I am updating! See - this is me, updating!!!!! I'm not dead!!!! And I'm really sorry for making you wait so long. I had no idea there were people following my fic so avidly! Awww.. I feel appreciated. =^-^= ..please don't stalk me.

Oh yes.. I have seen new episodes! Yay!! And I have come to the conclusion that dubbing is evil. Also I have realised that my plot has several holes in it. God-card sized holes. Oh well, I'll just call it AU.

Alright, I'll shut up now and (finally) let u read.

Chapter 12

Yami opened his eyes and peered into the darkness. The others were still sleeping. Nearby he could see the small form of his young former host, sleeping quietly with both hands placed protectively on the puzzle. Yami pushed against the stone with his forearms and sat up, blinking until his eyes grew used to the feeble light from the torch. The aches and pains caused by several hours on a stone floor were strangely welcome - they made him realise just how long it had been since he was anything more than a spirit. They had been lucky that the wall had only separated them, and not something worse..

Yami looked over at Yugi again. He still remembered Yugi's mental cry of fear when he had touched the wall, the disorientated terror when they had been ripped apart. And what he had felt then.. a part of him didn't want to admit it, but he had been scared for Yugi. A discomforting thought struck. Sooner or later whoever was behind this would come for the puzzle, with the power of all the other millennium items behind them. Yami's eyes narrowed in thought. He could ask for the puzzle, and he knew that Yugi would give it to him without hesitation.. that in itself was dangerous. But the fates had chosen Yugi to bear the puzzle - should he take it away? He shook his head in frustration. This was just like a game, trying to guess an opponent's next move. Only the opponent was unknown, and the game had no rules.

He looked up from his contemplations suddenly as someone moved in the darkness. Seto Kaiba sat up, and grimaced at his own aches until he saw Yami watching. He glared, and got to his feet. Figuring that it was now time to keep going, Yami turned and shook those nearest to him awake.

'Oh, man... I feel like I got hit by a car or something..' groaned Joey, stretching.

Kaiba muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'We should be so lucky', but no one was in the mood to pursue it so the comment dropped.

Yami gently blew on the weakened flame of the torch, and it surged upward in the new oxygen. He looked grimly at the remaining fodder for their only source of light, and hoped that it would hold out. Trying to get out here would be an even more daunting process in pitch darkness. Deciding not to say anything, he led the sore and hungry group onwards.

It wasn't far before Tristan voiced what had been preying on all of their minds.

'Guys... I hate to say this, but what if there _isn't_ another way out. We could just wander around in here until - '

'Look, shut up, okay?' Tea turned on Tristan with surprising ferocity. 'We are going to remain positive; we are going to stick together, and we _are_ going to find a way out. I don't care what you think; we are all going to be okay. Okay?'

She glared at him, daring him to suggest otherwise. Tristan swallowed nervously and backed away.

'Sure.. 'Course we are. Forget about what I was going to say.'

Done with Tristan, Tea turned and glared determinedly at the rest of the group. 'I don't want to hear anymore talk like that - we have to stay positive that we are going to make it out of here. Do I make myself clear?'

They nodded, eager to appease this sudden onslaught. It was unfortunate, really, that the torch picked this time to finally fade into faintly glowing embers and leave them all in darkness. There is no darkness like the darkness underground - closing your eyes makes no difference to it, it is practically tangible. There was silence for a moment.

'Oh, dear..'

'I'm too young to die!'

'It's okay. we're gonna be all right.. it's okay..'

'Everyone just SHUT-UP!!'

Tea's voice cut through the noise like a siren. When the murmurings ceased, she spoke calmly and firmly. Her voice was controlled, but she was privately glad that the others couldn't see her face.

'The main thing is to not panic. If we just stay together, we can still make it out of here. It's just. darker. than before, that's all.'

'Tea?' Joey's voice floated out from the blanket of blackness.

'Yeah?'

'If I could see where you were, I'd kick you. We could walk into a trap around the next turn and never know it! How are we meant to stick together if we can't even see each other?!'

Kaiba interrupted.

'We have to join hands, and keep going. Whatever happens, don't let go and we won't lose each other.'

This seemed perfectly sensible, but - perhaps only because Kaiba suggested it - Joey had to object. 'Hey, no way I'm holding hands with you, dude.'

There was a pause, and although there was no way anyone could actually _see_ Kaiba's expression, they could all take a pretty good guess. When he spoke again, there were the tones of anger tightly reigned in his voice.

'I'm not doing this out of _preference_, you idiot. If you want to get lost in the darkness forever, that's fine with me, but I strongly suggest that you just shut up and do it.'

Just then, Bakura's voice called out from further up the path.

'Guys.. come here! There's something you've gotta see!'

They were running in the direction of the voice, when there was a muffled 'thud' and suddenly they all found themselves running into a body in front.

'Oh.. and watch out for the turns in the path!' came the drifting warning.

'A bit late, Bakura!' called out Tea. 'Who was that, anyway?'

'Me,' grunted Tristan in the darkness. 'He could have mentioned that five seconds ago and saved my nose.'

They proceeded with a little less haste after that, but stopped in surprise when up ahead a pale stream of light was visible from around the next turn. Then Bakura looked around the corner.

'Come and see,' he smiled. 'You won't believe it.'

Sure enough, the light was streaming from a large, well-lit room. It was all made of stone, with the floor divided into a grid of paving stones and undecorated walls stretching up to a high ceiling. At the far end - a good fifty metres away - was another door.

Tea gasped. 'This is amazing..,' she breathed. 'And just in time, too. We were only in the dark for a few minutes and I was already beginning to forget what it was like to see. This is a sight for sore eyes!'

'But how did you get so far ahead?' questioned Yami.

Bakura looked a little sheepish. 'Well... when the torch went out I started feeling along the wall for a torch or something - maybe one of those little storage holes that are sometimes there. And then I saw the light up ahead...' he trailed off.

This discovery had put Joey in high spirits. 'Let's go!' he yelled enthusiastically. 'We've gotta be close to the way out now!'

Kaiba did not share his sentiments. 'I don't like this,' he stated suspiciously. 'Something's not right in this room..'

Joey looked at him incredulously. 'Ya gotta be kidding me! We shouldn't keep going because you don't like the decorating?!'

Tea looked around again, and then realisation hit.

'Guys..' she asked cautiously. 'There's light in here, but.. where's it coming from? There are no torches or skylights or anything... just rock.'

'It's magic,' explained Yami. 'And since the illumination spell has been activated, someone has been through here recently.'

'The spirit of the ring,' Bakura said quietly, eyes downcast and unreadable.

'Well, that's great and all,' Joey persisted, 'so let's get going!' He stepped out onto the stone grid -

-and kept on stepping as the stones gave way. His other leg buckled beneath him and he span to get a grip on the ledge, hands scrabbling for purchase on the stone. 'Help me!' he cried desperately, and Tristan and Bakura immediately grabbed an arm each and hauled him back up to safety.

Tea looked out over the ledge and into the dark hole. The bottom wasn't even visible.

'That.. is one deep pit.'

Yugi looked at the hole, and then at Joey, who was panting with relief and keeping a very respectable distance from the edge. Why did this seem so.. familiar?

Tristan scowled. 'Well, this is just brilliant. How are we supposed to get across now?'

Bakura looked at the door at the far end. 'There _has_ to be a way across. Otherwise how did the spirit of the ring make it?'

Tristan shook his head. 'Just because he made it, doesn't mean we can. He's got some creepy magic on his side. I've seen that guy.. well, I thought it was you at the time.. make man-eating bugs appear to wipe out a bunch of guards! One of the scariest things I've ever seen, let me tell you!'

'What?!'

Yami grabbed Tristan by the collar and pulled him towards him - a slightly comical feat considering that Yami was surprisingly short by comparison.

'What did you just say?!'

Tristan squirmed under the Pharaoh's scrutinizing gaze.

'I.. er, just said that there were these... guards, in Pegusus' Castle... and um, Bakura - well, the spirit, I guess... he was acting weird, and he pulled out this man-eating bug card and it kinda.. came to life or something... and - uh - ate them. Yeah.'

Yami stared at Tristan throughout this halting explanation, then finally let go with clear exasperation - but it was at himself.

'I'm such a fool! I should have realised... should have known...'

He turned to Yugi.

'I need your deck and the Millennium puzzle.'

Yugi looked confused, but lifted the puzzle from around his neck and dug his deck out of his pocket. 'What are you going to do?' he asked, but Yami was already flipping through the cards.

'Hmmmm.. nothing _really_ suitable, but this might work.'

He gave the rest of the cards back to Yugi, and held his choice aloft. Suddenly the Millennium puzzle began to glow, as did the card when Yami announced in a booming voice 'Mirror Force!'. The light flared and died, and Yami lowered his arm.

The others looked around. 'Ah.. was that supposed to do something?' asked Joey. Yami gave no answer, but stepped out onto the stones. 'No!' they all yelled -

-but he didn't fall. He wasn't even standing on the stones, but an inch or two above them. Around his feet swirled a kind of rainbow iridescence, as one might see on the surface of a bubble. Yami turned and grinned at their amazement.

'Come on!' he invited. 'It's quite strong.' To prove this he stomped a boot on it a few times, making the gently swirling patterns shift and mix.

One by one they stepped out, marvelling at the mysterious rainbows that appeared around their own feet, and started to walk across the room.

Yugi caught up to Yami. 'This is amazing!' he laughed. 'I thought Mirror Force acted like a shield.'

Yami smiled knowingly. 'It does. And right now it's shielding the floor from our feet. Each step we take is exerting a force on it, which is reflected right back at us, so we don't fall. Sometimes you have to think creatively.' (me: and sometimes you have to pay attention in physics.)

Yugi smiled back. But he couldn't help thinking that if a trap card like this could be summoned to become real, then other.. not-so-friendly cards could be too. Still, for the first time since they had become stuck down here, there was a sense of renewed hope about the group. Whatever happened, they were going to make it out.

Who can guess why Yugi finds this so familiar? Just a little reference I threw in. Well, how was that? Not good enough for the time I took, I know. I had one mama of a writer's block. Sorry for making you rant at me. I'll try to get the next one up a bit sooner.