

It is a well-known fact that, in the canon Yu-Gi-Oh! universe, Seto Kaiba has never been too fond of Kuribohs. Ever since Yugi used his little friends to stop the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attack, and later, that of Obelisk, Kaiba hasn't really liked our favorite fuzzy Duel Monster. And because Seth is Seto Kaiba's previous incarnation, and has had to deal with the same puffballs in the exact same duels, he isn't a Kuriboh-lover either. And so, in my opinion, any and every version of Seto Kaiba in any and every version of the YGO universe that exists hates Kuriboh with a passion. This version of Seth is no exception, which is why the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the mortal enemy of both the Dark Magician and Kuriboh, moved forward and took it upon itself to get rid of this small – well, extremely small, in comparison to itself – obstacle in its path.

Now, Kuribohs aren't exactly the best attack monsters in Duel Monsters, since they self-destruct upon impact. But as defenders… well, following that line of thinking, you can guess what happens next.

"Seiyaryu!" Wingweaver yelled as the White Lightning attack sped towards Kuriboh. It was at that point that Seiyaryu started laughing manically, though no one at that point quite understood why, with the exception of Kuriboh himself. And just as the attack was about to slam into him, the single squeaking furball split into two, and those two split into four… eight… sixteen… thirty-two… okay, enough with the powers of two. But when the attack finally connected with where the single Kuriboh had been floating before, it did almost nothing, except eliminate four of the two hundred fifty-six puffballs that now formed a virtual wall in front of Seth's army.

Needless to say, the Blue-Eyes was not happy. It roared in frustration, the Kuribohs squeaked happily, and Seiyaryu rolled with laughter in midair as they continued flying towards their destination – or at least, she was until Wingweaver bonked her upside the head. She straightened herself quickly, glaring at the fairy. "What was that for?"

"That was for letting me think you'd be dumb enough to send a single Kuriboh against the beginnings of Seth's army and call it your 'first line of defense!' Don't do that again!"

Seiyaryu just looked at her friend innocently. "What, come up with a genius plan?"

Wingweaver rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. "How did you manage to get hold of a Multiply card anyway? And where did you put it?"

Seiyaryu grinned. "I asked Yami if I could borrow it. Once we'd decided on the battlefield, he set it facedown and gave control of when to activate it to me."

One of Wingweaver's eyebrows twitched spasmodically. "Seiyaryu… one second later…"

The dragon laughed nervously. "…Let's not think about that, shall we?"

"DON'T cut it that close AGAIN!"

Seiyaryu recoiled slightly in fear. "Okay, okay, I won't. But still, it worked rather well, don't you think?"

Wingweaver glanced behind them, where a solid wall of Kuribohs was preventing the flying monsters from passing. "Yeah, I'll give you that much," she grumbled. "But it's only temporary. It'll just delay them a bit."

"I know… but we could use that bit of time for some last-minute planning. What do you say, Wing?"

The fairy sighed. "I say we use all the time we can get. We have to come up with a brilliant strategy, or else we'll get slaughtered out there."

"We might get slaughtered even if we do come up with an awesome plan," Seiyaryu muttered, then grinned. "Ah well. All in the fun of being a rebel, right?"

Wingweaver smirked. "Not just any rebel. Seth's rebels. That's gotta count for something."

"Yeah… we need badges. And a theme song. Can't forget a theme song."

Despite the situation, Wingweaver couldn't help but smile. "Later, Seiyaryu. Right now we need to form a plan."

"Oh. Right. A plan." And the two of them descended to the battlefield, Seiyaryu humming the whole way.

As soon as they landed, they walked over to the rock that served as a makeshift table for the battle plan. In the background, a Hinotama Soul hovered, ready to destroy the evidence at any time. Wingweaver took a deep breath before she stopped, studying the map of the terrain. "Okay. What've we got so far?"

And… there you go, the next chapter of ESD (happy smile)! Sorry it's a little later than usual, but it's summer and I decided to work on it… well, I have a bunch of fics I'm working on at the moment, so you can expect the next update about two weeks from now. And if you haven't already told me whether you're okay with Seto/Isis in this story, I still want opinions… oh, and is anyone else going to the Comic Con? Just wondering…

REVIEWS, pleasie! Reviewers will be glomped, loved forever, and will receive Starburst (trademark doesn't belong to me!) from my sugar stash! Flamers will be sent to attempt to burn down Seth's castle! Have fun… it's made of stone…