Hello everybody! Well I'm back in action here after a minor delay…that's ok though, cause I wrote an even longer chapter this time! ^_^ Yey! Well I would like to thank all of the reviewers, you guys are so great! Now, to go along with your earlier cookie and Kaiba plushie, you now get a life size cardboard cutout of Seto! (Complete with the long flowing trench coat, oh yeah!) I'll also throw in a couple of lollypops for each of you. There! Now are those good gifts or what? Yep! Now, on to the story!

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4. Dreams & Reality

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As Domino lay seemingly quiet and dark, Yugi Motou turned in his bed. He happened to be having one of the best dreams of his young life, and a smile lay upon his face.

In his dream, Yugi had mysteriously grown two feet taller, had been crowned "cutest and most powerful Duel King of the World" and had thousands of fangirls who were just dying to meet him, among other things.

The most interesting thing in his dream, however, was Yami. Yami was in the kitchen baking cookies for him! 'Yum!' Yugi thought in his dream, 'Yami's cookies are the best! I'm going to go check them out.'

Walking into what appeared to be his Grandfather's kitchen; Yugi thought to himself that he was going to turn into Joey if Yami kept making food like this.

In the kitchen, he saw Yami standing in front of the oven in a chef's hat and an apron that had 'Kiss me, I'm Pharaoh' on it. Holding a spatula in one hand, Yami turned to him and said, "They're almost ready, Aibou. Just another moment." Then he turned back around and looked into the oven.

Just then, they heard a knock on the front door. "Better get that Aibou," said Yami, "I've got these little sugars to take care of."

Yugi raised his eyebrows at Yami, but started to move towards the front door. When he opened the door, he gasped in excitement and surprise. It was-BAM! BAM! BAM!

Yugi bolted upright in his bed. "H-huh?" he mumbled sleepily. BAM! BAM! BAM!

There it was again, and Yugi looked around. It seemed to be coming from his bedroom window.

"Hey Yuge, open up!" came a muffled voice, presumably outside of his window. "J-Joey?" Yugi said, confused as to why Joey would be at his house at this time of night. He got up and went to open his window. Yep, it was Joey all right, panting. "Hey Yugi, I've been waitin forever for ya to open up! Where were you?"

Suppressing a yawn, Yugi answered, "In bed, Joey, which is where I thought you would be right now. What's going on?"

"Hey, Yuge, come on, ya gotta help me!" Joey said, his voice raising. "Serenity's gone and we gotta find her!"

Yugi looked closer at Joey. His eyes were moving back and forth uneasily and his hair was crazy. He looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep at all that night. Clearly, there was something very wrong with Joey.

Yugi took a deep breath. "What do you mean, 'Serenity is gone'?"

Joey brought up his hands and rubbed his temples while he closed his eyes. "Look Yuge, I'm sorry but I've got no time to explain." He let his hands fall back to his sides and opened his eyes. "All I know is that she's gone and we've gotta find her. Please, Yuge, you've gotta come!" He brought up his hands again, this time running them through his hair, furthering its messed up look.

Looking at Joey, Yugi started to get really worried. He nodded to Joey and said, "Ok, Joey, let me get my shoes on and I'll be right there."

A thin smile made its way onto Joey's face, although there was no warmth behind it. "Thanks Yuge," he said, "I knew I could count on you."

With that, Joey turned around and made his way back to his car. Yugi watched him as he walked away, and then quickly went to put his shoes on. Looking down, he noticed that his sneakers did not match well with his Dark Magician pajamas, but it would have to do.

"Yugi, what's happening?" A voice said behind him. Startled, Yugi quickly turned around. It was Yami.

"Oh Yami, we've gotta go help Joey, his sister is missing."

Yami looked down at Yugi and frowned. The he said, "And how does he expect us to find her when we have no clue where she is at?"

Now it was Yugi's turn to frown. "Well, Yami, I'm not sure. All I do know is that Joey is very upset right now and needs our support."

Yami sighed. "Ok, aibou. Let's go." They started to leave when Yugi turned around and said, "Wait. I should leave a note for Grandpa, in case I'm not here when he wakes up." He quickly went out to the living room to the notepad by the phone and left a short message. Turning back to where Yami was waiting, he said, "Ok, now let's go." Yami smiled and they both went out to where Joey was waiting in his car out front.

"Alright, let's go." Joey said, as Yugi approached the car. Yugi looked at him and then, opening the car door, noticed that Tristan and Duke were already in the back seat. He said his hellos and then sat down in the front seat.

"Hey guys, I wanna thank ya for helpin me out here." Joey said as he started the car. "It means a lot to me." Duke, leaning over from the back seat, answered, "Hey, no problem, but what's so urgent that you needed all of us here right now?"

Joey looked at him in the rearview mirror, his face solemn. "Well guys," he said, "I came home from the game shop today and found that Serenity wasn't there. She had left me a note that said she was at the park, studying…" He looked down and his voice grew very quiet. "Well, when I got to the park," Joey continued, "I found her books and stuff on a picnic table." His voice broke as he said the next line: "but she was gone."

Yugi stared ahead silently while Tristan and Duke started hammering Joey with questions.

"Look," Joey said, as he hit the steering wheel with his hands, "I don't know anymore then what I just told you, ok?" He sighed in exasperation as Tristan and Duke finally calmed down.

"Alright Joey, don't worry." Tristan told him. "We're here to help you, bud."

"Yeah" Duke chimed in. "Let's go find Serenity."

"Alright then. Let's go." Joey placed his foot on the gas and they sped away into the night.

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'No!' thought Serenity as the scuzzy man's hand hovered over her. 'This can't be happening…' As Scuzzy's hand started to descend upon her, Serenity started squirming with all her might. There was no way they were going to take her without a fight. "Hold-still-," the other man said, struggling with her. His grip over her mouth loosened and she took the opportunity to give out the loudest shriek she could muster.

"Damn it!" Scuzzy said to the other man, "Keep her quiet!"

"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do!" The other man yelled at him. Then he looked down at Serenity. "Shut up, bitch!" he said to her, bringing his hand down upon her face, trying to keep her quiet and still at the same time.

The blow brought tears to her eyes and stung like hell, but Serenity wasn't going to give up with just that. 'They'll have to kill me first' she thought, as she wiggled around harder. The van was shaking quite a bit, and she heard the two men yelling at each other. She didn't stop to listen to what they said; she was just glad that they were distracted with each other and not really paying any attention to her.

She was almost free when she suddenly felt the men's hands lift off her. Startled, she looked up and stopped moving as, to her horror, she saw a twin barrage of fists descend down upon her.

With the threat of what would happen if she lost consciousness growing in her mind, she once again opened her mouth and screamed into the darkness of the van.

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Seto looked up sharply. He had just been about to start his car when he thought that he had heard something. Or someone.

Frowning, he opened his car door once more and steeped out into the cold air. He looked around. Everything was quiet. He was starting to think that it was just his tired mind playing tricks on him when he heard it again.

This time he was sure. It was definitely a scream, and it was definitely coming from the van he was parked in front of. It sounded like it was a girl, and she did not seem to be very happy inside of that van.

He closed his car door quietly and went around to where the van's side door was. Now he could hear shouts and what seemed to be fighting going on inside of the van.

'This can't be right,' he thought, to his growing horror. 'They must have someone trapped inside of there!'

Looking around, he wondered what he should do. The thought entered his mind that maybe he should just leave; he didn't know how many people there were in there or if any of them had any weapons or not.

He walked back towards his car, but stopped near the trunk. He heard another muffled scream coming from inside of the van and made up his mind. He wasn't going to leave whoever was in there to whatever hell those monsters were putting her through. Opening his trunk, he looked for some kind of weapon he could use. "Damn it!" he cursed when he saw his empty trunk.

Then something caught his eye. His car toolbox. He quickly opened it and looked for any item that could possibly be used as a weapon. 'Nothing…' he thought in anger, but then something caught his eye. A tire iron. 'This'll do' he thought. He picked it up and then quietly shut his trunk and made his way back to the van's sliding door. Pulling it open to reveal two men grappling over a struggling young woman, he tapped the tire iron in his hand, smirked, and then said, "Game's over."

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Serenity's eyes popped open at the sound of the van's door being opened. The men above her paused in their assault and then looked at the stranger standing outside of the van. It was dark and she couldn't see him well, but all she could think was 'Joey'. She sat up a little and got a closer look at him. He had dark brown hair and was around Joey's age. Then her eyes went wide. She recognized him! Although she couldn't place his name, she knew that he attended school with her. He had a smug look on his face and was wearing a long white trench coat. Something gleamed in his hand when he moved it. When she recognized what it was, Serenity's hope was restored. This man had come to save her.

As he glared at her attackers, he smirked and moved the tire iron in his hand. Then he spoke in a deep, cruel voice: "Game's over."

"And who the hell are you?" the first man raged at him.

"Oh, it's just some punk kid," said Scuzzy, who then turned to the newcomer and said, "You'd better get lost, boy, if you know what's good for you."

The stranger's smirk never left his face. "And I think you had better leave her alone, if you know what's good for you."

Anger etched itself onto both of the men's faces and they left Serenity to move towards the boy.

"Hey!" the first man called to Scuzzy, "You watch her while I take care of this kid." Scuzzy nodded and moved back towards Serenity. "Don't you dare move." he said to her, but she ignored him and looked with hope upon this strange brown-haired boy who had come to save her.

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'I can take him.' Seto thought as one of the bastards came towards him. Looking at the guy, he wasn't worried. The man was way out of shape and Seto knew that he could easily outmaneuver him. He stepped back and allowed for the guy to come out towards him.

"You're gonna wish you were never born, kid." The man said to him.

"Not likely." Seto answered back, ducking as the guy tried to throw a punch to his face. While the guy stumbled, Seto brought the tire iron down and clipped the guy on the back of the neck, bringing his head down even further. Then Seto kicked him in the face, knocking him back into the side of the van. He grabbed the man's collar as the man begged Seto to leave him alone. Disgusted, Seto let go of him and stepped back.

The man breathed a sigh of relief just before Seto's fist crashed under his chin, knocking his head back into the side of the van. The man's body went limp and he slid the rest of the way to the ground, unconscious.

Seto looked down at him and, seeing no threat any time soon (not that there had ever been one to begin with), moved on the man he knew was still left in the van with the girl.

Seto cautiously looked around the side of the door and into the van. The girl was still on the floor. He noticed that she had a cut above her eye and a swollen lip, but overall she seemed ok. She was staring at him with what looked like amazement. 'She looks a little familiar…' Seto thought. 'Hey…where the hell did the other man go?' He turned his head and noticed movement towards the front of the van. The man was doing something over there that Seto couldn't see, but he didn't care much as long as he could get the girl out.

He motioned for her to come to him while the other man was distracted, and she started to move towards him.

Suddenly, the man turned around, grabbed her arm, and threw her back. "Don't even think about it." He said, and pointed something at her. It was a gun.

She gasped and backed up to her original position. The man then trained the gun on Seto. "Drop that." He said, motioning to the tire iron in Seto's hand.

Seto looked at him, expressionless, and then said, "Kiss my ass." At this, the guy began to cackle. "Oh, so you wanna play hard, huh, boy?" The man took a step towards him. "Think you're a big man, do ya? Wanna try to take this?" The man took another step towards Seto. The gun gleamed in his hand and Seto felt sweat roll down his back.

He saw the man's finger tighten on the trigger as he repeated, "Better drop that boy." Seto let the tire iron slip out of his hand, but kept his arms by his side.

"Good boy. You know what's good for you. Now—"

The man never got the chance to finish what he was going to say before glass shattered all around his head and he fell forward.

'Must have been the girl' Seto thought, smiling, before he fell to his knees himself. He turned his head and looked around. Everything before his eyes seemed to be going in slow motion. He looked up at the girl and saw that her eyes were locked on his, full of fear. 'She's so beautiful…' he thought. Then his face clouded with confusion. 'What's wrong with her?' he thought, seeing that the fear on her face was still there. 'She's safe now…'

Then his world faded to black, her face being the last thing he saw before he shut his eyes.

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All right, that was the end of chapter four! How did you all like that? I made it a bit longer to make up for the delay in me updating. I hope it wasn't too long…Well, please review and tell me how you liked it, if there were any errors, what you think might happen or what you would like to see happen…anything! Reviews make me happy!

Well, anyway, I'm almost done with chapter five…it should be up within a few days…so I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Please review! ^_^

~Seren147