Joey woke to the touch of someone's lips on his own. He vigorously pushed that person away and sat up straight, causing his blue-eyed companion to cross his arms annoyed.

"Good- morning to you too," he said bitterly.

"Seto? What's going on? Where are the others?"

"Others? I didn't know you were like that, Joe." Joey scowled.

"No, no, no. We were stuck in Marik's trap. He put us into this..."

"Marik? Didn't he disappear after Battle City?" Kaiba looked at him skeptically.

"He did...but he came back. And you challenged him to a duel but he..."

"Why would I challenge HIM to a duel? Joe. I think you should stop eating right before you go to bed. It's affecting your mind. You really need to learn the difference between fantasy and reality. Let me help you, Joe. There's no one here," Kaiba made it sound like it was a secret revelation. He leaned over so he was almost nose to nose with the blonde and smirked. "Except me of course..." He started to bridge the remaining gap but Joey pulled back again and stood up.

"Why are you acting like this? This isn't like you at all," he protested. Kaiba sighed and leaned back resting his head on his arms as he pulled them back.

"Oh? And what am I like?" he inquired acting interested.

"Not like this. Come on. I know it was real. It hurt too much not to be." Joey brought a hand to the spot where Marik had hit him in the head.

"Some dreams can seem to be very realistic. That doesn't make them any less fictional." Joey rolled his eyes realizing how much Kaiba sounded like a teacher just then. He sat back down on the bed and studied his hands in his lap.

"But it WASN'T a dream. And even if it was, this still doesn't make sense. Where are we?" Kaiba looked at him like he was the dumbest person in the world.

"My room," he said rudely, getting more annoyed. Joey nodded but that only made Kaiba more confused.

"How did we get here? The last place we were before I left to go find the guys was the bathroom. We never came anywhere near your room." Kaiba smiled and wrapped himself around Joey from behind.

"And what were we doing in the bathroom?" he said slyly.

"Kaiba, don't do this," Joey said not very convincing. Kaiba started to kiss his neck and Joey closed his eyes.

"Do you trust me?" the question came out sharper then Kaiba had intended but it's effect was the same. Joey turned to look at him imploringly.

"What does that..."

"Just...answer me." Joey nodded.

"Well yeah...as much as I can at this point."

"Then drop it." Kaiba pulled away from him and crossed his arms.

"But..." Kaiba sent him a stern look and he stopped.

"Where's Mokuba?" Joey asked unexpectedly. Kaiba raised an eyebrow and started to reply but the door swung open and Mokuba came bouncing in as if to answer for him.

"Good-morning!" he cried cheerfully. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" He sent a wink in the direction of his brother.

"No. I was just leaving," Joey stood up and grabbed his shirt and jacket from where they were draped over the desk chair. He slipped them on but didn't bother to button the shirt.

"Joey, where are you going?" Kaiba asked boredly, with a bit of aggravation thrown in.

"I'm going to take a walk. I need to clear my head," Joey responded hoping it was enough.

"I thought we were done with this. What is there to clear up?" Joey met his eyes briefly before slipping on his shoes and walking to the doorway.

"I just need to think ok?" he spat out harshly but instead of his normal reaction to that kind of tone, Kaiba just nodded. Mokuba crawled up on the bed and gave his brother a hug and then joined Joey at the door.

"I'll start breakfast," he said. He and Joey left together. "Should I save you some?" He looked to the blonde in question. "Will you be back?" Joey sighed.

"I don't know yet." He exited through the front door but he didn't take his walk. He never made it past the front steps. He sat down on the bottom step and sunk his head into his hands. "It couldn't have been a dream. It was so real..." Kaiba's words passed through his mind. ' Some dreams can seem to be very realistic. That doesn't make them any less fictional.' Joey brushed his hair back. "So what if...it wasn't..." He took in a deep breath. "Then I just made a complete fool of myself." He sighed and sunk his head lower, if that was even possible. He held the back of his head down with his hands. ' And he was trying so hard to be nice...' he thought. He shook his head and stood up. "No. This can't be real. This has to be another of Marik's tricks. It HAS to be." Joey stepped off the step and started across the grounds. The sound of the front door opening stopped him. He turned to see Kaiba, still only half dressed, leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed. Joey took a few steps back toward the house. " Now before you even say anything I think I need to..." Joey stopped when Kaiba looked away unresponsive. ' It really does look like him,' he thought. ' And standing there like that...' Kaiba took a step toward him and he tensed up, sensing that something still wasn't right. There was something about the look in his eyes that kept Joey unsettled.

"I really thought this would have worked. Your desires were so strong and your mind so weak. I guess..." suddenly there was no room between the two and fear slipped into Joey's eyes and Kaiba grabbed his chin roughly. "I guess I was wrong but... You're still going to pay." Joey tried to run but Kaiba grabbed a hold of him so he couldn't. He twirled Joey around stripping him of his shirt and jacket and then he threw him to the ground. "See how well you fair now. I was giving you the easy way out. Now I bet you wish you really were that dumb." Pain shot through Joey's body and he winced but his mind seemed to be going blank. Kaiba disappeared, the mansion disappeared, even the ground disappeared; Joey was alone and when he opened his eyes again he was in the woods. He coughed, finding in hard to breathe for the moment and curled up into a ball as he shivered in the cool breeze. Then he started to fade in and out of consciousness.

Yami, Yugi, and Ryou woke up with a start at a screeching sound that seemed to surround them. Yugi clung to Yami who just contented with feeling the boy in his arms again, momentarily forgetting any danger that might be around. Ryou looked around wildly but saw nothing until he noticed a shadow that seemed to be circling above them. He looked up and his eyes widened when he realized exactly what it was that had made the sound. He rushed to stand, alarming both Yami and Yugi who joined his gaze upward.

"I think we need to go!" he cried and started to run. Yami pushed Yugi to his feet, then stood up himself, both of them following after Ryou toward the protection of the woods. Another cry split the air as the creature noticed it's meal escaping and it started to lower itself to get to them before they got any further away. Ryou tripped at the same instant that something shot past them all and into the dragon. A different kind of screech rang out, followed by the thud as it hit the ground. Yami and Yugi froze and they all turned back around. The creature lay dying from a knife wound to its chest. Ryou sat up and looked at Yugi confused but Bakura came into view from another section of woods waving a second knife in one of his hands. He pulled out the first one and wiped it off, cursing at the beast and putting both knives out of sight again. Ryou got up and ran to him.

"'Kura you saved us!" he cried happily as he wrapped his arms around the spirit.

"Don't get used to it," Bakura mumbled. He looked to Yami.

"We need to find the others," Yami said as he and Yugi walked closer to them. Yugi nodded in agreement.

"And then find a way out of here," he added. Ryou looked around.

"But where's here?" he asked looking back to them for an answer. "The last thing I remember is some guys breaking into my house."

"You don't remember Marik?" Yugi asked. Ryou looked to Bakura and frowned.

"Oh yeah..." Something seemed to pass between the two of them and then Ryou smiled.

"I say you forget about trying to find anyone else and just get the hell out of here now," Bakura said returning his gaze to Yami.

"Does that mean you know how?" Yami asked curiously. Bakura nodded.

"It's easier then you think," he said. Yugi and Ryou looked at him questionably.

"We can't just leave them here," Yugi's eyes filled with worry and Yami put a hand to his shoulder for comfort.

"We would be better help to them out there," Bakura said indicating the real world. " This is just a game after all." His eyes presented a challenge to the supposed King of Games and Yami nodded in agreement. He looked down at Yugi.

"He has a point. From the outside we would be able to know everything that's involved in this," he said which only made Yugi more upset.

"No. I won't leave them in here. You guys can go if you want but I'm staying to the end of this." Yami met Bakura's eyes again and shook his head.

"I'm not leaving him," he said. Bakura rolled his eyes.

"I find it annoying how you'd risk other people's lives just because of a few useless souls trapped in a game."

"No one said you had to stay," Yami narrowed his eyes. Bakura scowled.

"I can't leave without you. Sorry to say but we have to work together to get out of here. Unless of course we finish the game...which, I wouldn't really recommend. That dragon wasn't the only creature milling around here. He was right when he said we don't have much of a chance of survival." Ryou moved closer to Yugi.

"Well I'm not leaving either then," he said nodding to add effectiveness. Bakura sighed annoyed.

"What is it with you people? This isn't your normal kind of game. If you die in here, you die in real life. And it won't be too pleasant a death either."

"Bakura. Please. You don't have to understand," Ryou looked at him pleadingly.

"But..." he stopped when Ryou sent him a message inside his head. He sighed and crossed his arms, looking away from them. "Fine. But don't expect me to protect you. It's every man for himself in here." He started walking off deeper into the woods. Ryou smiled nervously, rethinking his decision to stay and then started to follow him. Yami and Yugi followed shortly after.

"Do we even know the rules to this games?" Yami asked pushing a tree branch out of the way so Yugi could get through.

"Or exactly what KIND of game it is?" Yugi added.

"Isn't it obvious?" Bakura said sarcastically. Yugi looked to Yami worriedly. Bakura just looked away boredly. "There are no rules and the only objective is to stay alive."

"Well then how does it end?" Ryou looked at him inquiringly. Bakura chose not to answer.

"Well I remember Marik saying something about staying away from shadows," Yugi said, thinking out loud.

"Well if he meant that the shadows themselves were dangerous then I think we have quite a problem," Ryou moved his eyes upward when Yugi looked over then smiled nervously. "The sun seems to set here just as it does in the real world."

"Yu...gi..." The voice made all of them stop. It sounded strangled and forced and nobody seemed to be able to tell where it had come from.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Yugi asked warily. Ryou nodded.

"What do you think it was?" he asked. Yami scanned the trees with his eyes.

"I'm not sure but it sounded a little like Joey," he said. Yugi and Ryou joined his search of the surrounding trees.

"Which direction do you think?" Yugi asked.

"Let's just keep going. I didn't hear anything," Bakura snapped angrily. Ryou glared at him as the other two just ignored him and continued the search.

"Joey!" Yugi called in no particular direction.

"It's three against one," Ryou said proudly as if winning some kind of battle. This just made Bakura roll his eyes again and slump down next to a tree in annoyance.

"Joey!?" The three of them split up but never got too far away from each other. Yami came to him first.

"Over here!" He called as he took his jacket off and draped it over the shivering boy. He was unconscious and wearing nothing but a ripped up pair of jeans and his sneakers. Yugi knelt down on the opposite side of him and tried to wake him up.

"He seems to be in shock," he concluded after looking the boy over.

"I say we leave him then. He'll just..." Ryou shot him a sharp look and he stopped, settling for a scowl of disapproval. "Fine. Let me fix him then." He pushed Yugi away from the body roughly and put his face right up to Joey's. He whispered something in Egyptian and smirked as the millennium ring started to react. Joey snapped awake in an instant. He jumped away in fear at Bakura's closeness, clinging to the next closest thing to him, which just happened to be Yami. Yami was too shocked at the sudden movement to react but Yugi blushed for him as Ryou sent Bakura another cross look. Bakura shrugged and walked back over to Ryou. Ryou took the opportunity to hit him.

"Don't ever do that again!" he scolded. Bakura rubbed the place where he'd been hit aggravated.

"Glad to see you back in full health," he said sarcastically. When Joey realized what he was doing he scrabbled away from Yami and blushed himself, then grabbed the jacket protectively, using it to cover himself.

"Are you okay Joey?" Yugi asked trying to fend off the uncomfortable silence that was sinking in. Joey blinked and relaxed.

"Yeah... I think so...but are...you guys real?" Ryou and Yugi exchanged concerned looks. Yugi moved to help the blonde up.

"Yes..." he answered uncertain. A smiled spread across Joey's face.

"Then I'm great!" he exclaimed and hugged the shorter teen. Yugi blushed again unable to decide whether to push him away or let him get it out of his system.

"Wh...what h...happened to you?" he asked trying not to seem like it was at all weird. Joey pulled away and stood up, hurriedly pulling on Yami's jacket.

"To tell you the truth...nothing." He shrugged and smiled goofily. Everyone looked at him unsure but Bakura started walking again so they of course, started to follow.

Raine: Well hey. I tried to post this yesterday but my computer is being very bad again. We just switched internet providers and all soI don't know how well it will be working for the next couple of weeks. I hope to have this story done before I lose all internet connection so that's that. Um, I just wanted to apologize to everyone for turning this into something so...dark. I really didn't mean too. A lot has been happening and I guess I decided to take out all my frustration on this fic. I do promise that it won't be for much longer. I also started to write another story to kind redeem myself I guess. LoL. I know it's stupid but I don't know. I felt that somehow I needed to. Thanks for sticking with me through such a dark turn...smiles Bye all.