Is it…could it be? Yes! Yes, it's an actual immediate update! Don't die from shock guys. I guess I felt bad since nothing happened in the last chapter….and I got really bored in Chem class too.

Chapter 9- The Trials Begin

They continued walking in the darkness without speaking. The only sounds were those of footfalls and the soft sighs of drawn breath. Yami longed to run to the end of the tunnel, but managed to control his pace…barely. It would do him no good to arrive at his destination any more vulnerable than needs be. It would not help Yugi. She would keep him safe until he and the other yamis arrived. He had to believe that.

The darkness began to fade away as a dim light grew in the distance. When they could see, yami took note that the walls were cracked and crumbling. A layer of dust covered everything and sprung up in clouds every time they put a foot down.

He felt himself tense as they approached the two doors at the end of the hallway.

Or at least, what used to be two doors.

"My Ra," Bakura breathed.

A stone slab, a mockery of a door, was cut on the hikari's side of the hallway. A symbol of a flame was engraved on its center. Wisps of frost covered the door like lashes from a blunted knife. A black coldness seemed to emanate from it, chilling the yamis to their very core.

The most disturbing part of the door was what lay in the center of the flame. A pinpoint hole was barely visible in the gloom. A strange substance trickled through it. Yami would have sworn it was blood from the consistency, but it had a different color, which was as tainted water. The liquid seeped through, dripping steadily.

Each drop froze before it hit the floor, forming a tear that shattered without a sound when it hit the ground.

"It's…it's crying," Shion said with a strange calmness. "Yugioh, Bakura, look there." She pointed to a fine line that Yami had missed that ran through its middle. A crack split the door in two.

"So this is what she does," Bakura's voice sounded harsh in the stillness. "Froze the flame, then broke it." He nodded, not in agreement with the deed, but rather with confirmed expectations. "So that's how she killed her hikari's soul."

Yami's eyes narrowed. "Let's go." They turned to face the other door, the door of the fire yami. An identical flame might have been carved on this one as well, but no one could tell.

It was a pure black. It was nearly blinding because all the light was thrown back from it, for not even the vine's silver light would touch the door. Yami was loathe to touch it, but he put forth his hand to open the door.

It swung open before his fingertips had even grazed the surface, revealing a long row of stairs that led up and to the right. A blur of echoes rushed at them, voices on the wind. Yami couldn't sort out the words for a few seconds, only the voices as they flew around him: Ryou, Kamui,…and Yugi

They were voices from the past. He heard bits he remembered were from YUgi playing basketball, the childish voice they used when they ransacked the candy store, his grumbing when his grandpa had given him extra chores…A thousand memories floated audibly in the air.

"How..?" even Bakura looked bewildered and overwhelmed. "Ryou?"

Over everything came the cold, merciless voice of the fire yami.

"Better hurry. They can loose more that those memories if I get impatient."

"Don't you touch him," Yami burst out, sprinting up the stairs. Bakura was half a step behind with Shion bringing up the rear. His mind was a wirl. This wasn't how it was supposed to work! He was cooperating with the Tomb Robber for Ra's sake!

Therapy was definitely in order for him and Yugi later.

He was in such a hurry that Bakura had to grab his shoulder to keep him from crashing into the door at the top of the stairs. Yami turned to stare at him.

"Don't get any ideas, baka," Bakura pushed past him. "I just didn't want you to make the lock stick by ramming it with your fat head."

Yami was about to respond when a gasp from Shion made them both whirl around. She was staring wide-eyed at the door. Bakura and Yami followed her gaze to face…was that the fire yami?

It certainly looked a lot like her. The eyes were softer though and the hair was cut short like a boy's. The girl looked ahead blankly and Yami felt a strange jolt as he realized he could see right through her. Her skin was an ashy grey as was her skin and hair. All were shadows.

Her eyes fell upon him. "Yami?" her voice was soft and light. "My yami?"

"Are…are you the fire hikari?" Yami asked loudly, meeting her eyes.

"No yami?" her speech was hesitant and broken. The girl looked thoughtful, then reached behind her and opened the door for them. She put a finger to her lips, signaling silence, then vanished.

"Well that was beyond creepy," Shion whispered.

"But pretty common for around here," Yami and Bakura mumbled at the same time.

Yami stepped across the threshold of the doorway and instantly fell to his knees. Shion let out a cry and tried to run after him, but Bakura blocked her way.

"What good will it do to have two of you on the floor?" he said coldly as Shion tried to push past. She glared at him, but did not follow Yami.

"I'm alright," Yami gasped, pushing himself slowly back to a standing position. "It was just a shock."

"What happened Pharaoh?" Bakura eyed the doorway warily.

"You didn't think I'd just let you walk in with full power blazing and wipe me out did you?" A sweet little laugh came from further into the room. "Let's consider this your first test, shall we?" The fire yami stepped into view in front of Yami. "Are your precious hikaris worth this weakness?"

Shion gave her a dirty look and pushed past Bakura, who moved aside to let her go ahead this time. She stumbled as she stepped into the room, but because she was expecting it, she had more success than Yami did.

The fire yami watched with an unimpressed expression. When she turned to speak to Bakura, her voice was full of reason and persuasiveness. "Why would you humiliate yourself for the little weakling in the other room? Don't you know that light diminishes a darkness' power?"

Bakura didn't buy it. "I'm never weak." He stepped across into the room without a quiver, though Yami could distinctly hear his laborious effort to breathe.

"How nobel," she said with disgust, looking at the three of them. "How good, how kind, how utterly stupid." She said the last part with such vehemence that the very air hissed. "Do you know why we have lights? So that we can't rise." She met each gaze without hesitation. "The gods created light to bind the darkness, to put us in out place." Her eyes narrowed. "And you would protect it. Ha! That's as good as a man who holds to his shackles because they protect his wrists!"

"Enough!" yami shouted. "Enough of your lies and twisted words. Where is Yugi?"

She ignored him. "What's that they call you now? King of Games, right? And you, a tomb robber, correct?" She turned her eyes to Bakura, then slid her gaze over to Shion. "You haven't even made a name for yourself. Pitiful." She tsked. Bakura growled impatiently.

"I'll give her 'enough'," he started forward. Just because they couldn't use any powers didn't mean his fist was immobile!

She took a step back and raised her hand. A black flame appeared behind her and she stepped into it. "In case you were wondering, the quickest way to Kamui is that way, the quickest way to Ryou is that way, and Yugi is that way." Each time she said a name a stone doorway appeared in the wall. She vanished into the flames just as Bakura reached for her. His fist met flames and he quickly yanked it back. As Yami came closer, he saw Bakura's fist was covered with red, blister marks.

"It was that hot?" Shion gasped when she saw. "You barely touched it."

"No," Bakura shook his head slowly. "It was the coldest thing I've ever felt."

"Can you-"

"I'm fine, Pahraoh," Bakura pulled away sharply and began running down the hallway of the door that had appeared when Ryou's name was said. "Shut up and grab your light so we can get out of this insane asylum." He called back over his shoulder. In seconds they could no longer see him.

"He's right." Shion and Yami ran towards their respective doors. "Find Kaumi and get out of here as quickly as you can."

Shion nodded. "I'll meet you back at the house. Good luck." She too was soon out of sight.

Yami sprinted down the hallway. "Abou!" he called out as he rounded a corner. "Yugi can you hear me?" Now more than ever he missed that mind link that they normally shared.

Yugi?

/…/ There was no response. The wall blocking any advantage they normally had was still in place.

"Cheater cheater," the fire yami's laugh echoed around him.

"I am not cheating if I never agreed to play the game," Yami shouted back without lessening his pace.

The path twisted and turned. Yami had to slow a little to keep from running into the walls. There was a small lighted window at the end of the tunnel. Yami peered though it carefully.

"Yugi!" he cried out. It was a window to a a white, doorless room in which his little light knelt on all fours, looking half asleep. His mouth was open as he drew in breaths with rapid intensity of a suffocating man. "Yugi!" Yami pounded on the window, trying to break it or at least get yugi's attention.

"he can't hear you," the fire yami appeared next to him, leaning casually against the wall and inspecting her nails. "In a few minutes the only thing he'll be able to hear will be the angel of death calling him home."

Release him!" Yami croaked. He grabbed a ther, but she was as solid as the air.

"Certainly," she nodded. "The air ought to have done its work by now." She raised her hand…then let it fall. "But then, what fun would that be?"

"Now!" Yami began to pound desperately on the window again.

"What'll you trade me for him?" she asked in a bored tone.

"Anything. Everything. I don't care, just let him out of that room." Yami watched in horror as Yugi drew a shaky breath and closed his eyes. His small form landed in a huddled heap in the middle of the white room.

"Hmmm…" she looked at the ceiling in thought, completely immune to Yami's panic. "'anything' sounds delightful. I'll collect it later." She vanished at the same time the wall did. Yami was at Yugi's side faster than he could blink. The air of the room was rank and foul, obviously poisonous. Yami pulled him out into the corridor where the air was at least a bit cleaner.

"Yugi?" he looked at his hikari and could barely speak for fear of the worst. To his immense relief, Yugi coughed and cracked an eye open.

"Y-yami?" he drew a shuttering breath.

Relief swept through Yami. Gently, he picked Yugi up to that he could carry him on his back. He turned to continue with Yugi back the way he had come.

The hallway back no longer existed.

All around them, the strains of the fire yami's song echoed around them mockingly.

"Pure sweet notes of flowing darkness,

Wrap around your dying light.

Hold them close and comfort vainly,

For soon ends this final night."

So…tired. ACT in the morning….what the heck am I doing up??