Hello everyone. Am very... afraid comes to mind... Ok, this chapter has some very... distressing moments. Not gonna give it away, so enjoy. Please forgive me...

Tassy: yeah yeah Tass, this coming from you?

Hiei's fiancee: now that's an incentive for me to continue. Thanks. And sorry about the pov thing, I hope it was better this chapter, but once you reach a certain part, I doubt you'll have trouble keeping up with who's who. Well, I hope you don't. If you do, I'm worse than I thought...

nicole-purple: Thanks! Glad you like it. I'll do my best to keep some humor in it as it goes on, but I can't guaranty. Sorry. Any way, hope you enjoy!

dangerousgirl: Thanks, and I agree with your choice in pairings. Very nice. drools Last chapter: Yami and Seto were dancing, Bakura and Marik, sorry if I didn't mention it, they were off dancing, and Ryou and Yugi hooked up in the bathroom. Then, and this is where it becomes annoyingly confusing, two 'hired goons' of the executive pervs from ch-7 come and grab Yugi, thinking he is Yami cause they were wearing pretty much the same thing, and ... yeah... sorry, confusing I know...

megan/meg/kittie: umm, sorry? I'm really used to using words like that, but I am sorry if you didn't get it. Sorry also if its put you off this chapter. I hope this one isn't really as bad as the last, and I hope you are able to keep up with whats going on. A few have complained about that actually. frowns sorry guys!

Siiarrei: hehe, suspense huh? Well, enjoy this chappie then. Thanks for the vote of confidence, and yes, I will finish this story.

Dedication: ...Actually, my friends:

Orange-lemons

Devilshalo

Gothankh

Xachro

Matthew

Disclaimer: nothin interesting to make this into, so 'no.'

Chapter Nine - The Dead of Night

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Setos pov

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The wheels spun at the corner, as I wrenched the steering wheel, narrowly avoiding an oncoming car.

Yami directed my driving through a very faint link, and as his voice grew firmer, more resolute, I saw we were beginning to catch them up.

Of course, having him scream by my ear at some point in time 'don't touch him you perverted impotent pricks', didn't help, but it showed how close we were.

I could even now read the number plate; HRHT – 1010.

"Priest, don't spose you picked this car for its sunroof?"

"Of course not. I picked it for the fact it has a CD player and that I'm a ford man myself," I snapped harshly.

Bakura grumbled, but reached up to unfasten the sun roof. Wind ripped into the cars interior, as I hit the accelerator harder, to slam into the rear of the black machine, the millenium puzzle sliding merrily across the dashboard.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

My ears rung.

"Just a sneaking suspicion, but even if we had sirens I doubt they'd pull over for us. Nor even if we were half way up there tail pipe, which we already are," I snarled.

That seemed to shut him up, but I could tell he was distressed, even if he did try to look controlled. Hell, another outburst like previous and I would need a cochlea implant, he was hardly controlled. But I knew the kind of situation, it was one he had no control over, not even driving (thankfully), and it was clearly a hard thing for him to bear.

A car careened past us, and I couldn't help cursing. "Bloody Volvo drivers!"

"Alright Pharaoh, wind shield or boot?"

I glanced in my rear view mirror to see Bakura's mid-rift, as he held on for dear life atop the sun roof.

"Cause Yugi any harm and 'you'll' be hitting the tyres."

"I'll take that as boot."

I saw the dark energy ball sail over the wind shield, before smashing against the rear of the car.

It swerved from the impact, but otherwise remained in tack and moving.

Bakura cursed in a language I'm sadly not versed in, before taking aim again. The car tried to weave, but could not escape the hurtling black ball.

It struck the left side, and a 'bang' was heard, as the left tyre burst into many black pieces, spewing out over the road. The metal of the wheel brought and explosion of sparks, as the car veered violently over the road.

Bakura and Marik high-fived one another, unbelievably being able to tune out the high speed car chase taking place.

The car swerved.

Marik cried out.

Bakura shrieked.

Yami drew in a strangled breath.

Before all vanished to their respective objects.

I slammed on the breaks and swerved, but the car just spun, before colliding with the oncoming vehicle.

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Bakuras pov-ish

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Ryou and Malik let out small screams of shock, as their Yami's materialised by their sides.

Each stared around the group, before looks of realisation passed over their faces, each swearing and paling dramatically.

None of the group found this reaction very comforting.

"Where's Yugi?!"

"Where's Yami?!

"What brought you back?!"

In the midst of all the shouts, Bakura took a small and dismal moment to realise not one of them had asked about Kaiba. After this small second, he ignored everything else.

/What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?/

Bakura paused slightly, his instinct to help Ryou overpowering all the others.

Turning around from the huddle, he saw that they were still near the club, and after his brief scan of the teens, he turned and raced for the door, taking the stairs three at a time.

The others stared bewildered, before Marik picked up the slack and followed just as fast.

He reached the door, where the guard bitch immediately leapt to stop his advance. He reached the door and pushed the girl back behind him with such force, she cried aloud in shock.

Paying her no mind, he disappeared into the club.

Mariks pursuit had been slowed, as he had leapt up and ensnared her in his arms in an effort to steady her.

The others could just stare.

"I think the pressure's finally gotten to them," Otogi finally spoke.

Malik glared, racing up to his dark. "What the hell is going on?"

Marik handed over the shocked girl, question unanswered, as he shot after Bakura.

Bakura strode across the dance floor towards their previously occupied table. Five meters from it, he saw his target. He moved for it, as did another.

The Tomb Robber stopped dead, his eye twitching slightly at the side, as he watched the person lift the long white coat from the seat with eager hands, before sliding it on to his shoulders.

The albino growled.

He swept across the short distance, and seized the man in his fist, lifting him off the ground.

"What do you think you are doing?!" he hissed in rage.

The guy looked about to piss himself, as Bakura pulled off Kaibas trademark trench coat with a deft hand.

This was understandable, as the other hand still supported the guy a foot off the ground.

Coat removed, Bakura dropped him with a flourish.

His hands immediately began swimming over the surface of the fabric, until he found the phone.

He brought the small device out into view, to be sure, before slipping it back and turning back to the door. Marik stood there, waiting impatiently.

He moved towards him.

The guy leapt up in a slow sort of anger. "Hey!" he slurred, "give that back!"

The egyptians eye twitched again.

Spinning around, his fist swung up to connect with the guys jaw, sending him soaring backward into the mass of dancers.

Bakura turned and raced for the door, Marik holding it open as the beginnings of a fight came to life, causing him to give a brief smirk at his mayhem.

"And I can't even enjoy it."

Leaping down the stairs, they pulled up in front of the group. Here, he stuffed the coat into Otogis hands.

"You're technology able, ring the limo, go to Kaiba mansion. We'll meet you there."

Without even glancing at the rest of the group, he broke into a run, encouraged by Ryou, in the direction of the car chase.

He heard the pounding of Mariks feet behind him.

Everything around the albino seemed inadequate. All he saw was the streets he needed to travel by, and the constant replay of that devastated look on the Pharaoh in his head.

His whole body tensed again. His blood pounded in his ears, his muscles rippling under the strain.

He couldn't imagine being in the Pharaohs position, with himself and Ryou. He just couldn't. It was a painful 'thought'.

So he continued to run. He would help the Pharaoh through this, help him, as he only hoped Yami would should this ever happen to him.

When he rounded the next corner, his ears finally catching up with his breath, he stopped dead.

Marik took only a second to plough into him.

The car was crushed.

The entire left hand side was nothing more than a mass of dented steel and iron. The right side was half as bad.

Sirens flashed brightly through the dark, medics and officers crowded around the wreck, the door of the right hand side dented but open.

Bakura felt his heart clench painfully in his chest.

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Yamis pov

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The darkness of my soul room encompassed me in an instant. I blinked in confusion, before realisation hit, my memory flaring.

The room lit up with recognition, and I saw the many hallways of my mind, chunks of memory laying in heaps down each turn.

None of it mattered now.

I concentrated, feeling the force's outside of the puzzle, the energies. I looked for signature pulses, Marik, Bakura, Seto, even the beating vibrations of the car, but none registered.

In a moment of fear, I left the puzzle abruptly.

Materialising on soft grass, I glanced at my new surroundings. I sat beneath a tree, in a front yard of a nice apartment complex.

By my side was the puzzle, glinting good-naturedly in the moonlight.

My memory flickered briefly, as I recalled the object being on the dashboard last. If so, I had come a long way.

My heart stopped.

Leaping to my feet, puzzle dangling from the chain in my fist, I tore out of the gardens, and into the street.

The car was ruined.

The car that had hit us had probably slammed the back of the right side, hooking it and causing it to spin round before crashing into the pole.

The world spun dizzily, as I pelted for the car.

'Please Ra, I cannot lose them both, not in one night and not tonight.'

Reaching the right side, I gazed down through the shattered window at the top of the brunettes head.

I seized the door handle roughly, pulling it open.

He almost fell out, me realising he never even put on the damn safety belt.

I knelt quickly, pulling his head back gently to assess the damage done.

Blood caked his handsome features, his brown bangs matted against his forehead in crimson tangles, with red rivulets running from his temple. Gashes spread themselves over his cheeks in intricate webs. His right arm, and his chest, were bloodied and ripped beneath the rags of his shirt.

He sat limply, and I felt a piece of myself fall away as I looked at his pale and lifeless face.

A word kept repeating itself in my head, and I finally voiced it with trembling lips.

"No."

I pulled him to me, wrapping my arms about his form, so I could cradle him against my chest.

"Seto?"

Blue eyes flashed through my mind, filled with anger, filled with amusement, filled with sorrow, filled with mirth. All those times his eyes had held those different emotions, and now they weren't opening for me to see them.

"No Seto," I whimpered. "Not Seto."

I could feel the salty tears cascading down my cheeks.

Holding him closely, I pulled us up, and swept across the street, back into the dark gardens.

Leaf litter covered the ground, and I gently set him down on the cold, damp earth.

My hand took a firm hold of his wrist as I searched for a pulse.

My eyes widened beneath their tears, before I cried.

"Fuck you Ra!"

I dropped the dead hand, my mind screaming, my heart breaking, the world dissolving in fragmented images around me.

My eyes flowed freely, each tear holding an eternity's worth of sorrow.

'You can't! I won't let you! He's mine! And you won't take him from me!'

I grabbed the puzzle, placing it atop Seto's chest, before laying my hands gently over him.

Power.

Life.

Magic.

Love.

The sennen eye burst forth on my forehead. My hands glowed golden in the dark.

'Be damned Ra,' I thought visciously, as I imagined my life, life itself, my heart, beating along side Seto's, going into him, healing him, holding and keeping him.

My hands shook, as the gashes remained.

'Please,' I begged through sobs, ' don't take him.'

Why didn't he open his eyes? Look at me and give me that smile, tell me I looked like shit when I cried?

I gazed at his pale face, his closed eyes, unmoving and now fated to an eternity of sleep.

I didn't care, my hands still glowed, my spirit still trying.

I heard the faint sounds of sirens, saw the flash of light, in a very distant part of my mind.

It hurt. This hurt. He was going to leave me.

I closed my eyes, dropping my head, silent tears soaking into the ground, each a symbol of my fading hope.

He wasn't coming back. He wasn't going to wake up, hold me, tell me he'd never let something as simple as the end of life itself part us. He wasn't going to help me.

My eyes clenched shut, as I threw back my head, a scream tearing itself from my throat, the sound pitched with anguish.

"SETO."

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pov......God... well, not really...

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Bakura and Marik edged closer as painstakingly possible, eyes fixated on the car, both with the sound of their heartbeat loud and fast in their ears.

Then they heard it. Sentences, words, poison to the ears.

"Whoever it was lost a lot of blood."

"You can see the mark here where his head struck."

"Check the hospital for any updates."

"Check the number plate to notify the family."

That was enough.

Bakura stood back, his face pale, his white hair starker than his hair. Marik resembled him somewhat, his tan absent in the wake of this shock.

'lost a lot of blood'

'hospital'

'notify family'

The choice words bounded in their minds, and through the sense of numb fast spreading through each ones body, Bakuras mind conjured a word.

Puzzle.

His eyes widened, as he recalled its clinking sound across the dashboard, and he raked the area over with his eyes.

Focusing through the power of the ring, he concentrated, searching for the puzzle.

It was then, with heightened senses, he heard the scream.

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I must have a death wish, cause that's all... for now. Sorry the chapter is a bit shorter than normal, I had to cut it from the next one if I wanted it to work. And I am ver y, very greatful for everyone's vote of confidence from my last chapter. That's why I considered a sequel, as well as another fic I've been working on. It's a Yami/Seto, with and actual plot from the beginning, and its called Capabilities. Let me know if I should post it, if your interested that is.

Ok, now that I have snuffed Seto smirks evilly what am I going to do? Is Yami going to be too distressed to save Yugi? And what about Yugi? Well, he's in a spot of bother too isn't he? Hmm, I'm really not nice lately am I? Oh well.

Next chapter: Bad things come in three's

That's what I plan to call it anyway.

Okies, R&R.