Disclaimer: Yugi-oh is the property of Kazuki Takahashi, who is a genius.

This is way late. I know. I've been busy and the rest of the chapters might be a bit slow in coming till my life is normal, or what passes for normal, again.

Emergence

Chapter 17: Knitting Things Together

Bakura and Ryou

Bakura lifted his face out of his sleeping hikari's hair and blinked sleepily around the tent. The brazier still cast dancing, golden shadows across the soft carpets and luxurious pillows. The silken canvas of the walls ruffled and billowed lightly in a desert wind that also carried small bits of sand to hiss across the roof of the tent. Ryou yawned and turned over, sleepily pulling him back down into the warm nest of silk pillows they slept in.

"Yami, sleep…" Ryou whispered, his eyes never opening, his slender hands gently tugging him closer.

Bakura nudged a pillow to a more comfortable location and let himself be drawn back to the warmth of his light. Ryou murmured sleepily against his chest, petal soft lips brushing across his skin. His little hikari, so soft, so delicate, so innocent. Bakura cuddled him closer, closing his eyes, letting sleep wrap around his tired mind.

It was nice here. The tent, which was as much a surprise to him as it was to Ryou, tugged pleasantly at his memory. He was almost sure he had lived in one, sometime, somewhere back in Egypt. The pillows, the brazier of hot coals, even the way the wind played across the tent fabric, whispered of someplace, sometime that he had been happy. He could almost hear quiet, comforting voices from the other side of the silken walls. He could almost smell cook-fires burning, could almost feel soft gentle hands stroking lightly over his skin.

Bakura's eyes popped open and looked down into soft, brown, mischievous eyes as gentle hands wandered over to naughtier places. "Ryou?"

"Yes?" The brown eyes almost dripped with naive innocence.

Bakura scrambled is sleepy wits together. "I take it you want something?"

Kaiba and Jame

Kaiba stood at the counter and tried to decide if he wanted the cannelloni, stuffed with creamy ricotta cheese and drizzled with an exquisite white wine sauce or if he should have shrimp scampi. He picked up a piece of garlic bread and started absently nibbling on it as he considered his options.

"Just how old is Yugi?" Jame was sitting at the Moto's kitchen table that now had a contour map of the mountain area of the resort spread over it. A portable fax machine sat nearby and a scattering of photographs was now collected in front of his secretary, who was sorting through them, trying to find one to fax to the sheriff station near the hotel.

Kaiba settled for the cannelloni, scooping it onto his plate from it's Styrofoam carton. "About seventeen."

Jame looked doubtfully at the photo in her hand, then shrugged and stuck the photo into the fax machine. Kaiba happily poured himself a generous helping of minestrone soup from another Styrofoam container and walked out of the kitchen into the living room, where his laptop was sitting on the coffee table. It had taken his little treasure less then twenty minutes to organize the search, order maps of the area, track down relevant officials for him to threaten into submission and have a gourmet Italian meal delivered to the Moto residence. For someone who was having a bad day, he was amazingly content.

He settled onto the couch and picked up Jame's cell phone. "Okay Tink, you think they had the passwords?"

"Had to, look at the log dates. No one hacks that fast." The other man's light, quick voice answered back.

Kaiba snorted, then checked the time. "What the…"

"Yep. If Jame hadn't logged on right then, you probably wouldn't have noticed. Any minor crashes could've been easily explained by a faulty sub routine."

Kaiba scowled, "Still, less then three minutes to hack and grab all employee data is impressive, even with the passwords."

"Unless, they used that as cover."
Kaiba scanned down the log list, "What do you mean?"

"If I made a booboo hacking and I wanted to cover it, I might consider doing a re-hack and having that cover the trail of the first."

"Play with the log times?" Kaiba sat back, absently wondering how his secretary knew this man.

"Possible. Clumsy as hell, but possible."

"Hmmm…then why?" Kaiba swirled a pattern in his cannelloni's sauce, his eyes narrowing in concentration.

"Perhaps to cover where the hack came from." There was a slight gloat in the other voice.

"You know." Kaiba grinned evilly as a confirming snicker whispered in his ear.

"Would you believe there is an unrecorded log-on from inside your own building? Take a look."

Kaiba looked as his screen shifted. "I see what you mean…"

Yami and Yugi

Yugi woke up in his soul room with a warm, whole feeling, as if he was wrapped in a cozy blanket, as if part of his soul had been returned to him. He scrambled out of bed and ran into the hall, expecting to find Yami in control of their body, only to find no one there.

"Yami?" He looked over at his other's door questioningly as he searched their bond. He nearly giggled when a snore met him.

He walked over to the darker door and nudged it open, "Yami?" He poked his head inside and saw his dark sprawled, spread eagle, his head thrown back, snoring loudly, on the stone floor of his soul room. Yugi grinned, "Now there's a Kodak moment."

He quietly glided up to his yami's side and knelt down. "Yami?"

A loud snore answered him.

"Yami? I decided to give up Duel Monsters and play Pokemon, 'kay?"

A couple of little snorts proceeded the next snore and Yami wiggled a hand.

"Okay, no Pokemon. How about Duel Masters? It sorta sounds like…"

The snore that met that comment had a bit of a buzz to it and Yami shifted in his sleep, brushing at his nose. Hazy crimson eyes opened and looked groggily at him. "Wha'?"

Yugi grinned, his darkness had never looked so absolutely, amazingly beautiful to him before. Never mind that he had a little line of drool down one chin, or that his hair was flattened, or that his neck belt had ridden up to nearly his chin, to Yugi he was perfect.

Yami levered himself up, shaking his head, "Sorry aibou. Tried to do too much to fast."
Yugi helped him up, taking the opportunity to snuggle as close as possible to his other. "That's alright, love. You should rest if your that tired. We're safe enough, aren't we?"

"Yes, we're safe, but I couldn't find Yuai." Yami cuddled his light closer, leaning on him as he guided them back out to the hall. "I almost had contact with her when the shadows interfered. When I tried again, I was too tired to stay in contact with her and hold off the shadows."

"We need to find her then." Yugi tugged him down the hall, an all too familiar look plastered on his sweet face.

"Yes, or better, find the man hunting us." Yami smiled at his determined light. "I have an idea."

Jonouchi

The line to the payphone wound down the hall around a corner, past the soda/snack room, down another hall and nearly out one of the side exits. It also crawled along like a glacier in winter. Jonouchi shuffled lifelessly along at the very end wondering if, by the time he reached the phone, Kaiba would tell him that he'd better get back to attend Yugi and Yuai's grandkid's college graduation ceremonies.

His stomach growled and tied itself into a knot around his spine, apparently deciding to see if it could digest that. The lady standing in front of him looked up from her knitting at the sound, glanced around, then went back to chanting, "Knit one, pearl two, knit one, pearl two, knit one, pearl two" as her needles flashed in the dim, though highly stylish, light of the hall.

"Hey, Jo. Do you have your deck on ya?" Honda breezed merrily up.

"Yeah." Jonouchi dug in his pocket and pulled his deck out. "What's up."

"I just want to see your Baby Dragon card for a sec." He took the deck and flipped quickly through the cards. "Yep. It's got a gold boarder. I told Mai, but she said it was brown." He handed the deck back, then turned, walking back to toward the convention.

"Hey!" Jo started to take a step toward him, then stopped as he noticed the predatory gleam in the eyes of the man behind him. He quickly reclaimed his space, glaring back.

"We're going to eat in a few. Meet us in the cafeteria." Honda sauntered away, waving back over his shoulder.

Jonouchi viciously wished Honda, Honda's kids and his kid's kids to a miserable eternity of painfully embarrassing pimples on prom nights and sexual malfunctions at critical moments, as he watched his friend disappear around the corner. "Bet they never think of even savin' me a bag o' chips."

Yami and Yugi

The gunman still lay where they had left him, his eyes open, staring blindly at the wet leaves that dripped onto his face. Yugi carefully dragged him over to a large tree by his feet and set him against it. He searched his clothes and found what he wanted the microphone and headpiece that the man wore. Yugi carefully peeled it away as Yami grinned widely at his hikari. We have the stage. Let's start the act.

Yami took complete control of the body, gently pushing his light aside, covered his mouth with his hand to muffle his voice and growled into the mic. "Gotcha, ya little shit."

Yugi took control and yelled, "Let go! Let go!"

Yami, still grinning like a fox, switched with him and once again muffling his voice, snarled, "Tell me where your friend is ya piece o' shit." Then slapped his uninjured hand hard against his leg.

Yugi, grinning back, switched again and screamed, "No! Please don't!"

Yami, switching, growled into his hand as he again slapped his leg. "Tell me or I'll…"

Yugi, taking control, wailed, "Over there, over there! Please, stop!"

Merging themselves back to one, Yugi pulled the microphone plug out then retrieved the rifle from the bushes where he had hid it. He winced as he fired it into the air, then quickly placed the gun next to the man's limp hand and darted back under cover. Yami snickered softly as a faint voice cheeped from the earpiece. I think we got his attention.

Remember, no shadow realm! Yugi strained to hear through the steady patter of rain on leaves.

Don't worry. I have no intention of cluttering up the shadow realm with this garbage. Yami shifted as he sensed someone approaching, then hummed happily. I think our little deer is coming.

Yami, I really don't think now is the time to be cheerful. Yugi suppressed the urge to wiggle anxiously as footsteps came closer.

A large man in a green ski mask carefully prowled through the foliage. He looked around the area and caught sight of the man laying against the tree. He paused, scanning around him again, then cautiously stepped closer till he stood over his associate and nudged him with his foot.

Yami moved out of their hiding place, sliding up behind the man like a breath of air with a feral smile on his face. This is the one that hurt you, isn't it? Yami lifted his hand. "Illusion of Prey."

The man froze, the gun falling silently to the forest floor. Yami stepped back and watched as the man suddenly shrieked, running headlong into the forest, wildly thrashing through bushes, falling, scrambling as he fled from an unseen hunter. That should keep him busy.

I don't want to know. Don't tell me. I don't want to hear it. Yugi looked away, trying to pretend he couldn't hear the mans terrified screams retreating into the woods.

Yami nodded and looked around. Now, if that's all of them, let's find Yuai and go home. A warm bath with lots of bubbles is calling to me.

I want hot chocolate with marshmallows. Yugi nearly purred at the thought, as they walked back the way the second man had come from.

Jonouchi

"….knit one, pearl two, knit one, pearl two…"

Kaiba

"Tanaka?" Kaiba tried to wrap his mind around Tanaka, his head of Human Resources, hacking into the computer system. It just didn't make sense, the man could have easily walked down the hall and requested the information and no one would have thought twice about it. Why hack into the system when it wasn't needed? He looked down at the computer screen, shaking his head. "Somehow I'm not believing this."

"Hey, you. Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity." Jame yelled from the kitchen. "Do you want me to schedule some time for you with a therapist?"

"Why would someone hack into files that they didn't need to hack into?" Kaiba yelled back, more in frustration than in any expectation of an answer.

"They wouldn't." Jame walked out of the kitchen chewing on a piece of garlic bread. "I'm going to need you to scare a few years off the life of a dedicated public servant in a couple of minutes. You going to have time?"

Kaiba grunted and glared down at his laptop, "Sure, when you need me, just tell me who, what, and why."

Jame nodded and padded back to the kitchen, leaving him standing looking at the data in front of him. No one would hack for information that they could easily get, so why hack at all? What would be the point? Kaiba walked over to a window and stared out. First, I almost get sent to the convention for an unplanned holiday. Second, the phone lines are down at the convention. Third, Yugi, who is at the convention, disappears. Fourth, someone hacks the computer at Kaiba Corp. for no apparent reason, then goes back in to hide the fact that they hacked into the computer system, for no apparent reason. As Jo would say, "Why go there?"

Kaiba looked back at the computer sitting on the coffee table. A triple blind? One hack to cover another, that covers yet a third? He shook his head. Possible, but does it connect with the other things? If he had gone to the convention, what would have changed?

He looked back out the window, watching as a group of kids ran down the sidewalk holding books over their heads and laughing as they dodged through the rain. The clouds still loomed low over the city, their soft undersides still drizzling a thick layer of misty rain.

I'm missing something… He walked back over to the couch and sat down to more conveniently brood at the computer. If I work on the assumption that it is a triple blind, that would still leave me with a trail to someplace, or more importantly to someone.

Jonouchi

The line creeped around the corner. The sweater that the woman was knitting was getting longer. The man behind him was getting weirder. His stomach had given up trying to eat his backbone and was now making threatening, gurgling noises at his liver and other internal organs. As he leaned against the wall, shifting his weight back and forth between his tired feet, Jo tried to remember why he was standing in this line to begin with. Okay, I'm supposed to call Kaiba and…what? beg for him to come up here and save me from my friends and while he's at it could he please bring me something to eat? Jo leaned forward touching his toes, trying to get the kinks out of his back. No, Yugi, I am supposed to ask if Yugi got home. Like that's likely, he's been missing for an entire day…well, okay…an entire night last I checked…okay…maybe he is home. I wonder if I could still get Kaiba to bring me food? A burger…yeah…and fries with extra ketchup and a shake, chocolate…hmmm, that sounds good…

Yami and Yugi

Yugi sat under a thick bush, trying to keep as dry as possible, as Yami concentrated on trying to locate Yuai. His darker half had been trying to locate her for the last hour and it was starting to get dark. The rain still hadn't let up and he was getting worried about his girl. It wasn't like she had a yami to look out for her, or keep her warm. She was out there alone in the forest, the wet, cold, rainy forest.

She's quite good at taking care of herself, aibou. Yami, standing in spirit form a few feet away, looked back over his shoulder at him. I wouldn't worry too much. We'll find her soon.

How can you be so sure? Yugi peered around at the darkening and increasingly threatening forest. Can you sense her?

Not yet. Yami looked back out at the trees. But she is the only other human being out here. I'll find her.

Yugi scrunched around under the bush, trying to find a drier spot. Do you think she's trying to hide from us? She did run away.

Yami shrugged, his head turning slightly back and forth as if he was trying to listen for something. When we find her, we'll ask her about it. Yami stopped and then smiled back at his hikari. Found her. He pointed over to the right. That direction. She's asleep, that's probably why I couldn't locate her earlier. Her mind's too quiet.

Yugi scrambled out from under the bush and headed off in the direction Yami pointed. Is she okay?

She's asleep. I really couldn't sense much. Yami glided along next to him.

Yugi slogged through the leaves, wishing he could find his girlfriend and just leave. He was tired of the rain. He was tired of the wet. He wanted to be home, safe, playing a game of Payday and sipping hot chocolate, with Yami watching the news, Grandpa taking a nap in his chair, and Yuai gleefully plotting his downfall across the board from him.

As they trudged, the sky got darker. The trees were denser here, the trunks larger, the branches that he stumbled over were getting bigger. The rain took the opportunity to get in one last downpour, causing actual streams of water to pour down from the leaves as raindrops thudded dully into the decaying leaves underfoot. Yami stopped and pointed to a large tree that was uprooted, laying on it's side in a mass of dead leaves and small bushes.

There. Yami pointed toward the tree. She's there, toward the base of the tree.

Yugi scampered over. I don't see anyone, are you sure.

Yes. Yami slipped next to him and looked under the tree. I'm sure.

"Yuai?" Yugi called softly. "Are you here?"

A small rustle of leaves answered him, then a whisper soft voice. "Yugi?"

He crawled in and found himself in a very tiny, dark, dry cave. "Hi."

"Are you all right?" More leaves rustled as Yuai unburied herself.

"Yeah. The gunmen…ah…well, they left." Yugi leaned forward and kissed her as she snuggled close to him in the small space. He noticed that she was both warm and dry and tried cuddling closer.

"You're all wet." She wiped her hand across his face and flicked off the water. "Are you sure they're gone?"

Yugi nodded, "Come on. Let's go home."

Yuai pulled back slightly, "How?"

"Huh?" Yugi felt her push him toward the nest of leaves she had come from.

"Yugi, it's dark. It's cold. It's raining and we have no idea where we are. How are we supposed to get home?" She shuffled around in the dark for a few moments then dropped a pile of leaves on top of him.

I hate to say it, but she's got a point. Yami peeked in the door.

Yuai's head snapped around, looking wide eyed at Yami. "Oh, m'god."

Yugi brushed a few leaves off and glanced over at her. "What's wrong?"

"There's an invisible you looking in at us." Yuai pointed a shaking finger at Yami.

Yami blinked, then looked over at Yugi. She can see me? How did that happen?

"You can see him?" Yugi reached over and pulled Yuai closer. He could feel her shaking against him, her eyes still riveted on Yami.

She looked over at him. "There is an invisible you, right there." She whispered, still pointing.

Yugi sighed, buried himself in the warm leaves and pulled her down next to him. "This is going to take some time. You see, my grandpa gave me a puzzle…"

Jonouchi

"Now all you do is hold the needles like this." The lady positioned Jonouchi's hands in the correct manner. "Very good."

Jo smiled happily as the lady who had been standing in front of him gently guided his fingers on the two knitting needles.

"Okay, put the yarn over your finger like this." She looped a long strand of purple over one finger. "And your ready to start."

Jo hesitantly slipped the needles together and looped the purple strand around them.

"Good! Very good." The lady cheered. "It's so nice to see a young person knitting."

Jonouchi grinned, shuffled his feet, glanced at where the line disappeared around a corner and tried taking another stitch. I swear, when I get out of here, I am going to kill all my friends. His stomach seconded the motion with a loud growl. Just after I catch a burger and fries at Burger World.

Kaiba

Yugi's grandfather had arrived home a couple hours ago, took one look at his kitchen, another look at the unnervingly focused CEO crouched over a computer in his living room and had quietly gone to bed. Jame had neatly packed up the Italian food into the Moto's refrigerator, made coffee and harried an underpaid policeman into releasing a bit of news that was sure to get him fired if his chief ever found out.

Kaiba watched as his fingers seemed to fly over the keyboard on automatic as his mind tumbled the information over and over. Yugi…the shadow attack…a dead boy in a van…a break-in on his computer system…the failure of the phone lines. This was planned, but what is the plan? His mind suddenly added another event. The attack on Mokuba, could that be related? As his fingers traced a thread of a lead down, he frowned. What? What am I missing? It's right in front of me and I'm not seeing…

His fingers stopped as he looked down at the screen. "Well, now there's a surprise."

He picked up his cell and called a car to come pick him up, then stood up and walked into the kitchen, where Jame was flipping through a stack of papers and drawing on the map with colored markers. "I have to go out. If Jo or the others call, contact me on my cell."

Jame waved absently to him, coloring along a small winding road. "Okay. When will you be back?"

Kaiba turned and walked down the staircase, "It shouldn't take long." He felt his mouth curl into a snarling, dragon smile. "No, this shouldn't take long at all."

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