The High Priest's Secret Tomb


Disclaimer: I do not own 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Kazuki Takahashi, Warner Brothers, 4Kids Entertainment, and etc. does.

Chapter: Past And Present Collide


"..." the newly formed trio stayed silent.

From their left came a hysterical Tea and a swirly eyed Yami and from their right came a sane Bakura and a crying Joey.

"Why me?" all four friends cried simultaneously, stepping into the chamber at the last second. And upon entering, the entrances' changed, taking with them the four spiders.

When the four friends finally looked up they noticed the others. "It's Duke and Tristan...and Kaiba?" Unfortunately, once the running quartet tried to stop sprinting it was too late, they had been going too fast.

They all crashed into each other...

"Ow! My head!" Tristan exclaimed in agony.

"My face!" Joey cried.

Kaiba, who had been ready to climb the invisible ladder anyway, had just hoisted himself out of harms way.

After having recovered from the sudden crash, all six friends started hugging and laughing. They were relieved beyond imagination to be back together. When a moment passed they again noticed the silent Kaiba.

The boy had barely touched the ground when Joey silently stepped up behind him and...lunged at him. "This is all your fault rich boy!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes, merely hoisting himself up once more.

Gasping in shock, Joey crashed face first into the invisible ladder. He groaned in pain, gingerly touching his nose. "I didn't think mimes could actually touch the things they made."

"Didn't know you had a brain to think with," his rival retorted as he jumped down. The brunette kept a firm grip on the ladder though, thinking it might disappear if he let go.

Yugi, who had just switched places with Yami, smiled. "We finally found you!" But all to soon frowned. "How did you get down here in the first place?" he asked.

Before the taller boy could even decide on whether or not to answer, Duke intercepted. "How did you get lost in the storm to begin with?"

Kaiba's mood darkened considerably. Like he had thought a few minutes ago, it was bad enough being stuck in a tomb on his own, but now he had to share his misery with them?

Such a joy!

But instead he responded in his usual manner, "That's none of your business, now is it?" With that he resumed climbing the ladders again.

Yugi and his friends blinked, "Wait for us!" and followed suit.

Upon reaching the top of the square hole, the group found Kaiba sitting on a piece of stone beside a small palm tree, fixing the bandages on his leg.

"You haven't answered our questions yet," Yugi stated insistently.

Kaiba grit his teeth in annoyance. "I got lost while looking for something, alright?" He sent them a warning glare, he knew they were holding back multiple questions he didn't want to answer.

"Did you by any chance bump into any of those creepy things?" Tea probed.

"What creepy things?" he replied coldly.

Bakura looked disbelievingly at him. "The spiders! The humongous sized ones! Hmmm? Hey,where did you get that cut?"

No one received any answers to their inquiries as Kaiba stood from his perch and walked across the unlit room.

Yet before anyone could ask what he was doing, the torches around the room lit up, filling the place with a dim light.

Bouncing off the warm glow were twelve magnificently sculptured mirrors. Most were in awe at the beauty of them, while others went unimpressed.

One thing that did strike as odd was the fact that their was no visible rust or scratch on these mirrors, nor was there even the tiniest speck of dust.

"How beautiful," Tea breathed in wonderment.

Tristan in the meantime was trying to straighten his hair back to its usual point while Yugi too was fixing his hair, it looked tired of standing up.

Kaiba on the other hand was one of the few who went unimpressed by the mirrors. In fact, he seemed to hold a certain loathing for them in his eyes. And although he did notice his hair was completely dishelved, he could really care less at the moment.

Joey started laughing gleefully to himself. "Imagine how many bucks we could make selling these priceless beauties!" he voiced out to his friends.

Bakura nodded, an evil smirk breaking across his face.

'So, it was Kaiba who held the Item my Ring was seeking for all along. And what do you know, it's the Rod Marik had promised me back in Battle City,' Yami Bakura thought delightedly. He took a quick glance at the Rod hanging on Kaiba's belt then over to the Puzzle around Yugi's neck. 'Hmmm, well, Kaiba should be like taking candy from a baby. The boy is smart, I'll give him that, but when it comes to magic he's clueless. Yugi unfortunately is a different story though...'


Later at 8:30 p.m. that night...

Having blocked the hole on the ground with countless of broken stones and wood from around the room, they were all ready for some well deserved rest.

Everyone was falling fast asleep, that is they were, when Kaiba purposely said, "Don't let the bed bugs bite."

At which everyone's eyes snapped open, even Joey had the nerve to wake up with a start. All six restlessly checked to see if the hole was securely blocked, looked for any trap walls that would let the spiders in, double checked the hole, searched around in dark spots, triple checked the hole, and so on.

After almost an hour they all finally went to sleep, except Yami Bakura, who after getting up and being startled by Joey's sleep talk, waited another half hour before setting off with his plan.

'He was lucky that time, it seems Fate is on his side at the moment, but no matter. That was only a minor interruption to the plan,' Yami Bakura thought, silently crawling across the room to Kaiba's side. 'Let's see, where is it? Ah, there.' The thief spotted the Rod underneath Kaiba's backpack, which the boy was using as a pillow. 'I bet he doesn't even know how to seal his ownership on the Item anyway.'

Going a little closer, the albino headed thief accidentally slipped on a piece of Kaiba's sweater, which he was using as a cover. But managed to catch himself in time before hitting the cold floor.

The spirit awoke no one, except Kaiba.

That was one of the most amateurish moves someone could have done when trying to steal something from Seto Kaiba. He whom, no thanks to his brother, was used to waking at any little sound. Whether it be a creak in the floor or the light sound of breathing close by, he could hear it.

Barely catching a small glimpse of the Ring around the others neck as he turned onto his arm, Kaiba made sure to keep his hand close to the Rod.

'I knew this oddball was going to try something,' Kaiba thought, recalling the times he caught the spirit glancing at his Rod every few minutes. He then thought back to the Battle City Finals and to the endless conversations about possessing spirits between Yugi and his friends. Kaiba inwardly snorted. 'More like personality malfunctions, sort of reminds me of Jeckyll and Hyde.'

Meanwhile, Yami Bakura snapped out of his stupor. 'I'm becoming tactless!' he chided himself.

Kaiba was then again inspired. 'I'll try that trick Marik did, the one after each of his duels. I must give the guy some credit, he's a genius.'

Yami Bakura's hand was a few inches away from the Rod and he silently laughed. 'This is almost too easy to be true!' But his bubble was soon burst when he noticed that his target was indeed awake. Having no time to react at his new predicament, Kaiba took this as his cue and swung the golden Item down on his predator's head.

A golden light flashed and slowly resided as Bakura dropped to the floor in a heap.

Getting up and dragging the unconscious boy back to the other side of the room. Kaiba dropped the albino by his backpack and took his prize. As he had heard, it was what you earned, from Marik's constant ranting.

Striding back to his side, Kaiba placed both Items in his backpack before dozing back to sleep, at the same time thinking, 'I'm a bit rusty at handling the thing, but I'll get the hang of it...'


Hours later...

The twelve mirrors stopped radiatingtheir relaxing glow and instead gave out a steely aura. The fire on the torches flickered off and no one moved a muscle in the cold dark room, almost seeming dead. But the eerie quietness was soon broken by incoherent whispering...

...as a small ball of gray fog gathered itself from within the twelve mirrors into the middle of the room. Streaks of silver mist appeared above three bodies and the substance was forcibly extracted from them by the fog. When it was finished, the fog like spirit dispersed, and the clinking of metal scratching stone walls commenced.


A cloaked figure steadily worked in preparing things into correct order. "It is almost time. In the end it matters not what the choice is, the result will be that he will see the darkness." The shadow walked to the center of the circle and placed a black jar full of a thick liquid substance on a stone pillar.

Everything was set for the ceremony.


The clinking of metal grew louder as it neared the round room. Through a small hole, that Yugi and the his friends had missed, the pets silently crawled in.

Prowling around the creatures walked over every body, looking for one specific person among the seven. Yet not knowing who was who, they lifted three of the bodies up and dragged them away through the hole.

Now only four out of seven people remained. A loud pounding underneath the covered exit resonated throughout the night, unheard by any of them.


Next day...

Tea's vision was groggy as goose bumps ran up and down her arms. The cold hit her with a renewed force and she yawned. With a long sigh the girl squinted at her watch and she was instantly wide awake. "No way! This thing must be broken or something!"

Joey was amazingly awakened by the shout. "Tea, do you mind keeping it down a notch? We're trying to sleep here," mumbled the grumpy blonde.

"Why are you up at five in the morning anyway?" Duke asked.

Tea scoffed, "It's not five in the morning! It's seven o' clock!"

The three boys looked unconcerned though. "So...?" Tristan sighed as she tossed her watch at them.

"At night!"

They blinked, taking a better look at the watch. "Man, I know we were tired, but so tired as to sleep for 22 hours is ridiculous!" Tristan shouted.

Joey huffed, he sure didn't feel relaxed. On the contrary, he felt as if though he had stayed up all night...and day. "What does your watch say, Yug?" he asked, turning to the empty space his friend was supposed to be in. "...Hey, where'd he go? Hey, Bakura have you seen...never mind."

"Kaiba's not here either," Duke informed. Looking over to their exit he added, "Plus, the exit's still blocked up."

Tea retrieved her watch and scanned the room. "The mirrors are missing and they took their backpacks with them too."

Tristan thought for a silent moment. "Well, the only ones missing are theones with Millennium Items, maybe they're somewhere dueling the evil spirit?" he stated. They didn't have the reaction he was hoping they'd have.

Everyone started panicking.

'What if he sent them to the Shadow Realm already?' Joey quickly thought of the worst.

"Come on, maybe we missed a secret entrance last night or something," Tristan said, which again, didn't give him the response he was hoping for.

Their faces turned a light shade of blue at the recollection that the spiders were probably still waiting for them outside.

But still, they searched around the room. Spending almost half the portion of an hour looking around for anything, it didn't end in vain though. "I found something!" Tea called to her companions.

"Good eye, Tea! Never would have seen that there." Joey grinned.

A small hole, big enough for only one person to go through it at a time, was hidden in the shadows of a corner. "Well then, whe-," a sudden crash behind the quartet interrupted Duke from continuing. The sounds of breaking stone and wood resounded throughout the chamber and to their horror, a long spider leg poked into view.

"Ladies first!" Teacried andzoomedinto the small hole first.

"I thought you said chickens first!" Joey called, following suit.

The other two merely rolled their eyes as Duke went next. Just as the spiders came in and charged towards them, Tristan followed in the back of the line.

And the spiders being huge and the hole being small meant that they couldn't follow their prey any further.

As the tunnel sloped downward, "Wha-, aahhh!" all four yelped. They too slid to the bottom and came flying out at the end, plummeting down into the cold.

"Tea, you a-alright?" Tristan stuttered.

"The w-water, it's freezing c-cold!" she shivered, Joey and Duke resurfacing the water to join them.

"Where a-are we?" Joey queried.

Thegroup of friendswere at the moment in a cavern like part of the tomb full of water, almost as big as a lake. Quickly scanning their surroundings, theydistinctly heard someone or something else swimming in the lake besides them.

"Look up ahead, we can climb those rocks t-to get out." Duke pointed over to a wall with jagged platforms.

Hurriedly reaching their shore and climbing out, Tea clapped her hands together and said, "I knew it!" At her friends' blank stares she elaborated some more. "W-when Yugi and I were looking for you guys we saw water was flooding one of the halls. So we t-thought that where there's water, there's b-bound to be an e-exit."

Tristan blinked. "Where's the exit then?"

His answer, Tea pointing a fingerhigh above them. There, at the top most part of the wall, was a tunnel that led upwards. She assumed that had to be the exit because water was coming through it.

"Woohoo! We can finally get out!" they cheered, but were rudely interrupted by the sound of the moving water.

"Uh...hehe, maybe we should leave a-and look for the others b-before whatever it is that's in there joins us," Joey suggested.

As everyone stood, each looked at the exit longingly...but they had other business to attend to for now. Taking his compass out, Tristan informed them of their location so as to find their way back again.


Elsewhere...

Big amethyst eyes opened to stare back at a funny looking ceiling. "Hm," he mumbled, "...it looks like it's going to squish me." Then realizing that that was exactly what the ceiling was going to do, Yugi snapped up to a sitting position. "It is going to squish me!" he shouted, scrambling off the cold floor and scuttling out into a hall.

The short boy shivered, noting that he felt considerably lighter now. He blinked, "My backpack!" and ran back in and out at breakneck speed as the ceiling began to flatten his hair. Hugging the brown sack, grateful for his compass's safety, the boy tapped the Puzzle's eye.

'Yami, weren't you supposed to be keeping watch during the night?' he asked gruffly.

Yugi waited a while, thinking it odd that Yami was taking so long to answer him. 'Hello? Earth to Yami!'

Something was obviously wrong. Only something or someone with tremendous magic could block their connection. Jogging at a light pace, Yugi began to think of the horrible possibilities that could have happened to the others. The only chamber entrance visible in that whole hall was a few feet ahead of him.

Taking a small peek inside, panic rushed through him once more. Bakura lay motionless inside...

"Psst, Bakura. Come on, get up," Yugi called to the albino. He would have gone in and gotten the boy out himself, but was afraid that he might activate a trap of some sort. "Bakura this is no time to be sleeping!" he shouted, then thought better of it.

He might attract the unwanted attention of spiders if they heard him.

'Well, it always works with Joey,' Yugi thought desperately. "Bakura, class is over, it's time to eat!" he whispered.

At this, Bakura torpidly sat up, looking around until he spotted a crazy looking Yugi, who was frantically waving him over at the chamber's exit.

Making his way out, Bakura asked, "What's wrong? Where did the others go?"

Yugi shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine... I can't seem to get through to Yami at moment," he added at Bakura's glance towards the Puzzle.

With a long sigh, the taller of the two noticed that he too felt considerably lighter now. "My backpack!" he gasped, running back inside the room.

Coming back to the hall, backpack in hand, Bakura sat on the floor and rummaged through his sack. "By the by, what time is it?" he asked curiously.

Swiftly glancing at his wristwatch, Yugi's eyes almost popped out. "7:30 p.m.!"

Bakura gave his companion a skeptic look. "What? Are you sure that watch is right?"

Yugi shook the watch and heard for any rattling sounds, but there were none which indicated it was broken. "What are you doing?" he asked, staring at the albino, still rummaging through his sack.

"Well, we're going to need energy to look for the others, and we obviously missed three meals, so it wouldn't hurt to eat, would it?"

"...Mm, I guess not." Sitting down next to him as well, Yugi looked through his backpack.

Bakura unconsciously rubbed the top of his head. "Ow. I don't remember hitting my head anywhere," he groaned.

Yugi thought for a moment, taking a bite of a sandwich. "Maybe the spirit of the Ring did?" he suggested at which Bakura nodded understandingly.


In a soul room...

"Hello? Yugi? Answer me!" Yami shouted as he looked up above him. Then running up to his own soul room door he tried to tackle it down.

Yet still it would not budge, he was locked in.

"Yugi!" coughed the Pharaoh. "Well, that's...obviously not working," he told himself, massaging his throat.

Going back into the maze like chamber that were some of his memories, Yami sat at the foot of one of the many stairs with a huff. "What could have happened? Could this magic really be so strong so as to block my communication with Yugi?"

His frown deepened as he fell silent, deep in concentration. That power he ad felt before, could it be the cause of this mess? But his peace and quiet was all too soon broken by the sound of distant steps. Quickly fading away as the creak of a door being opened and closed reached his alert ears.

"What? Who goes there?" Yami questioned, his eyes narrowing as they darted from place to place. "Show yourself, coward!"

But all was silent.

Sighing in annoyance and defeat, he seated himself once more and continued thinking bitter thoughts to himself. So many things still eluded him and he had yet to remember many things.

The spirit glanced around at all the maze's doors and stairs still left to explore.


Meanwhile...

"Boring," Kaiba stressed the word out as he idly swung his good leg over the edge of a stone slab. The boy too had been separated from the rest of the group.

Although he wasn't as devastated, if at all for that matter, but now he was lost once more.

The worst part about it all being that he wasn't even sure if he was in his own realm or not. He wasn't one to believe in such ludicrous things, but taking all he had gone through into account, he wasn't surprised to find himself thinking like the geeks nowadays.

Bored of doing nothing for the past twenty minutes, Kaiba took the flashlight out, constantly wondering where his watch went to.

The flashlight's beam of illumination seemed to be swallowed by the darkness though. So, figuring since the useless thing didn't work in this place, he would drop it to see how far down it was from where he was sitting.

And so Kaiba waited, waited, waited, waited, and then he heard the distant contact with the floor.

"Well, jumping down is definitely out of the question," he sighed.

Picking the Millennium Ring out of his backpack,he begantwirling it around his finger, all the while wondering what the thing was supposed to do.

Thinking he was going to hit the stone behind him, the boy swung himself back...to instead fall over the edge.

"Wha-!"Kaiba yelped, feeling a sudden force knock the wind out of him. He had stopped, and was dangling in mid-blackness. "Whoever's there better get me down now!" he ordered, thrashing about the place. "Get me down this instant or I'll personally make sure you die!"

And then without warning, the brunette was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. "Watch it!" he bellowed, clutching his left arm tightly. "It better not be broken... Oh good, there's my watch...and my flashlight."

The itemlay on the dark ground,smashed to pieces. Scooping his precious watch up off the ground he strapped it back into place and would have looked at the time, but a loud thud prevented him from doing so.

His backpack had fallen from above.

"Now then, let's see what this thing can do." Kaiba glared at the Ring and its five pointers were automatically activated. Leading the way towards the location of two Items it detected. "I found myself a compass," he said and kicked the remains of the broken flashlight out of his way.

After nearly stumbling down a staircase that was camouflaged with the rest of the dark, he at long last came to the exit. "Well, this is certainly...out of the ordinary, and that's saying a lot," he commented.

Everywhere he looked there were pieces of floating rocks, some small, others extremely huge. The floating rocks differed in colors, as most were a glowing green while others were a glowing blue.

Kaiba himself was on a green island rock, as he had concluded by looking over the ledge to see the whole place was made up of nothing but an abyss. Behind him was a black temple, looking like it was made of the smoothest ebony marble.

"Hn, I hate this place."

Kaiba soon caught sight of something in the far distance, a temple. And seeing as there was really no other choice but to go, he steadily crossed a narrow bridge. Soon breaking into a sprint, even though he knew this would only worsen the wound on his leg later on.

Hopping from rock to the next he was being weighed down considerably by his backpack, the Ring wasn't helping either. It seemed to be having difficulty, as it was locating two Items in the same direction, but in completely different places.

Finally arriving at his unknown destination, Kaiba's face contorted into a scowl as he began cursing every event that led up to this moment. "Despicable trip, idiotic teacher, useless hike, dumb cave..." he ranted on until he entered the temple doors. "There better be someone who lives here," Kaiba's voice bounced off the walls, his footsteps echoing with every step he took on the marble floor.

Cautiously wandering into a chamber hidden in the shadows, his colbat blue eyes spotted a few odd statues in each corner. In great distaste he critically said, "What odd sense of art...hmph! I'd have this place better decorated with just a few finely crafted dragon statues." The boy nodded knowingly.

But ignoring the eeriness of the place he continued to the end of the room, a dead end.

Then looking to his right he found stairs leading somewhere high above, past the rooftop. "My legs are going to kill me tomorrow,"he mutteredgrudgingly.


Yugi and Bakura were running down one of the many corridors of the upper tomb, the latter of the two navigating them towards the room with the invisible ladder. "Come on Yugi, the chamber is just down this hall," he stated.

Turning the corner of the hall they were suddenly knocked down by four very wet figures. "Aaahhh! It's the spiders coming back to eat us!" Joey shouted, covering his head under his arms.

Duke jabbed him in the gut. "It's only Bakura and Yugi, dweeb!" Tea and Tristan sighed with relief in the background.

"YUGI!" Yami's voice finally reached his counterpart's ears, causing him to shout out in surprise and pain.

"What's wrong Yugi?" Tea asked, startled out of her wits.

"Hehe, Yami's calling, I'll be right back guys."

'About time you showed up!' Yugi reprimanded moodily.

Yami blinked, amazed that his yelling actually got him somewhere. "Hmph! About I showed up? It's about time you answered!" the spirit of the Puzzle croakily informed. His voice was getting raspy from all the futile attempts to call his counterpart.

The shorter of the two shook his head and waved the bickering aside. 'You don't think there's someone at fault for this, do you?' he asked, hopefully his suspicions could be proven wrong.

The Pharaoh frowned and questioned, "You mean like when Anubis was awakened? Maybe..."

Yugi looked slightly worried. 'Nah, it's just probably this tomb's old magic, you know?' Yet he didn't seem to have even convinced himself either. 'Anyway, we all sort of got separated again, but we're fine now...sort of. Did you happen to see what happened?' he asked.

"Hmmm. No, that's when I started to worry, I couldn't get through then. Tell me, have you found an exit yet?" Yami asked hopefully.

Yugi laughed nervously. 'No, not yet. Um...hey, you wouldn't by any chance still be able to use your magic in here, would you?'

Yami shook his head. "I couldn't get through to you through the link, much less use magic."

The other nodded. 'Alright. Oh, by the way, mind not yelling so loudly next time? You're going to leave me deaf one of these days!'

Yami sweat-dropped. "Sorry, I'll keep that in mind next time."

Disconnecting, Yugi found himself being carried in midair and a pair of spiders clawing at his legs. "Nice to have you back, Yug!" Joey greeted, being the one who was dragging him.

"Guess what Yugi! We finally found the exit!" Tea said, going starry eyed.

"Really?"

Duke nodded. "We aren't that far from the cave actually! Tea found a tunnel leading back to the top!"

At this, the blonde grinned, boasting as he said, "I even went up to check it myself!"

"Only after you lost in our rock, paper, scissors game!" Tristan sneered.

"Anyway, now we can get out of here!" Tea led the conversation away before Joey could lash out. Tristan was too busy navigating to notice the quarrel though.

Yugi and Bakura laughed nervously, seemingly the only ones to who have noticed. "Except that Kaiba's still missing!"

This resulted in the other four to falter in smiling, their moods changing drastically. "Where is he?" they demanded, managing to also catch Tristan's attention at this news.

"Would you believe us if we told you we didn't know?"

The other four pulled at their hair in frustration. "It's always him!"


At the top of the temple...

The brunette collapsed to his hands and knees as he wearily managed to reach the top.

Looking around, Kaiba idly noted that behind the altar stand in front of him was a hall entrance. "That must be the exit," he breathed hopefully, never once thinking that he would be glad to see anything that resembled a tomb.

At least then he knew he was somewhere in the Snow Mountain Resort, unlike this place...

Kaiba took an abrupt stand and was suddenly distracted by the black jar sitting on the stand. Curiously, he pondered on whether to open it, merely wanting know what it contained inside. 'I wonder...'

But the jar's polished surface reflected the image of twelve mirrors, and so this immediately shifted his attention.

"How did they get here?" he wondered.

Fortunatelyhe caught himself, he needed to control his sense of curiosity.

Not wanting to waste any more time in that place, the boy fixed his attention back to the entrance, but the sudden appearance of a cloaked figure startled him out of his mind.

"Welcome, Seto," greeted the man. He sounded strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.

'Freak,' Seto thought as he calmed down from the scare.

"Ahem," the stranger coughed indignantly, his left eye flashing menacingly. "You should show more respect towards your elders, young man."

Kaiba muffled a snort,getting back into business mode. "Yeah, whatever. Look, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so if you don't mind..." He repositioned his backpack and waited for the cloaked man step out of his way.

But the man stood his ground.

"I'd like to leave, today! Now move before I make you myself!"

"I am afraid you will not be leaving any time soon son," the man stated, removing the hood over his head.

Kaiba honestly wished the man hadn't, for it revealed an unnaturally hideous aging face. His dishelved white hair only making him seem more...lunatic looking.

But what unnerved Kaiba the most was that Millennium Eye of his, the one he had replaced his left eye with. It kept glowing an eerie gold, and the boy knew exactly what it was doing.

"Hey, you're that crazy geezer who killed the Blue Eyes girl," Kaiba pointed out dumbly.

The old man was insulted and disappointed to say the least. Frowning he said, "After so many millennias, that is the first thing you have to say to me, Seto?"

The brunette's right eye twitched in annoyance, and he harshly admonished, "No one, and I mean no one, calls me by my first name but family. You got that?"

The man laughed, "Even after all these years you still have not changed son," but then abruptly stopped. "Which is not necessarily a good thing."

Seto's eyes narrowed, he suddenly had a great loathing for this man and he didn't even know him. The feeling then bubbled to a new height at the recollection of that girl's death. The one from the memory world, as Yugi had called it.

Yet Kaiba,being the composed person he was, ignored the man and kept silent.

"I am your father, whether you remember that or not, and I deserve the utmost respect from you boy," stated the old man.

"Please, my father died six years ago, alright? Five thousand year old relatives don't count in this time and age, so go complain to someone who cares to hear your story. Now, I'm not going to repeat myself again, get out of my way!" Kaiba ordered.

But the man had been waiting five millennias for this moment and his own son was not going to ruin his plans by being his stubborn self.

Valuable time was trickling by...


As the group neared the cavern like part of the tomb everyone suddenly stopped. Seeing as they were momentarily given a break from the creepy spiders.

"Wait guys, we still need to find Kaiba," Yugi reminded, Joey placing him down on the ground.

"What?" the other four cried.

Yugi and Bakura covered their ears, the latter saying, "Yugi's right, we still need to find him. I mean, that is the reason why we got lost in the first place, right? To find Kaiba, wasn't it? Or did I miss something?" Bakura asked in confusion.

Tea huffed. "But Kaiba's an ungrateful spoiled brat who, as he claims, is smart. So he won't have a problem finding the exit himself," she stated heatedly.

Joey and the others nodded. "You saw him, he didn't even thank us for coming to help him!" Tristan said.

"So why even bother? He says he doesn't need our help so he doesn't need our help," Duke chimed in.

Yugi and Bakura frowned, but nonetheless sent a hopeful glance towards Joey. But he was, of course, the one who most despised the brunette.

What were they expecting?

"That snob's a jerk! He never helps anyone but himself, so now the favor's being returned!"

"So you guys are just going to leave him here then?" Yugi questioned. What had gotten into his friends lately? The quartet nodded. "Even if it means losing Mokuba as a friend?"

This seemed to crash on them like a ton of bricks, but they nodded nonetheless. Although they seemed a little less certain this time.

Tristan then brought a knowledgeable fact up. "Okay, so we're being plain childish, but come on! This is Kaiba for crying out loud! The one who doesn't believe in the supernatural even if his life depended on it! He's in a tomb full of magic, spiders, and other things, so what makes you think he's even alive?"

This took them a moment to consider before Bakura answered, "Well, he was alive when we bumped into him last time, so why shouldn't he be alive now?"

The other four had expected this question though. "Yeah, but whatever it was that took you three, it was obviously after one of you. And seeing as you two are here and Kaiba isn't, it was after him. So we don't really know if he's actually in this realm or not. He might have even been eaten by those spiders," Duke explained.

Tea released a miserable sigh. "Even if we find him, it's highly probable that one or two of us won't make it out alive. So wouldn't it be better with less casualties?"

Yugi and Bakura didn't respond.

They knew they were in the right. Their friends were probably being cruel, but they were just stating the harsh truth as it was.

"Now then, I guess it's up to you guys. Are we going to go look for him or not?" Joey asked, unnaturaly serious. At that exact same moment the sounds of the spiders' screeching echoed not too faraway.

Nervously glancing at each other, both boys had sullenly agreed and continued towards the exit.


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Copyright (C) 2004 by Rune-Sorceress. All rights reserved.