Negative Chaos

by High Crystal Guardian

*Sequel to Shadow Turned Light* The Shadow Realm's power is growing too high for the Realm to hold, and now it's magic is overflowing into Yugi's Realm. He tries to stop the magic, but can't...so a few old friends come through from the N. Realm to help...

9. Race Against the Odds

***Note: Many, many, many apologies for the obscene amount of time it took to get this chapter up. What is it now, one, two months? Ugh *cringes* Well, my only excuse is that I was first trying to write it during 6 projects, my Final Exams, and lots of other stressful school-stuff. Then, I had this chapter written up around the end of June, beginning of July--I was about to post it, but my computer deleted the ENTIRE FILE when it froze. So I've had to re-write the whole thing. I went on vacation for two weeks, too, and since I had no computer/laptop that could be dragged around with me, my writing came to a standstill. Plus, writer's block never really helps, does it? Anyway. Many apologies once again for not updating in some time. Here is this chapter; I've tried to write it as best as possible for you guys, and there should be lots of stuff in it to make up for my lack of writing. Sorry, sorry, sorry!***

*We focus on a card table in the center of the room, at which HCG and Yami are sitting. Kawari, Kaeru, Kaze, and Kaiba (gack! So many K's!) are gathered around it, watching the proceedings with interest. A large Mancala board is set up on the table between Yami and HCG, at which they are playing*

Yami: *gleefully gathers all but seven of the little colorful glass beads in one move* Heh heh heh, I win again!

HCG: *sweatdrop* Er...8 out of 15?

Yami: Forget it. Just admit it. I'm the Game King!

HCG: No!

Yami: Fine, but you have to say it in the near future ^_~

HCG: *whine* How'd I loose at one of my favorite games?! I'm GOOD at this one!

Kaeru: *exasperated sigh* Well, it would help if you chose a game that WASN'T created in Ancient Egypt.

HCG: O_O It was created in EGYPT?! No WONDER you won, Yami, you've been playing for 5000 years!

Yami: Erm....no I haven't? o_O;;;;

HCG: *rolls eyes* Okay, people, for the sake of starting the chapter now, I'm going to move the author's replies to the END of this chapter, okay? I want this section to go by fairly quick so we can get to the story itself.

Yami: *laughs* You just want to get to the story so you don't have to admit I'm the Game King!

HCG: *growls* We'll see about your title in a minute! I'm challenging you to a NEW game, MY card game!

Yami: *curious* What's your card game?

HCG: A game that's been around for a while now, I'm sure everybody here knows how to play it...*drags Yami off, grasping his wrist* Come on, we'll go get the deck...heh heh heh...

Kaiba: -_-;; She's gone and abandoned her post again. Not a very good authoress, hmm?

Kawari: *shrugs* Hey, she's gotten a hundred reviews by now, she must be doing something right.

Kaiba: I suppose. Oh well, I'd better do the disclaimer. HCG does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or it's characters. She doesn't own the Seven Elements either; those are Wingleader Sora Jade's, although the Scrolls they are coupled with are HCG's. Finally, all aspects of the Negative Realm, it's theories, and it's characters belong to HCG, and she would appreciate it if you ASKED her before using them.

Kawari: *reads off a clipboard* Also, special thanks to Aibou, Daricio, and Wingleader Sora Jade, who were quite sympathetic to HCG's computer problems and cheered her up. WSJ even gave her a kick in the inspiration with a little song fic....*grumble*

Kaze: *rolls eyes* Not your favorite subject?

Kawari: ¬_¬;; Oh, no, I LOVE reading stories about my mind getting tortured. It's my favorite story in the world.

Kaeru: While we're at it, even if it is a bit late, Wingleader Sora Jade would like to mention we're in her story (which is now finished), Yamis of Tokyo U: Freshman. HCG also apologizes for not mentioning this earlier; she will explain later in your response, WSJ.

Kaiba: If that's all, we'll go on to the final notes. Enjoy the fic!

Notes:

Kawari ~ NR Ryou

Kaeru ~ NR Bakura

Kaze ~ NR Kaiba

Saguru ~ NR Joey

italicized words are thoughts or memories/dreams

'word' ~ character to character, via mind link

Anything else? I think that's all. I would annoy you as usual here, but I think we ALL are urgent to get on to the chapter itself, so....*sigh* Enjoy...I hope....

Negative Chaos

Chapter 9: Race Against the Odds

Silence fell for several minutes as all twelve of the Scroll Hunters read, reread, and pondered the newest verse in front of them. It seemed their toughest Challenge yet; they were having trouble even deciding where to begin, let alone deciphering the verse into an understandable location.

Finally, Joey spoke, frustrated. "It sounds like it's taunting us, not giving a clue, the stupid thing."

"Shut up, Joey," came the reply from at least four people in the group, though with their combined speech, it was difficult to tell exactly who had spoken. Joey gave Kaiba a suspicious glance, but stayed silent soon after.

"Well," Yugi murmured, after several more minutes had passed, "I suppose we should figure out which Element we're talking about first, right?"

More silence. They were all beginning to hate that absence of sound in the air, but it was not as if they could do much about it. However, after several moments, Kaze said softly, "Passion."

Yami cocked his head quizzically. "How so?"

"It says it in one of the lines. 'Passion only will guide you there.' None of the other Scrolls, with their different Elements, could lead us to the Scroll of Passion, so therefore it has to be that Element."

The Pharaoh shrugged. "I guess. That leaves us only with the location of the Scroll. Anyone else have any ideas?"

At first, there was no answer, but after a while Saguru muttered, "Well, the seventh and eighth lines are fairly simple. 'Strong Will and mind will be your key, if you have the wish to discover me.' That's just telling us we have to be determined if we're going to get through this Challenge; it's like a giveaway."

"Yeah, but that's not helping us any," Kawari muttered dryly. "We need location, that's what's important here."

Sighing, the group lapsed into silence once more, unsure of what to look for in the verse. There were no clear-cut answers here, unlike in the last two; it all seemed to be guesswork this time.

Kaiba, however, was not one to give in so easily. His sharp, computer-like mind was already searching for patterns, tossing away unlikely possibilities and keeping close those ideas that did make sense. Finally, after several minutes, he came to a conclusion, speaking it quickly.

"Look at the patterns from the last two Challenges."

Frowning, the rest of the group turned towards him. One of them voiced their question. "What do you mean?"

The CEO sighed and patiently explained. "The last two Challenges took place near some natural area--a mountain, and a field. So we're looking for another natural place, which can certainly narrow down our choices."

"It's worth a shot," Kaeru muttered, tapping his foot as he stood by his hikari.

The group returned to their thoughts, some muttering out loud as they thought, others staying silent, eyes closed as they visualized different areas and tried coupling them to the verse.

Mokuba was muttering the loudest, eyes squeezed shut and tongue stuck out as he thought. " 'Laughter always fills my mind'...'catch me as I run away'...huh, sounds like a stream or something..."

Ryou's eyes shot open, and he glanced at Mokuba in surprise. "Er...say that again?"

Confused, the black-haired boy looked up at the older teen, repeating slowly, "I said I thought it sounded like a stream...."

The True hikari's eyes widened, and a grin abruptly broke over his face. "Mokuba...I think you solved it!"

The others were bringing their attentions to Mokuba and Ryou now, frowns and curious glances dominating their faces. "He solved it? What do you mean?"

Ryou explained quickly. "He said it sounded like a stream. I'd change it to a river, as it's a bigger landmark, and therefore more noticeable."

"But how does it fit the verse?" Yugi asked, still looking slightly confused.

The white-haired teen explained, grinning with the discovery he and Mokuba had made. "Just listen to the verse. 'Laughter always fills my mind.' Haven't you ever noticed that when a river or stream runs over the rocks, it sounds like it's chuckling? And the last line fits, too: 'Catch me as I run away.' Rivers run, see? It's a play on words."

"Okay," Tea nodded, "that makes sense, so we've got most of this verse solved. But what about the last two lines that we haven't figured out? 'hidden safely on unseen perch,' and 'near the Guardian ever-fair.'"

Tristen spoke up for the first time, muttering slowly, as if he was still rather unsure of what he was saying. "I've been thinking over that 'Guardian' line." On seeing the other's attentive looks, he continued on, his voice gathering more strength. "The words that really triggered my thoughts were 'ever-fair.' The word 'fair' makes you think something pretty, and if we couple it to something natural, like Kaiba said, then it reminds you of flowers or trees; to say they're fair gives you the idea they're in full bloom, right?" The others nodded. Tristen continued on once more. "So to say 'ever-fair' seems to indicate that we're looking for a tree or flower that lasts year-round as a mark for where the Scroll is. I don't know about any flowers that survive year-round around here, but trees..." he cut off as he saw the understanding light in both Kaiba's and Kaze's eyes, and allowed one of them to speak.

"A pine tree," Kaze said simply. "They last year round; when all other trees loose their leaves, the pine tree still keeps it's needles. It's a perfect mark for the Scroll."

Tristen nodded. "Right. Exactly what I was thinking of."

"What about the last line?" Ryou asked, frowning slightly. " 'Hidden safely on unseen perch.' What's it supposed to mean?"

Yami thought carefully before sighing, shaking his head. "I think the answer to that is much like that of our dragon, from the first Challenge. We have to wait until we get to the area to figure it out."

"Good enough," said Ryou, shrugging.

"Okay," Tea said loudly, so that everyone could hear her, "we're looking for a river with a pine tree acting as a mark for the Realm Scroll of Passion. Now the only question is, do we have a location we can go to?"

Nearly everyone turned to Kaiba, who had given the locations of the last two Scrolls. The CEO blinked for a second at the many stares, but then set to work trying to think of a suitable location. After several minutes, he said slowly, "Well, there is one rather large river in the West that comes to mind; we can try that one. If it doesn't reveal the Scroll, there are a few other locations we can try."

"Perfect," Kaze said, nodding at his opposite. "Where is this river? Should we take the helicopters?"

The True Seto shook his head. "I wouldn't bother; there's not a large enough clearing for a good landing, and in any case the river's only an hour's good walk from here. We can get there easily."

"Good, then let's get moving. We want to get there as quickly as possible."

It took only a few minutes to rouse the twelve Scroll-hunters and get them moving, as all of them were excited at the possible discovery of a new Realm Scroll. Kaiba took the lead, being the only person who knew where they were heading to, while the others walked at various speeds and gaits after him. Within a short span of time, most of them had banded into small groups, and were chatting together about more common things, trying to find something to pass the time of the walk until they reached their destination.

Kaeru and Yami had formed their own group, and were chatting animatedly in Ancient Egyptian, comparing their past lives and exclaiming over the differences that came with separate Realms. Kaze had found the conversation interesting, and eventually ended up joining it, speaking the same ancient language without so much as a hint of difficulty. Kawari hung nearby, and seemed to be able to follow the conversation without too much trouble; seeing this, he was turned to as a translator for the True Realm beings, who were baffled at the complex, ancient sounding language.

"But how do you know it?" Yugi asked curiously, frowning; Yami had taught him a few words, but he'd discovered the language was far too difficult for him, and had given up.

"It's required, if you're in the Opposition," Kawari said, laughing slightly. "Higher ranking members use it as a code, so that the Hand won't be able to break our messages if they get a hold of them. Of course, some of us are more skilled than others," he added, grinning sheepishly. "My Ancient Egyptian isn't perfect, much to my yami's disapproval."

Hearing this, Kaeru himself gave a disdainful snort and hissed something that sounded rather angry at Kawari; apparently the hikari had understood this, because he said in a rather bored manner, "Oh, knock it off, Kaeru, you know insults don't get to me." Kaeru looked annoyed, but turned back to his conversation.

Conversations went on for the hour, until they had finally reached their destination. Some of the travelers flopped down on large rocks or tree roots to sit and rest, while others, such as the Negatives, stood and waited calmly.

When everyone had caught their breath, they observed their surroundings, quite pleased with the overall appearance. They were standing near the banks of a small river, which had crisp, clean water running and bubbling over rocks and making a chuckling, happy, carefree sound. There were many trees surrounding the river on both sides, the leaves on them already changed to red, gold, orange, and yellow, with many underfoot, having fallen off of their branches.

"Well?" Saguru asked casually, looking around. "Should we get looking?"

The others eagerly agreed, and within seconds, they had spread out entirely, searching for the pine tree in question. A few of the more skilled beings even used a few rocks in the river as stepping-stones to move across to the other side, in case the Scroll in question was on the opposite bank.

The problem, however, was that there was more than one pine tree at the sight. The members of the group looked over each one carefully, but it was not until Mokuba had made a discovery that they realized they were on the wrong track. The black-haired boy had found a particularly gigantic pine tree, large enough to make a Blue Eyes White Dragon look small. It towered over the other trees, and there was no mistaking it as a Guardian, due to it's enormous size.

Once the Guardian ever-fair had been found, the Scroll-hunters gathered eagerly around it, scrutinizing every inch of it's surface in the hopes of finding some clue as to where the Scroll of Passion could be found. No evidence presented itself, however, and the searchers were left rather discouraged.

Not made to give up so easily, the Negatives continued searching without pause in the area surrounding the pine tree, hoping to perhaps find a clue there, instead. A few of the True Realm beings half-heartedly joined their search, but most sat at the foot of the gigantic tree, having given up finding the Scroll nearby.

Tristen was one of these. "Oh, give it up," he said in annoyance to Joey, who was one of the few that was still searching. "It's hopeless, we're not gonna find it."

In response, the brunette was fixed with four harsh, cold stares from the Negative beings. He looked a little startled, and nervous, fidgeting slightly until he finally muttered, "What's wrong?"

"Never say anything is hopeless," Kaze said softly, looking a bit annoyed, but more patient than anything else.

Tristen looked confused, so Kawari explained. "In our Realm, you always have to have hope. Hope is all that keeps us going, sometimes. It's like a lifeline. When you give up, you die, and that's it. Those that gave up in our Realm have long since passed on due to the tortures that come when you loose hope."

Kaeru nodded solemnly, adding, "It's one of the strongest reasons that keeps the Opposition alive. If we gave it up, all of us would be dead...well, all of us but Kaze."

Tristen blinked in surprise. "I never realized you were so strong on the subject...and why wouldn't Kaze be dead? I thought this Hand of the Shadow hated him."

"They do," Kawari said, his voice and eyes both rather flat, "which is why, if they destroyed the Opposition, they'd take Kaze and keep him alive as a trophy. He'd be a prize to them; it's a way to boast their strength. Of course," he added, his voice still dull and flat, "they can't have him active, because he'd resist, so he'd be a tortured trophy."

At this, the Negative Seto gave a small shudder; he was obviously trying to hide his fear of that particular end, but it was easy to see, without a doubt, that he dreaded it.

Tea, desperate to get off the extremely uncomfortable subject, said hastily, "Er, find anything?"

"No," Saguru said, sighing. "I have no idea as to where this Scroll is supposed to be hidden."

Frowning slightly, the brunette girl muttered under her breath before saying slowly, "Maybe we should check out that last line in the Verse?"

"What do you mean?" several voices asked, curious.

"Remember," Tea said, becoming slightly more excited, "how we couldn't figure out that last line, and Yami said it was probably something we had to figure out at the river itself? Maybe we should try to work from that angle now!"

"Worth a shot," Joey said, grinning slightly at the new lead.

"Well," Kaiba said, in his casual, calm voice, "the last line that we had yet to solve was 'Hidden safely on unseen perch.' Any ideas as to what it means?"

The rest of the group had to admit that they were baffled, but none of them were ready to give up. Each of them took to their minds once more, trying to think out what the line might mean, and glancing every so often around the area to see if their ideas matched.

Eagerly, Mokuba concentrated hard on the little line, before shouting out several minutes later, "On unseen perch, it sounds like it's up high then!" Wanting to test his theory, the smaller boy tilted his head back, staring up into the sky and leaning so far over that Kaze had to snatch his wrist and pull him back before he tumbled end over end into the river.

The others, after several seconds of consideration, decided that this idea did indeed seem to make some sense, although they did not look to the sky so much as the branches above their heads. As the search continued on, with several Scroll-hunters volunteering to climb some of the more likely trees to look more closely, none of them noticed that Kaeru and Yami had not joined them.

"Hidden safely," Yami mused, thinking, his violet eyes narrowed in confusion.

"You don't think it could really be one?" Kaeru asked him, frowning.

"An illusion spell? Probably. How else could it be in this area without us seeing it?"

"We're going to have to break it, then, or at least shield it so the effect doesn't work."

"Indeed. Would you be willing to help? I don't think I can block it by myself, with only the Puzzle's magic."

Kaeru grinned. "The Ring would be quite happy to help. It hasn't had much action in a while, what with all the Special Guards in my Realm."

Yami frowned slightly at this comment, thinking briefly of the stories Yugi had told him from his adventures in the Negative Realm, but banished the thoughts quickly. He held out his Millennium Puzzle, a deep, sea-green aura already forming around the golden item and reflecting off it's shining sides. Kaeru did the same, holding out his own Millennium Ring, which had taken on a light blue, flickering glow of magic.

Looking determined, the two touched Items, one of the pointers from the Millennium Ring connecting to the Eye of Horus on the Puzzle's surface. Instantly, both different-colored auras of magic flickered before swarming together, crossing over to the opposite Item, almost as if they were trading magical energy. The colors mixed, light blue fusing with sea green, and within the span of only a few moments, a turquoise color had formed, shining brightly on the owners of the Items' faces.

The others had noticed the unusual show of light and had come to investigate; they realized with a sense of relief that the two yamis had some trick or idea that they were trying, and so they tried to be quieter for the sake of the spirits' benefits.

The spirits themselves were glowing, now, the fused magical energies having spread out to cover a wider area. The turquoise light flickered faster, more brightly, and suddenly began to spread out further, lifting into the air and sweeping through it in all directions. It covered air, ground, and water all the same, flickering around them until all the Scroll-hunters could see was the bright, bluish-green light and nothing else.

Then, as suddenly as it had come, it had vanished, leaving them standing on the shallow bank of the river in confusion.

At first, they thought nothing had happened, much to Kaeru and Yami's disappointment. However, after several seconds, the group of twelve spotted a--a something--floating four feet over the river quite gently.

Curious, the group moved as close as they could without walking into the water itself to observe the unusual object. It looked much like a bubble, but foggy and translucent. Inside, they could see the shape of a Scroll, rotating almost lazily inside it's hold.

"Perfect!" Yami said eagerly, allowing a rare grin to pass over his face. "I thought so...that bubble is an Invisibility Illusion spell...no wonder we couldn't find it at first!"

Mokuba frowned. "But that's almost unfair...I mean, if we didn't have magic, we wouldn't have been able to even find the Scroll."

Kaeru laughed. "That's what we're here for."

"Yeah, well," Joey said, moving forward a few paces towards the Scroll of Passion, "We don't have all day, you know. Might as well get the Scroll and get it over with so we can get onto the fourth one...whatever that is."

He balanced on the edge of the bank, reaching forward as far as he possibly could in order to try and grab the Scroll. Before his hand even came within a foot of the magical item, however, the now-familiar guardian voice spoke, it's voice terrifyingly loud, yet at the same time, comforting and safe.

"AH, AFTER COUNTLESS MILLENIA, THE SCROLL OF PASSION HAS FINALLY BEEN DISCOVERED ONCE AGAIN. HAVE YOU NEED OF IT'S POWERS?"

Even though he had been expecting the voice, it startled Joey nonetheless; jumping, he stumbled backwards, crashing into Tristen and knocking the both of them to the ground.

"I'll never get used to that," Joey muttered, pulling himself to his feet and extending his hand to his friend to help the brown-haired teen get up.

Yami, not wanting to keep the powerful, terrifying voice waiting, hastily stepped forward, answering it quickly and respectfully. "We do indeed have need of the Scroll, so that we may stop the Shadow Realm and save our worlds."

It answered in an almost lazy manner, but it's voice was still terrible. "OF COURSE, OF COURSE. SO YOUNG AND NOBLE, ALL OF YOU...SO WILLING TO DO GOOD WITHOUT PAUSE."

The pharaoh blinked in surprise. "Young? But I'm--"

It cut into his speech before he had a chance to finish. "YES, PHARAOH YAMI, FROM YOUR SIMPLE VIEW YOU ARE VERY OLD; BUT COMPARED TO ME, YOU ARE BUT AN INFANT NEXT TO ALL OF MY YEARS."

"Ah." The ancient ruler suddenly suppressed the urge to bow deeply, having nothing to bow to, but wanting to show that he was indeed trying to be respectful of such a powerful, elderly creature.

The voice laughed; this one seemed more laid-back than the others, more friendly, though it's voice was still powerful and deadly at the same time. "DO NOT WORRY, PHARAOH, YOU HAVE NOT OFFENDED ME WITH YOUR QUESTION. NOW. WHO SHALL PARTAKE IN THE CHALLENGE FOR THE SCROLL OF PASSION? THREE CHALLENGERS EXACTLY MUST ENTER."

Feeling slightly grateful, Yami turned to face the rest of the group, eleven other faces staring back at him with determination. He opened his mouth to ask who would be willing to go, but before he could so much as utter a word, the voice spoke again.

"SO HASTY, PHARAOH. DO ALL THE YOUNG ONES HURRY SO FAST IN THEIR SHORT LIVES?" It sounded amused at first, but it's voice quickly took on a more serious, solemn tone. "THE CHALLENGE THAT I WILL PLACE BEFORE YOU IS MORE DIFFICULT THAN WHAT YOU HAVE FACED BEFORE. THEREFORE, YOU DESERVE MORE NOTICE AS TO WHAT YOU WILL FACE, SO THAT YOU MAY CHOOSE APPROPRIATELY."

Yami was startled at these words, and vaguely offended at the earlier remark, but he said respectfully, "Of course...thank you for giving us warning on what we will face."

If it had an actual body that it could use, the voice probably would have smiled, but instead it continued on in it's serious, formal manner. "TO OBTAIN THE SCROLL OF PASSION, YOU WILL BE TESTED ON HOW PASSIONATE YOU ARE TOWARDS YOUR CAUSE. YOU WILL BE RUNNING IN A SPECIAL RACING COURSE, AND THERE WILL BE OBSTACLES THAT BAR YOUR PATH. YOU MUST BRING ALL THREE TEAMATES TO THE END OF THE COURSE SAFELY. THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT; YOU MAY TAKE AS LONG AS YOU NEED. CHOOSE THE CHALLENGERS NOW."

The voice lapsed into silence, and once he was sure there was nothing else it wished to say, Yami turned back to the others.

"Well...you heard what it said. Does anybody wish to enter in this Challenge?"

There was silence for a minute, before Tristen stepped forward, his long, light-brown jacket fluttering slightly in the breeze. "I'll go. I haven't been much use up until now, and I need to do something for this cause. 'Sides, I'm decent at running, so at least I'll be some help."

Yami nodded quietly. "So now we have one Challenger. We still need two more. Any other volunteers?"

Kaiba frowned slightly before saying quietly, "Shouldn't there be a magic-user on this Challenge? You've run into magic in the last two Challenges, and who knows what 'obstacles' you might run into."

Almost immediately, all heads turned to Kaeru and Yami, the only two magic users within the group. The pharaoh blinked in surprise, but also found his attention flickering to Kaeru. The Negative Bakura looked tired, as did Kawari, due to their fight with the opposite tomb robber and the Challenge that followed soon after.

Sighing, Yami stepped forward next to Tristen, saying, "I will go through this Challenge as the magical being."

Tea blinked uncertainly. "You sure?" she asked, frowning slightly. "You've already been through the last two--maybe you should take a break."

"No," Yami answered, shaking his head. "I'll be fine. I'll go, so long as I can control Yugi's body again to conserve magical energy." He looked over towards his lighter self as he spoke, asking the question with his eyes.

" 'Course you can," Yugi answered, grinning cheerfully. "I don't mind, it's for a good cause."

"I'll have to block you out again, you realize."

"Yeah, I figured," Yugi said, sighing a bit, "but I don't mind."

"Very well," the spirit said, grinning the tiniest bit. "Thank you, Hikari."

"We still need one more person," Mokuba interrupted, tapping his foot impatiently.

Joey sighed. "Yeah, and I'd love to go, but you guys still need a Negative Realm person." He looked fairly annoyed, and kicked at a pebble on the ground, sending it splashing into the river water and disappearing beneath the surface.

The rest of the group turned to look at Kaze and Saguru, the two remaining Negatives who would be up to the Challenge. Shaking his head, Kaze said dully, "I'd love to go as well, but ever since I got shot in the leg, running hasn't been my strong point. I'd be more of a hindrance than a help, to be honest."

Saguru shrugged. "Guess that leaves me, so I'm in." The Negative Joey strode forward, ignoring the slightly jealous-sounding thoughts flashing through his mind from his True self, to stand next to Yami and Tristen.

"HAVE YOU CHOSEN?" The voice was back, though they were all used to it now, and none of them jumped or flinched.

"We have," Yami answered, his voice respectful. "We are ready to enter the Challenge."

"GOOD. THEN BEGIN."

At first, nothing happened, and Yami, Saguru, and Tristen stared around them in confusion. But then the ground gave an almighty lurch, and darkness began to sweep around them...

Yami realized too late that he was in the place of Nothingness again, where nothing existed, and nothing was. But then the darkness all around them swept into his mind, wrapping around it, bringing it into a dull frame of mind...

Turning his head weakly, he could see that Saguru and Tristen were in similar positions, swaying in the nothingness and looking as though they were seconds from falling into unconsciousness...but then, the darkness enveloped him entirely, and his eyes slid closed, bringing him into a deep sleep until he knew no more.

* * * * *

Yami woke slowly, unsure of where he was. His senses were numb, but after a few moments they began to come back to him, and he used them to discover what had happened to him.

The first thing he noticed was that he was laying flat on his back on some hard, packed surface. He had his eyes closed, so everything was dark, but he did not need his eyes to tell him he'd somehow ended up in Yugi's body. Obviously, the voice that guarded the Scroll knew that he'd planned to possess his aibou for the Challenge and had put him there; the lighter half was in his soul room, cut off from all knowledge as he waited for his yami spirit to finish.

Groaning slightly, Yami pried his eyes open, closing them almost instantly due to the bright light that they met. After a few moments, he cracked them open again, squinting against the brightness until he could focus correctly.

Pulling himself into a sitting position, the ancient ruler took a quick look around, scanning the area for his fellow Challengers. He spotted Saguru first; the Negative Joey was standing a few feet to his left, looking over their surroundings with a mix of confusion and readiness. Tristen was just pulling himself to his feet near Saguru, blinking in surprise at the land around them.

Frowning, Yami stood, looking around him again for a better view of the place they were now standing in. He and his companions were standing on a wide, packed dirt road--so wide, in fact, that five or six people could run shoulder to shoulder on it, and still have some room to spare. The surrounding land outside the road was dusty and dry, with not a tree in sight, though oddly enough, lush, green grass grew in wide areas in an apparently random pattern. To add to that, the sun beat down on them, hot and summer-like, but they could not see where it was, even with a clear sky that was void of clouds. Apparently, these voices favored contradicting patterns and existences.

"D'you think this is the Challenge?" Tristen asked, curious, looking around him with apparent awe and confusion.

"Has to be," Saguru answered, shrugging. "Why else would we be here?"

"Well...what do you think we're supposed to do?"

As if hearing their question, the voice spoke up once more, it's terrifying, yet calming sound coming from all directions around them, and from nowhere at all. "YOU MUST RUN IN A NORTHERN DIRECTION ALONG THE ROAD UNTIL YOU REACH THE END. YOU MAY NOT LEAVE THE ROAD AT ANY COSTS, LEST YOU DESIRE TO LOOSE. BEGIN."

"I suppose that clears it up," Yami said, in a somewhat dry manner.

Saguru shrugged. "Well, might as well get going. That way's North, come on." He pointed in one direction, and they followed the wide, dirt road along it, trotting easily and wondering what on Earth they could possibly find in this Challenge.

After moving for nearly fifteen minutes, it became clear that Saguru was the fastest of them all--he seemed to have a natural talent for running, almost, and sped along without trouble. He hadn't even broken into a sweat yet, from the movement or the heat, whereas Tristen and Yami had a fine dew sprouting on their foreheads from the unseen sun above and it's heat.

Since there had been no occurrences for the fifteen minutes they had been running, Tristen struck up a conversation. "Man! How on Earth do you run like that?"

Saguru laughed, looking back over his shoulder at his friends, who were several steps behind him. "Lots of training. Although, I've always been a good runner, even before the Opposition." He gave another little chuckle. "'Cause of that, people call me the Wolf, back at the base."

Tristen grimaced slightly at the nickname that so closely resembled Kaiba's dog jokes, and said rather uncertainly, "and you put up with it?"

The Negative Joey laughed again at this. "I think you're mistaken. A wolf can run for several hours without stopping because it has lots of endurance and muscle. It's a compliment, not an insult."

"Oh." Tristen still sounded rather unconvinced.

The Negative sighed. "You thought it was a Kaiba insult?"

"Er...you could say that..."

Saguru shrugged. "Kaze doesn't like insults, believe me. He discourages it. In fact, the only time I've ever heard him actually throw an insult at somebody else was when he's communicated with the Hand of the Shadow."

The brunette Challenger raised an eyebrow. "I still think it's weird that you two get along. I mean, it doesn't make sense...Kaiba and Joey, best friends..." he shook his head.

Saguru seemed to think this was amusing, but his voice became more serious as he said, "Well, we weren't always friends, you know."

"Really?" Now Tristen looked interested, and Yami, though he'd said nothing, was also listening closely.

"Oh, not like here...I mean, we never hated each other's guts, if that's what you're thinking of," the Negative said, concentrating hard, as if it took a lot of effort to bring back the old memories, "it was more like...he left us alone. Me and the rest of the group, that is. I mean, if you asked him to hang out with you, he would, and he'd be nice about it and all, but for the most part he was a loner." He sighed and added, "but that all changed once Yami took over in our Realm."

At this, the True ancient spirit growled slightly, but Tristen only looked more interested. "Really? How so?"

Saguru shrugged, unconsciously pushing for more speed and causing Yami and Tristen to have to catch up to him if they wished to hear anything. "Well, just think about it. Yami's on the loose, and he's not afraid to kill or hurt people to get what he wants. He wants to make the biggest impact he can on people, and to show just how strong he can be. Yugi's already dead at this point; he needs a new target. Who, then, d'you think he'd go after?"

Tristen shook his head, not knowing the answer, but Yami was an expert strategist, and answered quietly, "Yugi's family and friends."

"Exactly," Saguru muttered, giving Yami a quick, unsure glance before returning to his tale. "The Yami in our Realm went after Yugi's grandpa first, but Kaeru stopped him and smuggled Gramps off to America, so that plan was destroyed pretty quick. Yug' had no other family to speak of, so who'd be next in line?" His face was darker, now, and he spoke the next line bitterly. "Why, none other than Joey Wheeler, Yugi's best buddy."

Tristen was shocked. "You?! But then...how..."

"How am I still alive?" the Negative asked grimly, nodding. "Good question. It wasn't easy. Yami attacked me when I was home; luckily, my sister was out shopping at the mall with some friends, or I'm sure she would've been dead. He came after me with full intention of murdering me on the spot; he even used the same technique he used on Yugi, tearing down half my house while I was still in it. I lived through that, but barely. I would've been dead soon after, but luckily for me, somebody else knew about that attack.

"See, Kaze had the Opposition running by that time. It was pretty shoddy, and still needed a lot of work, because it was only a month or two old, but it was already tracking down Yami's movements and predicting what he was gonna do. Kaze knew Yami was out for my blood, so he set up a counter-attack and met Yami at my house only a few minutes after it fell. There was a quick battle, and Yami was forced to leave--he didn't want to murder a good twenty people and give himself away too early--but still, most of the men that were on the rescue party were injured. You should see some of the scars Kaze had; he was one of the main men that fought that crazy spirit." He sighed, taking a momentary break in his story, before continuing.

"Anyway. They had to dig me out of the rubble that was left of my house, because I was buried pretty deep. It wasn't pretty, when they found me--I was a broken, bloody mess. Broken arms, cracked ribs, snapped legs. Fractured skull and a concussion; at the time they were worried about possible brain damage. Heavy bleeding and blood-loss.

"Because of all that, most of the men just wanted to let me die then and there; said it wasn't worth the trouble to try and bring me back to full health when I was in such a bad state. But Kaze wouldn't hear of it. Said he was never going to let another person die in front of him if he could do one thing about it.

"The men tried to come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they couldn't bring me back and heal me up, but Kaze beat all of them down. You know," the Negative interrupted, glancing at the other two, "it's Kaiba, if he wants something he can damn well get it if he fights hard enough." Yami nodded in agreement, having faced that same Seto Kaiba stubbornness many a time before, and Tristen grimaced.

"Well, anyway," Saguru continued, moving back to his story, "they eventually ran out of excuses, and were finally willing to bring me back, though grudgingly--until they realized the stretcher they'd brought in case of emergencies had been destroyed by Yami in the fight. At that, they thought they had Kaze stumped--but he was still firm on not letting me die, and so he went and carried me himself all the way back. The rest of the guys on the mission were point-blank amazed."

Now Tristen's face was covered in an expression of pure surprise, and even Yami looked vaguely amazed at this part of the story.

"So Kaze brought me back," Saguru continued, "and handed me over to the medical experts at the Opposition base. It took me weeks to heal up completely, but as you can see, I've made a full recovery. After that, I knew I was in debt to Kaze with my life, so I joined up at the Opposition in Yugi's name--at the time, he was in desperate need of new members. We got to be friends soon enough, and I worked my way up to second in command of the Opposition." He shrugged. "And here I am now."

There was silence for a few minutes, before Tristen muttered softly, "Man, your Realm is different."

After that, the silence covered them all, and they ran on down the path, not talking much, each buried in their own private thoughts. The only sounds that could be heard were the soft panting of the three beings as they ran and the footfalls of their feet as they pushed themselves onward.

After another ten minutes had passed uneventfully in quiet, they suddenly spotted something in front of them, on the horizon. Keeping their same speeds, they moved forwards and had soon reached it, and groaned in annoyance at what they saw.

What they had come up to was a three-pronged fork in the road, splitting off in completely different directions and speeding away from them over the lush wasteland.

"Aw, great," Saguru muttered in true Joey fashion. "Now what do we do?"

Tristen, too, was frowning at the fork. "Which one do we choose? Only one way can be the right way to the end."

"It's worse than that, Tristen," Yami said softly, staring at the fork with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "Only one of these is the true road. The other two, should we take them, would probably be considered as 'going off of the path,' in which case we would loose the Challenge."

"So how are we supposed to know where to go?!" Tristen yelled out to the sky, plainly annoyed. "This isn't fair, this is a trick!"

Yami blinked. "Say that again, Tristen."

The brunette raised an eyebrow, but repeated, "This isn't fair, it's a trick."

The spirit broke into an abrupt grin. "Exactly. It's a trick. I should have known."

Saguru looked confused. "What do you mean?"

But the Pharaoh would say nothing yet to give away his idea. "Just give me a second to check," he said slowly, as the Millennium Puzzle flared to life.

Sighing, the Negative and True beings crossed their arms and waited. Yami was concentrating deeply, staring at the fork with flickering eyes. Finally, he grinned.

"Yes, I was right. It's an Illusion."

"Really?" Saguru asked, sounding somewhat impressed, and somewhat annoyed. "Damn, they're annoying. So how do we break it? Is it powerful?"

Yami looked vaguely surprised that Saguru knew what an 'Illusion' was, but went on gamely. "It's not too powerful, though it will take some work and a bit of magic to break. Give me a moment."

The spirit closed his violet eyes, holding the Puzzle in one hand as he concentrated. Within moments, a green light seemed to envelop him--the Puzzle's magical energy. It flared around him like a fire that did not burn those that it touched, making for a beautiful, yet somewhat disturbing, effect.

The ancient being's eyes snapped open suddenly, and he stared ahead of them at the three pronged fork. Grinning slightly, he said in a triumphant tone, "I broke it."

Saguru grinned, turning to look at the fork as well, but the smile was wiped from his face as he gazed at the obstacle that had caused them trouble. "Er...no you didn't...it's still a fork."

Yami frowned. "What? But I only see one road."

Tristen shrugged. "I have to go with Saguru on this one, there's still three roads there."

"I must have broken it only for my eyes, then," Yami murmured, frowning slightly. "Very well, you will just have to trust me. It's the left-hand path that you must follow." Without hesitation, the spirit stepped forward, moving off down the path he had indicated without a hint of nervousness. The other two, exchanging quick glances, followed him, trusting the entire Challenge to his judgement.

Fortunately, there was no message from that terrible voice telling them that they had lost the Challenge, and they realized that Yami must have been right when he said only he could see through the Illusion. Grinning, they continued on, gaining speed once more and dashing down the path--they had passed the first obstacle.

They ran on for what seemed like ages, hoping that they would soon meet up with the next obstacle--it would mean they were getting further along in their Challenge, as annoying or difficult as it may have been. Unfortunately, however, it seemed like it would never come. Another fifteen minutes of hard running had passed uneventfully, Tristen and Yami were beginning to tire, sweat beading on their faces. Even Saguru's pace was slacking ever-so-slightly, though he covered it quite well with his determined face and even gait.

They were beginning to give up the idea of running into the next obstacle when Saguru spotted it--a dark shape, sitting far ahead on the horizon along their path. Exchanging triumphant looks, they forced themselves onto faster speeds and sped ahead, hoping to discover what it was in front of them.

They reached it five minutes of hard running later, and were rather disappointed at what they found. A wall stood in their path, nearly fifteen feet tall and stretching across the entire road, extending into the mixed barren wasteland and lush grass beyond the edges of their way. It was smooth and had no cracks or holes in it, and towered above them, presenting, without any doubt, their next obstacle.

"Well," Tristen observed unhappily, "We can't walk around it; it stretches off the road, and we're not allowed to leave it."

"Can't climb it either," Saguru muttered, after striding forward and running a hand over the smooth surface of the wall. "Nothing to use as a hand- or foot-hold." He sighed. "This is going to be tough."

The three stood back a ways, staring at the wall with nearly identical frowns. It stood quietly, almost innocently, which seemed to aggravate them even more.

"Maybe if I get on Tristen's shoulders?" Saguru asked, rather half-heartedly.

"Can't. Even standing on top of each other, we'd still come several feet short of the top of the wall."

The three of them sighed, staring at the obstacle in their path once again. They weren't sure how to pass it without disobeying the rules...but then, very slowly, a grin crept over Tristen's face.

"Hey...Saguru!" he called, turning to stare at his Negative friend.

"Hmm?"

Grinning, the brunette walked closer to the wall, laced his fingers together, holding them at waist level, and bent his knees a little. "Up and over?"

The same grin was suddenly spreading over Saguru's face as well. He nodded, looking determined, and said in an affirming manner, "Up and over."

Yami frowned slightly and was just about to ask what they were up to, when Saguru began backing up until he was almost at the edge of the road. Still grinning, the blonde counted out loud to three, and then dashed forward, running straight towards Tristen.

The brunette was ready. He tensed his muscles, coiling them for the quick spring they were going to need, and waited patiently, his fingers still laced.

Saguru looked as if he was about to run into his friend, but at the last second he jumped, raising his left foot and stepping firmly into Tristen's laced hands. Like lightning, the brown-haired teen absorbed the sudden heavy weight by bending his knees, and then shot his hands upward, pushing the teen he was currently supporting towards the wall.

The result was something like a sling-shot; Saguru was rocketed from Tristen's laced hands, shooting upwards and nearing the top of the wall. He threw out a hand quickly, snatching the wall in a firm grip, and then placed his second hand next to it, insuring that he would not fall. He was now, unbelievably, hanging from the wall.

Yami stared up at the Negative teen in surprise. "So that was what you were planning to do..."

Saguru had steadied his grip on the top of the wall, and now swung a leg over the top, pulling himself up on it's surface. Once there, he looked over towards the other side of the wall, observing where they had left to go, and then turned, sitting down calmly on the edge, fifteen feet up from the ground.

"Not so bad up here," he said casually, looking down at the two with a soft grin. "Nice wide ledge, easy to keep your balance without falling off."

"Yeah, well," Tristen said, panting slightly from his sudden activity and massaging one of his fingers, which had been slightly bruised due to Saguru's foot landing on it, "how do we get up?"

"Right, I've been thinking about that, and I have an idea. Okay, first Yami'll come up, since he's shorter. Tristen, you'll have to support him on your shoulders, okay?"

The brunette nodded, as did Yami, and both of them moved into action. Tristen knelt down so that the ancient spirit could clamber onto his shoulders; the ruler, in turn, tried to stand on his toes so as not to press the sharp heels of his boots into his friend. Lifting up, Tristen held him steady carefully and waited for Saguru to take action.

The Negative Joey had laid down on his stomach on the top of the wall, stretching his hands down until he could reach Yami. Clasping hands in a sailor's lock, the opposite teen set to work pulling the darker spirit up. He seemed to do it fairly easily, and within the span of only a minute or so, the ancient ruler was up and sitting beside the Negative, staring down at Tristen.

"Okay," Saguru said cheerfully, grinning, "Now you're the only one left, Tristen. Let me see...toss up your coat, okay?"

Tristen blinked at this odd request, but suddenly understood what the Negative had in mind. Nodding, he pulled of his long brown coat and tossed it up, allowing Saguru to catch it by one of the sleeves.

"Now," the Negative Joey explained, as he began rolling the coat out into an almost rope-like look and tying a few strong knots in it to keep it together, "we're gonna use this to pull Tristen up. But I'll need your help, Yami, because Tristen down there is bound to be a lot heavier than you were."

The dark spirit nodded. "Of course. I'll help to the best of my ability."

"Great...okay, here we go, Tristen!" Still grinning, Saguru tossed one end of the now-rope-like coat down, and the other teen caught hold of it, testing it's strength.

"Now...on the count of three, guys!" Saguru seemed to have taken control without meaning to, though Yami did not mind, and neither, apparently, did Tristen.

"One..." Yami reached out for the coat-rope, grabbing a firm hold on it and waiting. "Two..." Tristen placed one foot on the wall, as if steadying himself for the climb. "Three!"

Saguru and Yami gave a firm tug on the makeshift rope, pulling hard in order to bring their friend up over the wall. Tristen, meanwhile, was using the support they were giving him to climb the coat-rope, bringing his assent to the top of the wall to a quicker pace.

After several minutes, Tristen had nearly reached the top; discarding the makeshift rope, Saguru grabbed one of his friend's wrists, pulling his friend up instead. Yami tugged the coat up quickly, so as to get it out of the way, and tossed it to one side on the wall ledge before grabbing Tristen's second wrist. Between the two of them, they managed to pull the brunette up entirely, and within moments he was sitting next to them on the wall, panting slightly from the climb.

"Well," Saguru said, after several seconds, "that was an interesting obstacle."

"No kidding," Tristen said flatly, snatching his coat and beginning to un-knot it so that he could wear it again.

"At least we passed it," Yami said, shrugging, as he stared down at the road they had not yet touched.

"And it's time to pass some others, as soon as you guys get your breath back," Saguru said cheerfully. "I'll meet you down at the bottom." And without warning, he whirled, lowered himself as far as he could with his hands from the top of the wall, and dropped, landing cat-like on the ground below.

Tristen and Yami exchanged looks; as great as these Negatives were, they seemed to not have a problem with tiring out, unlike the True Realm beings. Sighing, Tristen slipped his now knot-free coat on and lowered himself off of the wall, dropping to the ground in a slightly-less-graceful way. Yami soon followed, and within a few minutes, the trio of Challengers was off marching down the road again, running at a decent pace so as to meet up with their next obstacle soon.

Another fifteen minutes passed without occurrence; it seemed to be a pattern now, to run for ages, and then to meet the next obstacle. It worked well against them, for it wore them down with fatigue before they faced their next problem, and therefore made it more difficult for them to face it.

This was how they were found, fifteen minutes after the fork in the road, their previous obstacle. All of them were beginning to tire, though Yami showed it the most, having the shortest legs and therefore having to work harder to keep up with his fellow Challengers. Tristen had sweat running down the sides of his face, and even Saguru had beads of moisture forming on his forehead from the mix of heat and fatigue.

"Yeesh...you'd think we'd have run into something by now," Tristen panted, his pace slacking the tiniest bit.

"Don't complain...the next Challenge is probably gonna be really difficult, after what we've been through," Saguru muttered.

Despite the Negative's reasoning, after several more minutes of running they were able to spot their next obstacle. It was still some distance away, but it was dark and looked quite large, sending an ominous feeling shivering down the three Challengers' spines.

A good ten minutes later, they had reached it, stopping dead with open jaws and wide eyes.

"And we thought the last two were hard?" Tristen practically shrieked, backing up a pace.

They were facing a wide, deep chasm in the ground. It looked as though the earth had cracked in half, leaving a wide, rounded fissure that split off the edges of the path. Shadows found homes within it's great depths, taunting the threesome with the distance that they would fall if they should fail to cross. At nearly twenty feet wide, it seemed impossible to make it to the other side without going around it, an act that they could not perform for the sake of staying in the Challenge.

"How are we supposed to get across that?" Tristen said flatly, observing the hole with apparent unease.

"Maybe we could climb down to the bottom and climb back up on the other side?" Saguru suggested, though it sounded as though he was a bit unsure about such an idea.

Yami frowned before picking up a fair-sized chunk of rock. "Only one way to figure out how deep it is," he said softly, before walking to the edge and dropping the stone in his hands into it's gaping depths. The three of them awaited a sound to indicate how deep the pit was--but unbelievably, the sound never came.

"Hoh boy," the Negative Joey muttered. "Don't wanna fall down that, that's for sure." The others nodded in grim agreement.

They stood back a ways from the edge of the pit, sitting on the ground and staring at the gigantic hole dully, as if wondering what to do. They obviously could not jump across it, and as they had no suitable equipment with them, swinging across was not much of an option either.

Nearly ten minutes went by, during which they exchanged ideas and discarded all of them, deciding that they were either too dangerous or just wouldn't work. They were beginning to get discouraged--how on earth were they supposed to get over twenty feet without falling?

After some time, however, Yami murmured softly, "Well...it may work...but it'd be a risk..."

"What?!" The other two asked eagerly, desperate for a good idea.

Frowning, Yami explained. "You see...I was thinking...I could use the Millennium Puzzle to 'summon' a bridge, of sorts, from another place."

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Whaddya mean?"

"What I mean," Yami said softly, "Is that I can take a bridge or support that exists in another Realm and 'borrow' it's existence. You obviously know about Realms, of course--it makes sense that in one Realm, somewhere, there is a bridge in this area, does it not?"

"Well...yeah...I suppose," Saguru muttered, thinking.

"So I can use my Puzzle to 'pull it through,' and borrow it's existence temporarily for our use."

"It wouldn't take it away from another person, would it?" Tristen asked, having a rather gruesome image of a man walking on a bridge that suddenly disappeared underneath him...

"No, no," Yami said, sounding appalled at the suggestion. "It's like...you know when you write on a pad of paper, how the main copy is written down on the top sheet, but there's always that nearly-invisible print underneath from the pressure of your pencil?" The other two nodded, and Yami continued. "It's the same idea. The main bridge would still exist, but there would be a sort of outline or echo of it left, which I can call to use, with some difficulty."

"Ah," Tristen said, nodding, suddenly understanding what the spirit meant. "So why would it be risky?"

The ancient ruler frowned. "Well," he murmured slowly, "you've already seen how difficult it is to bring something from one Realm to another. With the limited magic of the Millennium Puzzle, the 'outline' of the bridge may disappear before we are finished with it."

Saguru shrugged. "We'll just have to take the risk and get across quick. It's the only good idea we've had, and we need to get this Scroll."

Yami sighed. "Very well," he said softly, pulling himself to his feet and moving forwards a few paces to stand at the edge of the pit. Once more, he concentrated on the magic of the Millennium Puzzle, placing all of his energies in it's bright-line spectrum form before carefully selecting a ghostly, pale white line of light--the magic he would need to perform what he was about to attempt.

The Puzzle began to glow, but not in it's usual golden-green; instead, it flickered with the pale white light that Yami had so carefully selected. He clamped his eyes shut for better concentration and began weaving the spell that would be needed.

Very slowly, the light from Yami's Puzzle began to shine brighter, glowing until it was no longer ghostly, but strong and brilliant. Tristen and Saguru shielded their eyes from the luminance, but suddenly found them being torn from Yami to the deep chasm that caused them so much difficulty.

The air seemed to be solidifying, crushing together to form a solid object, but it did not gain color; or at least, it gained very little, for apart from a wispy gray tint, it stayed absolutely clear, almost invisible. Very slowly, it gained an outline, shaky and thin, as though some artist that lacked confidence had tried to trace the object with too small a pen. Once the outline was in place, Tristen and Saguru could see, if they squinted, the vague shape of a rope bridge. It was difficult to tell if it was even there, however, for they could see straight through the planks that formed the foot-path, and the ropes that held it up seemed to be patterned with the pebbles and rocks that made up the inside of the chasm. The bridge was transparent, and practically invisible.

"That's...the best...I can do," Yami panted, clutching the Millennium Puzzle as if it was a lifeline. "Hurry across...I have to go last...so that I can support it..."

"Is he sure it's steady?" Tristen muttered to Saguru. "I mean, just look at it."

Saguru shrugged. "I believe him. Here, I'll go first." Striding forward, he reached the transparent bridge and waved his hands around momentarily before finding one of the rope hand rails. Grasping hold of it, he was slightly startled to find that it was solid, and even felt like tough rope, with it's scratchy, twisted feel. Blinking, he found the second hand rail, and with a small, determined breath, stepped forward onto the first plank.

It held, amazingly, and felt strong and firm--it even made the same dull thud of true wood when he tapped his shoe on it. Still amazed, but now convinced that it really was the echo of a true bridge, he took another step, testing the next nearly-invisible plank carefully before moving on. After all, he reasoned, they didn't know how old this borrowed bridge was, and there could be rotted planks or something of the sort. Or maybe he'd just seen too many movies before the Opposition had started.

Nothing terrible happened, however, and Saguru had reached the other side of the bottomless chasm with ease. Turning around, he felt a pang of shock as he stared across the bridge at his friends, for looking back it seemed as though he'd walked across on thin air--the bridge was practically invisible.

"Come on, it's fine!" He shouted across at his two remaining companions, grinning widely.

Tristen moved towards the bridge next, having to leave Yami for last so that he could continue to support the echo. He frowned as he passed the spirit; the Pharaoh was clinging so hard to the Millennium Puzzle that the corners had probably been printed into his hands, and he was sweating hard. Apparently, sustaining such a thing as an echo of a bridge was tough.

Sighing, the brunette passed Yami's still form and moved to the bridge. He found the beginning fairly easily, squinting so as to see the thin 'outline' of it, and grasping firm hold of the hand rails. Now that he knew it was entirely safe, he could move much faster across, not having to test each plank and rope as Saguru had done. He reached the other side in minutes, turning around quickly to face Yami, the only one left on the other side.

"Come on, your turn, Yami!" he yelled across, hoping the spirit could move quickly--from the way things looked, the pharaoh was having a tougher time than before keeping the bridge in existence.

Yami nodded slowly, stepping forward at practically a snail's pace to reach the bridge. He found it without too much trouble, despite it's nearly invisible look, and took a slow step onto the first plank.

Almost as soon as he did, he gave a shudder, and clutched hard at the one rope hand rail he was using, leaning on it. The bridge shook slightly, and Yami wavered, momentarily unsure of what was going on.

"What's the matter with him?" Tristen muttered, frowning.

"Not sure, but we've gotta get him over here," Saguru hissed, before raising his voice. "Come on, Yami, it's not too hard, just come across real quick!"

The spirit nodded slowly and took another few steps forward, looking as if it took all his strength just to do that. It must have been terribly difficult to sustain the bridge and walk on it at the same time, the two remaining Challengers mused, frowning.

Still, however difficult it may have been, Yami was not one to give up so easily, and he showed it. Though he moved slowly, he was making his way across the invisible bridge without anything wrong happening.

He was nearly seven feet from Saguru and Tristen, roughly two thirds of the way over, when he suddenly stopped. "I can't go anymore," he muttered slowly, groaning.

"What? No way, man, you've gotta keep on going, com'mon!" Saguru roared, encouragement and determination in his voice.

"No...I mean...it's going to vanish," Yami panted, leaning against one of the transparent rope hand rails and looking exhausted.

"What?!" Saguru shrieked. "Oh, shit..."

Tristen felt the same way, but he reacted quickly. He dived forward onto the bridge again, running quickly so as to reach his comrade before their support would disappear. The fast movement made the bridge shake and waver dangerously, but the brown-haired boy didn't care. He'd reached Yami, and grasping his friend's wrist, he turned and began running back towards Saguru.

He had one foot on firm, solid ground when the bridge disappeared from underneath his and Yami's feet. Though he tried to pull his friend up onto the rocky soil, Yami was standing on nothing, and so was like a dead weight to Tristen, who was still grasping his wrist. Like an anchor, the exhausted pharaoh began to pull them both down...

Saguru dived into action, his Opposition training and instinct mixing with his determination to save his friends. He grabbed Tristen's shoulder, pulling the teen forwards onto the solid ground with a swift tug; the sudden movement made the brunette's hand open automatically, and Yami was suddenly unsupported.

Like lightning, the Negative Joey's hands shot out, grasping Yami's wrist firmly; he held on tightly, and the spirit's fall was brought to an abrupt halt. The pharaoh was slammed rather painfully into the rock walls of the chasm, but the slight pain was nothing compared the relief he felt that he had been saved.

With a small grunt, Saguru pulled the spirit up onto the rocky ground next to Tristen, who was still laying face-down on his stomach where he'd been tossed after being pulled up by the Negative. Sighing with relief, Yami threw himself on his back, sprawled out, thankful to be alive--as alive as a spirit could be, in any case.

"Man, don't scare me like that!" Saguru hissed angrily, dusting himself off. He was panting slightly, now, and gazed down at the two True Realm beings, having been the only one left to stand.

"Sorry," Tristen muttered, though it was rather hard to understand him, as he was still face down, and the sound was rather muffled.

Saguru sighed. "Here, let's get away from this stupid hole," he muttered. Tristen nodded, pulling himself to his feet and marching away from the hole as if he never wanted to see it again, while Yami simply got up, moved a few feet away, and flopped back onto the ground, exhausted.

"Guess you need some rest," Saguru observed.

"Very much so. There is no time limit; just give me some time to pull myself back together."

The Negative nodded. "Right. Of course. Tell us when you're ready to move on."

They stayed in that area for nearly twenty minutes, Yami simply laying on the ground, eyes closed, while Tristen and Saguru talked about what they might possibly face for their next obstacle.

"Okay," Yami finally sighed, pulling himself to his feet again. "I'm ready. Let's get going."

They began to jog along once more, starting slow at first for Yami's benefit, but eventually speeding up their pace until they were moving as fast as they had been earlier. They did not expect anything to happen for a good fifteen minutes or so, making them figure that it was probably okay to use large quantities of energy to cover ground.

Barely five minutes after they had left the bottomless chasm behind, however, they heard a screeching, high-pitched call, coming from the wastelands to their right and a little behind them. Curious, Saguru asked the others, "What was that?"

The others shrugged, not having the answer, and the Negative sighed. "Probably nothing concerning us. Let's just keep going."

But the call repeated itself, becoming louder and louder as it went. Nearly five minutes passed with it's uncomfortable, ear-splitting shrieks, until finally Yami hissed, "Whatever it is, it's beginning to get annoying. I hope it stops soon."

Frowning, Saguru looked over his shoulder, hoping to spot the creature or thing that was causing the noise. He soon wished he hadn't; eyes wider than before, he hissed to the others, "I think we should run faster."

"Why?" the other Challengers asked, curious.

" 'Cause our next obstacle's a Duel Monster, and it's chasing us."

Startled, the other two whipped their heads around, trying to notice the thing that had made Saguru nervous. Yami spotted it first, and had to agree that it was, indeed, a Duel Monster.

It was still quite a ways away, but it was gaining fast, and could already be easily recognizable. There was no mistaking it's scaly texture and green shade; it was obviously a dragon of some sort. Oddly enough, it had no arms or legs; it looked like a thick-bodied snake attached to a pair of blood-red wings. There were pewter-gray spikes running down it's back, though they stopped far short of it's tail--if one could determine where the body ended and the tail began--and they looked sharp and dangerous. What was most startling about this particular dragon, however, was that it wore armor; it had a steel chest-plate that was attached to it by means of a metal ring around it's body, along with a beak-like helmet that covered and protected it's single, dark black eye. Yami thought vaguely that he'd seen it's card in Yugi's Grandpa's shop before; a One-Eyed Shield Dragon, he thought it was called.

"Oh, man," Tristen yelped, startled, before turning back to keep his eyes on the road. "We'd better run like hell!"

They did, pelting as fast as they possibly could down the road set out for them--the True Realm beings could see why Saguru was called the Wolf, now--but the Shield Dragon was faster. It pumped it's wide, strong wings, bringing it ever closer to it's goal, and let off another screech with it's sharp, beak-like mouth. Now that it was closer, they could see just how big it was--while still fairly small for a dragon, it was at least ten feet from beak to tail-tip.

"Crap," Saguru hissed angrily, turning to check it's progress. "It's too fast!"

"Yeah, I really don't want to get eaten by a dragon," Tristen muttered, speeding up his pace ever so slightly.

"Just put all your effort into running," Yami yelled over to his friend. He was surprised that he was even keeping up with the other two; usually he fell behind, due to his short legs, but he supposed a strong burst of adrenaline had changed the matter entirely.

"Just hope it doesn't get close enough to use it's attack," Saguru panted.

"And what's that?" Tristen asked, sounding slightly nervous.

"Says it on the card. 'This dragon wears a shield not only for it's own protection, but also for ramming it's enemies.' Can you imagine how painful it would be to get hammered by a metal shield with a dragon's weight on it? It'd be devastating!"

"Just concentrate on running," Yami repeated. He was trying to charge up the magic in his Puzzle for an attack, but after his spell at the chasm, with the bridge, he doubted he'd be of any use.

The dragon screamed again, it's cry loud, and pumped it's wings still harder, pushing itself forward. This encouraged the Challengers to force their speed still faster, though they were beginning to wear down.

Abruptly, Tristen spoke, though he was, surprisingly, not commenting on the dragon. "What's that ahead of us?"

"Don't tell me it's another dragon," Saguru said flatly, still running.

"No...I don't think it is..." The brunette squinted as best as he could while running. "It looks like...trees."

He was right, Yami noted, as he looked ahead of them. Some distance away along their path, he could see the tall, bristling forms of two trees, one on each side of the road. They seemed out of place in the wasteland, where not a tree had been seen until now, and they had an almost powerful feeling...

Yami blinked in surprise and looked over the trees for a second time. They were even with each other across the road, and seemed to be almost marking something...

With a start, he realized. "Those trees! They're supposed to be indicating the finishing line!"

"So...so we have to get there before the dragon gets us?" Tristen yelled loudly over the roar of the creature behind them. "Think we can make it?"

"We can, if we slow it down," Saguru said quickly, looking over his shoulder once more--the dragon was dangerously close, it's scream ripping their ears to shreds.

"How on earth do we slow that thing down?!" the brunette yelled, sounding somewhat angry. "It's impossible!"

"Not for me," the Negative said, a small grin making it's way onto his face. "You guys get running, you need the advantage. I'll buy us some time."

The other two tried to argue with him, but he refused, point-blank, to let them stay behind with him, and so they jogged on, worried about their friend.

They need not have bothered. Saguru came to an abrupt halt, spinning around to face the dragon, and plunged his hand into his jacket pocket. It came out with a gun; the Negative clenched it tightly in his fist, and looked as if he knew how to use it.

With perfect grace and ease, he raised the gun and fired three rapid shots at the Shield Dragon. The first two rebounded off of the chest plate that the creature wore with an odd metallic clang, but the third planted itself at the base of the wing joint, where it met the body.

The creature screeched in agony, throwing up it's head in pain; it veered to the side unconsciously, landing momentarily to lick at it's wound, casting Saguru with a momentary glare from it's one dark eye.

The Negative grinned. "Score one for Saguru!" he yelled loudly, his mocking tone making the Shield dragon hiss angrily. He then turned, and without hesitation used all his endurance to catch up to Tristen and Yami, who were some distance ahead.

Yami and Tristen had seen the entire thing, watching over their shoulder. When the opposite Joey caught up, they both asked at nearly the same time, "Where'd you get that gun?!"

"I've had it with me since I came through from my Realm," Saguru said, shrugging. "Remember, I was in a raid before I was brought through. What else would I fight with?"

"I dunno...knives and dirks and things, like the others?" Tristen asked, shrugging.

"Nah...Kaze and Kawari might like blade weapons, but I definitely favor the more modern things." He changed the topic quickly as he saw his two fellow Challengers slowing down. "Hold it...keep moving, whatever you do. Just because I shot it doesn't mean it won't be catching up. I've only delayed it."

They took his advice, pounding down the dirt-packed road towards what was hopefully the goal. They weren't too far from it now, although they still had some distance to go; all three of them were hoping they could make it there before they became a dragon's afternoon snack.

The Shield Dragon, meanwhile, was beginning to recover. It had licked it's wounded wing-joint until the blood flow had stopped, and now it was angry. Raising it's wings, it pumped them hard and took off into the air once more, streaming after Saguru, Yami, and Tristen. Fortunately for the Challengers, the wound had left it's mark; the creature often veered to the left without meaning to, for it's left wing was wounded, while the right wing was more powerful, pushing it to the side. It was also the tiniest bit slower, making running from the beast somewhat easier, though not much.

Worse, the Challengers were running out of endurance. They'd run the entire Challenge race so far, and were exhausted, making them slow down and become easier for the Shield Dragon to overcome; the reptilian beast plowed forward, pushing with it's great wings, and was suddenly only feet behind them.

"How'd it get here so fast?!" one of them shrieked--it was all too confused to realize who had spoken. The dragon was roaring loudly now, showing sharp teeth and waving it's pointed, beak-like nose and helmet in a movement that they obviously realized was triumph.

Without warning, it folded it's wings around itself and dived, rocketing downward at the three Challengers and shrieking loudly. At it's speed, it's metal-clad beak would be as sharp and deadly as a knife; the steel encasing it's body would kill any person it landed on.

"Dodge!" Saguru shouted wildly. The threesome threw themselves in different directions, being careful to stay on the road, as the Shield Dragon hammered down only feet behind them. The ground shook from it's impact, throwing them off balance, and it stretched out it's wide mouth in the hopes of snatching one of them up.

"Run, run now, I'll hold it back!" Saguru shouted, leveling his gun with the creature once again. It was struggling to bring itself airborne without any limbs to push it into the air, and the Negative knew he had it at an advantage.

"But we--"

"Just run!" the opposite Joey hissed. "Look, the finish line's close now, just make for it and I'll catch up! Go!"

Obediently, Tristen and Yami picked themselves up and darted away from the creature, towards the trees that had to mark the finish line. It was only seventy feet away, and if they could just keep running for a few solid minutes, they'd make it...

Saguru, meanwhile, was busy with the Shield Dragon. He only had four shots left in his gun, he knew, and he had to make them count.

Leaping backwards a pace so that the sweeping wings would not knock him off of his feet, he took aim and fired. His first bullet hammered into the second wing joint, making the creature scream loudly. The second and third shots bounced off the helmet of the dragon, as it's head was weaving crazily due to it's pain, but the fourth and final shot hit where he had aimed--straight in it's one eye, blinding the creature.

It screeched loudly, crying out it's pain to all that would listen, and Saguru felt as if his ears were being torn off of him. Groaning, he covered them quickly and turned, dashing after his friends madly, hoping to get away from the creature and it's cry.

He caught up to them after a few minutes; they were nearly at the finish line marked by the trees, with perhaps only thirty feet or so to go.

"What did you do to it?" Yami hissed, panting heavily.

"Blinded it," Saguru muttered, placing his now-empty gun back in his jacket pocket. "It won't be able to see us so well, then."

"All dragons have an excellent sense of smell and hearing, though," Yami warned him. "It can still follow us!"

"I know, but at least it'll be harder for the damn thing."

The spirit gave an exasperated sigh, but it was swallowed up by the roar of the Shield Dragon. The creature had risen into the air again, and despite it's two wing wounds, it plowed after them with incredible speed. It was almost on them already, screaming angrily, blood streaming from it's single eye.

But they were almost at the finish, now, with only fifteen feet to go...ten...

The Shield Dragon was on them, now, raising it's huge bulk so as to slam it's metal plates down onto them and crush them to death...

With a final burst of speed, Saguru dashed passed the trees and 'across' the finish line, Tristen following with Yami only seconds behind them. Their momentum carried them onward, and they could not slow down, continuing to run on down the dirt path...

...And the land around them flickered, leaving Saguru darting quite suddenly towards the river's edge on the bank.

"What the...!" the Negative yelled in surprise, only moments away from taking a bath in the river water. He scrabbled to a halt, balancing on the edge of the bank for a moment with waving arms, before gaining hold of his balance and coming to a stop with a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately for him, Tristen and Yami had not seen the river ahead of them, as Saguru blocked their path, nor had they tried to slow down the momentum of their final mad dash. They crashed into Saguru's back, and the entire party of Challengers overbalanced, collapsing with a splash into the waters below.

Saguru blinked, wiping his now-soggy bangs out of his eyes, and spat out a mouthful of water. He was in the shallows of the river, were the current wasn't so strong, but the water still came up to his neck while he was on hands and knees. Tristen was sitting beside him, drenched, while Yami's regal air was sorely taken away due to his now soaked appearance and slightly flattened hair.

"I AM DEFEATED." The voice came without warning, humble and calm as all the others had been, yet this one seemed amused at it's Challengers' predicament. It's voice disappeared quickly, however, giving way for the laughter on the bank that could now so clearly be heard.

"What'd you go running into the river for?!" somebody yelled, laughing historically. It sounded suspiciously like Kaiba, though from the Challenger's low point of view, they could not see who it was. The others were laughing as well, apparently finding the three drenched Challengers amusing.

Saguru stood up, walking out of the water with a somewhat annoyed look on his face, wringing his jacket out with a sigh. Tristen followed him, Yami coming last. They, too, looked rather aggravated, and scanned the laughing Scroll-hunters with annoyance.

It seemed that all of them were laughing, to some extent (with the exception of Kaze, who never seemed to laugh anyway). Some were doubled over, others were leaning on companions to keep from falling, and still others were rolling on the ground, snickering.

"I don't see what's so funny," Yami said hotly, apparently taking this occurrence as a blow to his pride.

"Oh...but, see..." Kaeru paused, trying to get breath back into his temporary body's lungs as he leaned heavily on Kawari's shoulder for support. "You were just standing there, and the voice told you to begin, and you just ran into the river!"

To the surprise of all (particularly Kaiba) Saguru burst out laughing as well. "I get it now!" he said cheerfully, grinning. "Must've looked stupid."

"Just a bit," Kaeru said, still laughing.

"Well, okay, you've all had your fun," Yami sniffed disdainfully, throwing Kaeru a rather annoyed look, "Now can we get back to work?"

The laughter calmed down considerably, and Saguru moved to retrieve the Scroll, stretching out his hand to reach it where it bobbed lazily above the water. His hand slipped through the bubble that encased the magical item without any trouble, though it felt somewhat oily over his skin; he hastily grabbed the Scroll of Passion and pulled it from it's hold, grinning.

"So that's Scroll number three that we've gotten," he said, grinning. "Here ya go, Kaze."

The Keeper of the Scrolls took the magical item with a silent nod of thanks, opening it slowly and scanning it's contents before pulling a small piece of parchment from within.

"Well," he said easily, "we have our next riddle, at least."

"Read it! Read it out loud!" The group chorused, only the Negatives and Yami (who had separated with Yugi once more) staying silent.

"Of course I will," Kaze said, his voice calm, but something about it demanding silence and respect. Once the Scroll hunters had quieted, he cleared his throat and read clearly:

"Of the Fourth Scroll you have need

You will follow where my clue leads.

Tearing wounds not of the skin

Pain causes me, and I cause sin.

All around me, trees stand tall

Will they never bend and fall?

Yet safe am I, shelter o'erhead

Created from the bones of Earth's dead

Deep in icy ground I sleep

Yet within, my bitter rage I keep."

There was a silence for a moment, before Tea gave a small shudder and murmured, "That one sounds creepier than the others."

"Yeah, well, you can't expect all of them to be pleasant," Kawari said, shrugging. He stared up through the fire colored leaves at the sun, which was just beginning to set. "Come on, why don't we head back towards the helicopters we left in the field, and discuss this on the way. It's gonna get dark soon, and those three need dry clothes." He pointed at Saguru, Yami, and Tristen.

The Scroll-hunters agreed that this sounded like a good idea, so after several minutes the group had been organized once more, and they had turned towards the path they'd taken to reach the river.

"Okay," Kaze called out over the chatter, once the group had gotten moving, "we've all heard the newest verse, and now we have to figure it out. There's an Element in here somewhere, along with a location to the next Scroll, so everybody, start thinking."

That was indeed what each of them had been doing ever since they heard the verse. This was a tricky one, especially since the Element was not said in name, as it had been in the last verse. Still, their minds had become more accustomed to how the riddles worked, since they had already thought their way through three of them, and it seemed easier to pick the riddle apart into it's separate pieces.

They knew, for example, that most of the lines in the middle of the verse were hints as to the location of the next Scroll, while the second, third, and last lines could not give an indication as to a place, and therefore had to mean the Element of the Scroll they searched for. This was confirmed when several of them shared the same idea, and all agreed on the basic structure of the verse.

The problem was, they knew, that the lines themselves were difficult to pull apart. Several of them did not seem to make sense, as Joey kindly pointed out to the rest of the group.

"'Tearing wounds not of the skin?' What the heck is that supposed to mean? And a shelter created from Earth's dead bones? What the heck are Earth's bones? Earth doesn't even have bones!"

"As you've so nicely pointed out six times already," Kawari said sarcastically, flicking some of his long white bangs out of his eyes. "Kindly give us a new observation, will you?"

"Hey, d'you wanna mess?" Joey growled angrily, before turning to see who the speaker was. Kawari raised an eyebrow, as if to ask, 'What, with me?' to which Joey replied hastily, "Hah hah, er, just jokin' with ya."

"Riiight," the Negative Ryou muttered, vaguely confused at the reaction, but too focused on the riddle to dwell on it for long.

Tea was muttering the lines that seemed to have a connection with the Element under her breath. "'Tearing wounds not of the skin'...'pain causes me, and I cause sin'...'yet within, my bitter rage I keep.' " Thinking carefully, she tried to find a connection between the two, muttering softly. "Pain causes...erm...wounds...no, there aren't any wounds, that's what the line before that says...hmm....pain causes...fear? No, that's not an Element. Hmm...distrust? No...anger, maybe?" Her head shot up suddenly, startled.

Kaze was walking along quietly when he suddenly felt somebody grab his arm, shaking it to get his attention. Curious, he looked down to find Tea staring up at him, a look of determination on her face.

"Kaze, what were the last four Elements we had left to get?"

The Negative Seto thought quickly for a moment before murmuring, "Time, Hatred, Fate, and Death."

"I knew it!" Tea cried triumphantly, grinning widely. "I know the next Element!"

The others were listening closely now, excited at the possible discovery. Kaze asked quickly, "Which one, and how do you know?"

"It's Hatred," Tea said, sounding so sure on the matter that no one chose to disagree with her. "See, it fits all the lines. 'Tearing wounds not of the skin.' Hatred in a person causes them to think differently, to resent others; it ruins their life, and that's a wound for their existence, but it's not a visible one, like a cut! And the next line: 'Pain causes me, and I cause sin.' When a person is hurt in some way, be it physically, mentally, spiritually, anything, it causes them to hate the one who hurt them--and in return, they begin to try and hurt that person back, causing sin." She grinned; she was on a role now. "And the last line practically describes it for us. 'Yet within, my bitter rage I keep.' How else could you describe bitter rage? Hatred!"

"Well, that clears that up, then," Saguru said cheerfully. "Thanks, Tea, you got my opposite to stop sending me annoying messages through our mind link." This was obviously said jokingly, as Joey stuck his tongue out at his Negative but did nothing else.

"Now all we have to do is figure out where it is," Kaiba added, with an exasperated sigh.

They reached the field that the helicopters had been left in at that point, and the group divided into two as before, piling into the choppers with Kaiba and Kaze piloting. They headed back towards Domino, but did not head for KaibaCorp, where they had started from; instead, Kaiba radioed into the second helicopter, saying they might as well head to his mansion for the night, seeing as it was getting dark and it would make a decent base of operations for the Scroll-hunters. Everyone agreed, and the helicopters soon touched down on the True Seto's private landing area.

The group of twelve then piled out of the choppers, heading after Kaiba and Mokuba into the gigantic house. They were led into a comfortable room that seemed to be a cross between an office and a library--it had plenty of chairs and a wide area, plus a computer sitting in the corner in case of needed research.

The search was called to a momentary halt as Yugi, Yami, and Tristen headed back home for new, dry clothes; Joey took his opposite to his own house, offering to share some of his own wardrobe, seeing as there would be no problem with sizes. Before they left, Kaiba offered to allow all of the Scroll-hunters to spend the night, seeing as the search was going to be taking a while (though when his kindness was regarded with surprise, he claimed that he was only doing it to get the search over with as quickly as possible). All the guests agreed, and there was a flurry of teens calling their parents to tell them where they would be.

When Yugi, Yami, Saguru, Joey, and Tristen had returned, the twelve Scroll-hunters gathered around the small slip of parchment once more, looking over the remaining mysterious words with careful concentration.

"Well, lines five and six aren't too hard," Kaeru said after a few minutes, shrugging. "'All around me, trees stand tall. Will they never bend and fall?' It's pretty obvious--wherever the Scroll of Hatred is hidden, there's a ring of trees that grow around it, and they must be pretty old and big, considering that the verse is questioning their size."

"Mm, I have to agree," Yami said, nodding, having since forgotten that the tomb robber had laughed at his plight in the river and talking nicely to him again. "The second to last line is fairly easy as well--'deep in icy ground I sleep.' It means, without question, that the Scroll has been buried."

"So then," Mokuba piped up, "the only two lines we really haven't solved are 'Yet safe am I, shelter o'erhead, Created from the bones of Earth's dead.' Er..." he looked around at the others, frowning. "Any idea what Earth's dead bones are?"

There was a collective shaking of heads from the group, and Mokuba sighed. "Darn."

Ryou, however, had not shaken his head. "I think," he said softly, frowning slightly, "that I've heard this before."

Eleven heads turned towards him quickly. "What?!"

The white-haired True being quickly explained. "I think I've heard references to Earth's bones before. You all know how my dad's an archeologist..." the others nodded, none of them noticing the slight twitch of surprise displayed by Kawari. "Well," Ryou continued, having not noticed either, "he went to Greece once, and he brought me back this book of Ancient Greek myths. There was one in it that was sort of like a version of Noah's Ark, but there was a reference to 'throwing Mother Earth's bones' over the characters' shoulders' [1]. And the bones...were rocks!"

The group was gaping at him now, startled, but Kaze suddenly spoke.

"It makes perfect sense...rocks are bones, to the planet Earth...it's brilliant!"

"So then," Tristen mused, "a shelter created overhead from rocks would be...a cave!"

The group seemed suddenly filled with an explosive energy; they had solved the next riddle already!

"Okay," Mokuba repeated carefully, committing all the facts to memory. "We're looking for a cave surrounded by a ring of old trees, and the Scroll of Hatred should be buried in the cave somewhere."

Joey was grinning widely, his blonde hair flopping into his face more than usual from his excitement. "Great! Hey, Kaiba, got another location for us in that brain of yours?"

Kaiba gave a disdainful snort at being talked to in such a way by somebody he despised, but he covered it up with some effort, keeping to his promise, and said slowly, "Maybe."

"Whadya mean, 'maybe?'"

"What I mean," Kaiba said flatly, "is that I think the reserve up North that the museum is working with may have caves. It seemed to imply that in the articles, anyway."

He was met with several blank stares from the True Realm beings, and curious looks from the Negative. Sighing, he muttered, "Don't tell me you don't know about the reserves."

"Alright," Joey said, shrugging. "We won't."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Okay, the Negatives I can understand, because they're from a different Realm and obviously things happen differently there. But you guys," he said disdainfully, looking around at the other True Realm beings, "don't you ever pay attention to the news?"

"Not constantly," Yugi replied truthfully. "I mean, some stuff in the news has been important, but..." he let it hang.

The True Seto sighed, shaking his head. "There was a huge article a few months ago about some land up north that seemed to hold large quantities of ancient artifacts. The Domino Museum was interested in the discoveries, and took control over the area, providing lots of funding for the activities that went on up there. You know, digging, studying, and the like. They also wanted to protect the area, so they turned it into a reserve."

"Oh." Most of the True Realm beings now looked interested, though seemed as if they'd never heard the story in their lives. Kaiba seemed to be fighting the urge to shout 'you're all pathetic,' but he held his tongue.

"So...you think there are caves up in these reserves?" Joey asked, curious.

"I believe so. I've never actually been there, but the articles I read did mention caves a few times." He shrugged. "It's our best bet, in any case."

"We'll just have to head up there, then," Kaze said, sounding determined.

"Now?" Seto asked, looking at his opposite as if he was crazy. "At night? Do you realize how hard it would be to get into that private property? Not easy, let me tell you."

Kaze, in reply, coughed into his hand, looking as though he was trying to suppress a laugh. "Need I remind you who we are? You have a lot of power at your back; use it."

Kaiba rolled his eyes, but said nothing, apparently not sure how to reply to this very true fact.

So it was that, fifteen minutes later, the group had split in two and was climbing into the helicopters once more. It was nearly dark out, with faint wisps of pink, red, and orange in the sky on the horizon, but beyond that, dark. The lights of the helicopters were turned on, and soon the forty-five minute flight to the reserves was under progress.

The flight was rather uneventful, save for the chatter in both choppers concerning what would happen next as far as Challenges and Scrolls went, and they had soon touched down in the now-empty dirt lot outside the gates to the reserve.

"Okay," Kaiba muttered to the rest of the group, once they were all gathered together again. "I want to make this as smooth as possible, so Kaeru and Yami? Back to your soul rooms for the moment." The spirits nodded, flickering out of existence quickly, and Kaiba continued. "Now, Ryou and Kawari, you'll have to play twins again. Saguru and Joey will have to do the same. And since you're taller, you two," he added, talking to the pair of blondes, "you'll have to take the job of making sure Kaze doesn't get seen. We can't have them questioning two Kaibas; if news gets out that I have a 'twin,' I'll be in trouble and so will the rest of us. Got it? Good. Let me do the talking."

This said, Kaiba turned and strided forwards towards the gate. There was a small building next to it, much like a ranger's building or a guard house, and the CEO approached it casually, the rest of the group behind him.

"'Ey...where d'you think you're goin'?" Came the rough voice of a guard, as Kaiba neared the gates next to the guard house.

"I need to enter this reserve, if you would be so kind as to open the gate for me," Kaiba replied smoothly, an arrogant air in his voice.

"And why would I be doin' that, if you please?" the guard said, a small growl in his voice.

"Do you know who I am?" Seto replied flatly.

"Er..." the guard neared them, shining his flashlight over the CEO, and suddenly gave a gasp of surprise. "You're Seto Kaiba, that company-ownin' teenager."

"Exactly. That should be enough of a reason for you."

The guard lost the awe in his voice, becoming more firm. "Now, see here, I can't let anybody through into the reserve after dark, and even in the day only certain approved officials are allowed in."

Kaiba allowed a growl to enter his voice. "Really? I'll have you know, I have acquaintances back in Domino Museum, and they would not be happy if they realized that they had sent me here to be turned around by the lazy guard at the gate. Of course," he added, straightening slightly, "if you let my companions and I pass the gate so that we may return to our business...perhaps I can let it slide that there was a rude watchman on the way."

"R...right, sir!" the man stuttered, apparently startled at the teenager's sharp words and dangerous attitude. "I...I'll let you through, Mr. Kaiba, sir, just check with us once you leave, okay?"

"Very well," Kaiba said, nodding, "it seems a reasonable request." On sudden inspiration, he added, "You wouldn't happen to have a map of the reserve, would you?"

"Right here, sir," the guard muttered, pulling a folded up piece of paper from his back pocket. "Why, though, Mr. Kaiba?"

"We're only looking for one section of the reserves, and that's all I will tell you--my business is my own."

"Right sir," the man muttered--he was sweating now, though it was the beginning of a rather cool night. "Just...go ahead sir, just remember, check in when you're done, sir."

"Of course." Turning slightly, Kaiba motioned for the others to follow, and they stepped behind him without complaint.

The guard was silent, up until the point when Kawari, Ryou, Saguru, and Joey passed. Scratching his head curiously, the man muttered, "What on Earth is with all these twins?"

Kawari could not resist a smart remark, and said casually, "Oh, you know, you don't get twins all that often, so we like to all gather together and hang out. Especially at night, on reserves."

The guard raised an eyebrow, muttering, "Well, I'll be..."

'Dork,' Came Kawari's thought through the mind-link to Ryou. The True Hikari fought the urge to burst out laughing at this, and ended up stuffing his fist in his mouth to keep himself quiet.

They passed into the reserves in silence, besides the clang of the gate closing behind them. Once inside, they discovered it was quite dark; the Negatives, however, had had the foresight to bring flashlights, and they calmly handed them out to the others until they seemed to be standing in a large pool of light.

"Okay," Kaiba murmured casually, "we've gotten into the reserve without too much trouble, and now all we have to do is get to the caves." He held his flashlight over the map the guard had given him, studied it for a few minutes, and then turned. "Follow me."

They walked for about ten minutes or so, marveling at the beauty of the land, even if it was quite dark and they couldn't see it quite as well as they could have in daylight. After several minutes, however, Kaiba finally came to a halt, motioning for the others to do so as well.

"We're at the caves," he murmured. "Now all we have to do is find the right one and start digging."

Finding the correct cave was not all that difficult, for most of them were in rocky outcrops and were nowhere near trees. However, one rather small natural cave was surrounded by a ring of thick, tall oak trees, and was, without a doubt, the cave they were searching for. Yugi counted the ring of trees when the others weren't looking; thirteen exactly. How foreboding.

Inside the cave, most of the floor consisted of stone; however, near the cave mouth, dirt and soil abounded. The Twelve set to work digging, using sticks, their hands, or any other sharp objects that could be put to use (though Joey nearly lost a hand when he asked Kawari if they could use Gin Hebi as a shovel).

Kaiba, however, was looking increasingly uneasy, and was staring around the surrounding land with a frown. Slowly, he circled the cave once, then bent down, examining marks along the cave sides, on the tree bark, and the soil. Each time he closely checked a particular area, his uneasy frown became stronger.

Finally, the True CEO gave a small groan, shaking his head. "Stop digging."

"What?" Mokuba asked, startled at the command. "But...but we've found the location of the next Scroll!"

"No we haven't," Kaiba sighed. "This was a pointless attempt."

"Why?" The others had stopped their activities now and were glancing at Kaiba in confusion.

"Just look around," Seto muttered moodily. "The trees have been marked, the soil's been disturbed and turned. People have already been here."

"How on earth can you tell from looking at dirt?" Joey asked flatly.

"Just look, Joey," Kaiba growled angrily, biting back the insult on his tongue. "The soil's been turned, and dirt that was on lower layers has been exposed to the air for several months. It's more weathered than it should be. That means somebody's dug here already." He turned to the trees. "Furthermore, this oak right here has an 'X' cut into it, like a marker. The people have observed here already. The museum got here before us."

"No...no way!" several of the True beings yelled, startled. "There's...just....no way!"

"Oh, there is," Kaiba said flatly. "It's my guess that our Scroll of Hatred is sitting in a display case in the Domino Museum right now."

There was an all-around startled reaction to this statement, and for a moment everyone was plunged into silence. Then, very softly, almost tentatively, Yugi murmured, "Well...if it's at the museum...why can't we ask Isis to give it to us?"

Seto shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. Isis is in charge of the Egyptian exhibits, because they're hers, and she represents the Egyptian government in that aspect," he explained. "She has nothing to do with the rest of the museum's artifacts."

Yugi looked, if possible, even more shocked at this. Then, very slowly, his muttered, "But...but if we can't get the Scroll from the museum willingly...then...then that means we'd have to steal it!" He frowned unhappily, obviously not pleased with coming to such a result.

The group stood in silence for what seemed like an age. Then, abruptly, but in near unison, each and every head turned to look at Kaeru.

The ancient tomb robber grinned and stretched his hands out in front of him, lacing his fingers together and cracking them in a lazy-looking way. "It's been some time since I've had a good theft assignment," he said, chuckling lightly. "Shall we start planning?"

* * * * *

[1] This really is a true Greek/Roman myth. Supposedly, a man and a woman were commanded by the gods to build a ship while the evil of the rest of their race was wiped out. Then they were commanded to throw the bones of their mother over their shoulders to give birth to the new human race. They had to figure out that the 'bones of their mother' was actually referring to mother Earth, not their flesh-and-blood mothers, and then they tossed rocks over their shoulders. The rocks turned into people. Weird, I know, but I love Greek and Roman mythology none the less. That's why I take Latin ^_~

* * * * *

Kaiba: And according to HCG's notes, that concludes today's chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it, because I sure didn't. *grumbles at any version of Joey getting more to do than he does.*

Kawari: *rolls eyes*

Kaeru: Come on, guys, you're missing the game!

*Kawari and Kaiba run over to the earlier mentioned card table, at which HCG and Yami are currently sitting. They are playing the age old, well known game of...Uno.*

HCG: *gleefully places one of her two remaining cards down* Wild Card. I say red, and Uno!

Yami: *panicking and looking over his twenty-five or so cards* *gasps in relief and places a Wild Card down on the table, grinning* Blue!

HCG: *gleefully tosses her last card, which was blue, down on the table* HAH! I made you change the color for me! I knew you must have Wild in there somewhere!

Yami: _;; Whatever.

HCG: Come on, add up the points, what do you have?

Yami: *counts* 387 x_X;;

HCG: *writes it down on the pad of paper* Than that makes 643 to 0...I win again! ^_^

Yami: Er...8 out of 15? o_O;;;

HCG: WHO'S THE GREATEST GAME MASTER EVER NOW?!

Yami: .......I refuse to let the words pass my lips.

HCG: Fine, be stubborn, but you'll have to say it soon. In the meantime, I'll answer reviews.

Magical Mage ~ Well, what do you think? You came the closest to answering the third riddle correctly...you mentioned the river and Passion together. Good job ^_~

Aibou ~ Aw, 'tis okay, I made the riddles confusing on purpose. XD, Kaze is smart and he knows it.

Kaze: -_-;; I don't brag about it though, unlike my opposite.

Kaiba: Why not boast my genius skills? I'm awesome! ^_~

Kaze: Whatever you say.

Daricio ~ Holy crap, that's the longest review I've ever gotten. O_O;; I print my reviews out, and it took up...*counts* Two and a half pages o_O; Well anyway. *waves to Darika* You had some interesting ideas about the riddle--I always love reading peoples' theories on them. It's fun ^_^

Silver Fang ~ Puns ARE so fun! I wuv them to death! Although I don't think there are a lot in here (although I did make a lot of dumb jokes in parentheses towards the end of the fic, because I was bone tired and had a rather odd sense of humor. I don't think Kawari would actually slice off Joey's hand, of course...then again, I could be wrong, you never know with Kawari when Gin Hebi is concerned). And YES I did play a game with Yami, and lookit lookit, I WON!

Trinity Star ~ Wow, you have a lot of gadgets. The Truly Universal Remote...the Plot Tranquilizer...Oh, and I know what loosing a writing book would be like. I happen to use one too, and every time I get an idea I jot it down. I'm also sure my muses will behave quite well now, lest they desire to get torn apart by their beloved fangirls. ^_^

Kawari, Kaeru, Kaze, & Kaiba: O_O;;;;;

Anonymous ~ Glad you like my ficcie. No prob with the "very's," I often find myself repeating words (you should see chapter rough drafts. Scary-ful!) Ugh, sorry about the chapter longness; I knew somebody wasn't gonna like it. Here's the problem; I try to keep it short, but I have an outline with everything that's supposed to happen in each chapter already written out. The info's carefully balanced so you don't find things out too early, and the like. Unfortunately, from the time that I wrote the outline to now, my writing skills have improved. Thus, things that were only supposed to be 16 pages ended up being 33 (as was the case with Chapter 9). Anyway. Sorry again about the length; I'll try to keep it shorter if I can, but I'm not sure if it's possible.

Wingleader Sora Jade ~ Meh heh heh, so much to comment on here! Okay, firstly, I'm actually very sorry that I forgot to mention Kawari's cameo in YoTU:F. I was going to mention it originally, but by the time I wrote in my author's notes for Ch. 8, it was 12:30 at night and my brain had forgotten almost everything except the need for sleep. ^_^;; Sorry 'bout that.

Yes, NR Malik and NR Isis are very much alive and well (though Malik has a nice scar in his shoulder now, to go along with those carvings x_X;;). I was originally going to explain in the chapter, but I didn't have enough time, so here's a short summary: NR Yami went into the tombs to get the spells he was after, and some of Malik's hunters (who are still hunters, but not 'rare hunters;' they're Malik's followers) managed to find the three who had faced that crazy yami and bring them back to the Egyptian base for medical treatment. Yami got the spells though. *pout* Stupid meanie-head. And I'm glad you noticed my difference with Isis. Malik doesn't seem too different yet, but that's cause I'm trying to conserve his personality until the sequel to this sequel, when he becomes a vital character.

As for Ryou and Serenity...they do make a cute couple in your fics, I agree ^_~ However, in the Negative Realm, you'd find that a Ryou/Serenity pairing would be next to impossible. See, Serenity is friends with Amane, and so Kawari sort of takes it upon himself to look out for his sister, and therefore her best friends. So Kawari sees Serenity as more of a younger sister, and less as a possible girlfriend.

Kaeru: Plus, HCG can't write romance for her life, and would butcher a good couple's romantic progress. XD.

HCG: _;; Shut uuuup!

bakurakrazie ~ You're in luck; I actually am writing a trilogy. The third story in the series is currently being pulled together; at the moment it's just a bunch of random ideas that I have to organize. Never fear, the Negative Realm adventures will not be ending anytime soon!

Drachen Yami ~ You read Shadow Turned Light too, hmm? That's good at least; I have a sneaking suspicion that SOME of my readers have not read the first of the series. *glances around suspiciously* Must've been a shock for you, though, to find 8 chapters of a story up ^_^ Well, hope you enjoyed this one!

Sakura ~ Glad you liked my story. Unfortunately, I can't fill your first request--I have trouble reading fics I started a month ago, as it is. If I ever get time, I'll try to get around to it, but I don't think it'll be happening very soon. Sorry. At least I filled request number two ^_^

NeoChaosCrystal ~ Kawari says he's scared of you. I'm relaying the message, since he refuses to stand within one hundred feet of somebody who's trying to hunt him ^_^;; Or drools over him. Though most girls seem to do that. *snicker* Got to see more of Saguru too in this. And doncha like Kaze more, saving Saguru's life like that?

Also...DING DING DING DING! You're my 100th reviewer! I promised a prize to the 100th, and here it is! First: *gives her a Kawari plushie* Second: You will get a goody basket of chocolate, candy, and other sweets at the end of this review...delivered by Kawari, since he seems to be your favorite character ^_^

Kawari: Why do you torture me so, HCG...

HCG: It's fun, that's why!

LoneWolf16 ~ Love the gem comparison...very pretty ^_~ And it made me excited and hyper too. XD. Thank you for being sympathetic to my computer troubles, also. Ooh, you think my story has everything? *reads over list* Action, hells yes, mystery, gotta have it, fate of Realms...^_^ My own personal touch! Dirk...

Kawari: *defensively* MY DIRK!

HCG: o_O;; okay....Kawari's dirk...fighting, well of course, I love fighting and people say I do it well ^_^ and Riddles...I always love riddles in fics, don't you? And speaking of riddles, hah hah, you noticed the pattern! The first one to do so, if I'm not much mistaken. Good job ^_~ Kaze's your fave, too, hmm? Heh, he's tied as my fave Negative character (along with Kawari, who I enjoy writing about because of his insanely complicated personality). And finally...*looks up at chapter* o_O Think it's long enough for a long review? I hope so ^_^

HCG: Anyway, that's all of the replies. DAMN, were there a lot of reviews for 8. I suppose that happens when you leave it on hold for two months. X_X;;

*back at card table, HCG is still badgering Yami to admit she's the game queen*

Yami: *flatly* I won't.

HCG: Yes you will!

Yami: But you're not the Queen of Games!

HCG: Yes I am!

Yami: No you're not!

HCG: Yes I am!

Yami: No you're not!

HCG: No I'm not!

Yami: Yes you are!

Kaze: -_-;; That's an old trick, Pharaoh, I'm surprised you fell for it.

Yami: O_O;; Oops...

HCG: HAH HAH, even Yami admits it! I'm Queen of Games!

Yami: -_-;; I hate you all...

HCG: On a final note, here's a question for you all. If I started a contest, would you join it? The reason I ask is because I don't want to work hard to come up with all the contest rules and stuff if only three people are gonna join. So answer me in your reviews--would you join a contest if I started it? (Keep in mind--this would be Negative Realm related. If you went in this contest, you will be writing about Negative characters. It's fun for you and helpful for me--I get to see how you all perceive my characters, and that helps me with my writing).

Anyway. Review, and answer the contest question! See yas in Chapter 10!