A/N: Here is one of the most pivotal chapters! Tea has to choose between Yami Bakura and Yami...that would normally be very clear-cut, except the poor girl is hung over and confused. A lot of people have asked me to have her choose Bakura, but it's just not so simple as that...Read on!

Tea closed her eyes shut tightly, trying to force her brain to think. But the only phrase that came to mind was, 'Better the evil spirit you know than the one you don't,' which would have a been a bit more helpful if she wasn't in the exact predicament. Choose between them? How could she?

She didn't want either of them. She wanted to go home, take a few dozen Advil for her headache and go to bed with her cat. She didn't trust Bakura not to hurt her, like he had Ryou – but she didn't trust Yugi – no, Yami, she reminded herself – either, because she hadn't technically known him until five minutes ago!

Ugh, this is insane!

How could she put her faith in either of these spirits? Bakura had purposefully gotten her drunk and brought her back to his apartment...where he had done...God knows what. He disgusted her, laced around her like some suspicious scaly shawl, leaning in to stroke her earlobes kiss her face...She had seen some of Ryou's abuses on his skin – bruises, cuts, from where Bakura had abused him, beaten him into silence. He had tried to possess Mokuba as well, Tristan had said – what was to stop him taking over her too?

And then there was Yami – the spirit who had taken over her best friend's body, who had dwelt among her and her friends in secret, even – she remembered suddenly, as another something clicked into place – trying to force Yugi to murder Kaiba on the ramparts of Pegasus's castle! Was Yugi in there at all? Or was he completely repressed, like Ryou?

"Where's Yugi?" demanded Tea suddenly. "I'll – I'll go with you if you can show him to me. I want to see if he's all right."

Yami closed his eyes and seemed to be concentrating. Tea watched him closely, looking for signs that he was forcing Yugi. Yami opened the mental link and spoke to him.

'Yugi...can you come out?'

There was no answer. Yami looked closer, and found that Yugi was in his soul room...fast asleep. He looked half dead, from how heavy he was sleeping. Yami felt a twinge of guilt as he realized he had kept Yugi up all night searching for Tea. But he needed him to be awake – now!

'Aibou, wake up!'

'Aibou!'

Yami opened his eyes and looked anxiously at Tea.

"He's...sleeping," he finished lamely, knowing how fake that sounded. But was he to do? It was the truth!

"A likely story," hissed Bakura. "He's probably too tired to come out after Yami's being abusing him...Can't wake him..."

"As if Ryou couldn't awake even if you did call to him," said Yami angrily.

Better the evil spirit you know than the one you don't.

"Listen...Yami, or whoever you are – I don't think I can go with you..." began Tea, cautiously. "I'd really just like to go hom – "

Bakura smiled, a twisted smirk that seemed more dangerous than anything he had ever said combined.

"You heard her, Pharaoh," he commanded, holding her closer to him. "She doesn't want to go with you. And we have business to attend to, elsewhere. So we – that is to say, Tea and I – will be taking our leave."

"But I don't want to go with you either!" said Tea angrily. "I just want to go h – " She froze as she felt Bakura's grip tighten. What had been a seductive embrace took the next step up – to a hostile hold. She gasped with the sudden pain that spread through her shoulder blades and throat – he was close to choking her.

"Tea!" shouted Yami. He made to move forward to free her, but Bakura held her tighter and Tea stiffened, breathing shallowly to try and not inflict any more pain on herself.

"One step further and she's mine, Pharaoh," he hissed. He bent and used one hand to reach for the Millennium Ring, hanging it around his neck. He watched Yami quiver with repressed anger and energy. This had started out pleasantly enough, but it was time to end it. He had other business to deal with, and Tea would be a good piece against the Pharaoh.

The Millennium Ring began to glow, and the tines swung wildly as a dark, gaping portal, spinning with purples and bruised reds opened, like the universe was being split apart. Tea shivered with fear as she watched the opening grow wider. The Shadow Realm.

"You can't take her there!" cried Yami urgently. "She's mortal, Bakura, she'll be devoured by the Shadows within minutes!"

"No one said we were going to stay there," he said wryly. "The shadows begin where the daylight ends...Happy hunting, Pharaoh..."

Tea felt as though she was made of ice as Bakura brought her closer to the Shadow Realm, saw Yami's eyes, pleading with her, the intense roar of Nothingness that was the Shadow Realm, and she closed her eyes to not see Yami's face...then all went black and icy cold, like plunging into dark winter water.

Better the evil spirit you know than the one you don't.