The High Priest's Secret Tomb


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

Chapter: Great Escape


Kaiba winced, feeling the sharp sting of the mirror's shard sink in, and he suddenly felt nauseous. He soon doubled over and threw up. What struck him most was that the fact that it tasted like blood, yet the liquid was black.

"I...didn't feel...sick a while...ago," he coughed, in the process hacking more blood out. His vision was blurring as hestepped through the entrance.

All he found was asingle staircase leading downwards...

...out of this chaos of a realm.


"Aaaahhh!" Yugi and his friends went jumping up and down in every corridor and chamber they entered.

"Why is the ground moving?" Joey wailed, when suddenly he tripped over a protruding piece of rock on the floor and hit the ground face first. "Ow, so unfair!" he moaned.

Yet even thoughthe ground continued to move and jump unevenly, Bakura kept a sunny smile on all the while. "Look on the bright side!" he said.

His friends turned to stare at him as if though he had grown a second head.

"At least those monsters aren't having the easiest time of their lives either!" he cheerfully pointed out.

Tea grinned. "Hey, that's true!"

But their happiness was short lived as their attention was focused back to the matter at hand. Everyone tried walking carefully through the ups and downs of a chamber, but itproved to be futile.

"Imagine trying to find Kaiba in this chaos!" Duke laughed miserably.

"Ow! Joey, watch it!" Tea yelped in pain.

"Sorry, didn't mean to step on your foot!" he quickly apologized.

All six were too busy fussing about hitting, bumping, or stepping on each other that they didn't notice a figure keeping a close eye on them.


A group of four adults trudged through the snow, squinting their eyes to get a better look through the raging snowstorm. It was possibly getting worse by the second.

"Where could they be?" a man in a white and blue uniform shouted wearily.

"I don't have the slightest idea!" the other man replied. The earth then began to give a few rough shake now and then.

"This area isn't known to have volcanoes or earthquakes!" a woman cried, bumping into one of her partners. "But honestly, these kids are smart! Wouldn't they seek for shelter?" she asked.

The fourth member nodded, blowing some of her brown hair out of her eyes. "How much food do they have again?"

The first guy thought for a moment before answering, "About four days' food, at the most!"

With a frustrated sigh, the brunette woman asked, "Don't any of them know how to use a compass?"

The others snorted. "Please, do kids ever listen to instructions?" And so they continued making their way against the raging winds, deciding it would be best to head towards the mountains instead.

"Let's split up! John and Kyla, go to the mountains on the left! Sam and I will take the ones to the right!" Shena informed.

Reluctantly going their separate ways, one group stumbled upon two items buried in the snow. "Look, two wallets!"

Meanwhile, the other two had managed to find another buried item as well. "So we're going in the right direction!" Sam stated.


Back in Domino City...

"Hmmhmm," hummed an old man, his graying spiky hair camouflaging with the background of coming rain clouds. He sighed. "It's so quiet without those little rascals around."

He continued sweeping outside his Game Shop when the mailman stopped beside him. "Ah, good morning Solomon. Is your grandson home today?" the man asked.

Mr. Mutou looked up from his work. "Good morning, Dan. No, I'm afraid he's not, but may I ask why?" he queried.

Dan smiled, getting out of his delivery truck and heading to the back, bringing asmall lockedbox out.

Mr. Mutou blinked. Who would send his grandson such a securely locked box anyway?

"Solomon, are you alright?" Dan asked him, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Hmmm? Oh yes! Just fine," Mr. Mutou assured.

After having had handed the box over, Dan hopped back inside his vehicle. With small waves to each other, Yugi's grandfather then entered the shop.

Gleefully, heruthlessly pried the box open. "Seeing as Yugi won't be home for another week or so, I'm sure he won't mind if I take a small peek inside."

With that in mind, he carefully proceeded in opening the box, almost immediately taking notice it was an artifact. "It's probably from Ishizu," he mumbled under his breath.

Inside he found...a golden scale.

Lifting out the letter next to it, Mr. Mutou went to get his reading glasses. "Ah, I was right, it is from Ishizu," and he read:

Dear Yugi,

I am deeply sorry to keep bothering you like this, but we have just discovered that we are currently missing the Millennium Eye. I have tried using the powers of my Millennium Necklace to locate it, but it seems to have stopped working once again. We have just spoken with Pegasus and he does not hold the Eye either.

Please keep an extra lookout for this person, they could be of extra threat with the Item in their possession.

In other news, Shadi has just discovered that the present owner of the Millennium Scale has passed away. So instead, we will be handing them down to your grandfather.

Again, my sincerest apologies for troubling you so, but I must tell you that our problems with the media will not be fixed until late November, at the earliest.

Oh yes, before I forget. I am warning you beforehand to stay away from spiders. Do not ask me why, that small glimpse of a prediction still eludes me.

Sincerely,
Ishizu Ishtar

P.S. Remember to wear something green on St. Patrick's Day and warn Joey, Tristan, and Duke to avoid Kaiba by all means necessary that whole day.

"Oh dear, it's too bad that they can't be warned anymore. Hmmm...so this thing is mine, huh?" Mr. Mutou said aloud. He took the Millennium Scale out and inspected it closely. "My, no wonder Yugi likes to carry his Puzzle around. They're very stylish, and now I can blend in with the trend too! I am still quite young after all!" he declared proudly.

Then he started doing some flashy karate moves with his hands and legs. "Ow! Maybe...I am...too old for this..." he groaned.

The old man held his back in pain, dropping the envelope in the process.

Three cards fell out onto the floor along the way...

He blinked, forgetting all about the pain on his back as he picked them up. Mr. Mutou had gone starry eyed when he got a good look at them. "The three Egyptian God cards!" he exclaimed in glee, then abruptly quieted down and went to lock the shop's door, turning the 'Opened' sign around.

He then set the card trio down on the counter and unfolded the note that was attached to one of them, reading:

I thought you would need them, just in case anything came up. Take good care of them and I wish you luck should trouble arise.


Kaiba drowsily stumbled down the last steps of the staircase, relieved that the hurling had resided. "My head," he grunted, wishing he could just drop to the floor and fall asleep for just a tiny bit.

The idea that the Ring must locate those other weird Items idly crossed his mind before he finally grasped it.

He concluded that Yugi's Puzzle was the only Item left in the tomb, so the thing was obviously leading him back to the dorks. Kaiba was positive that they were bound to have found an exit by now. Yet this somehow did not change or enhance his walking agility, in fact, he couldn't even move any longer...

...and that was when he felt it. The feeling of no longer in control over any limb in his body, yet he was amazingly picking up speed now.

He was slipping, slipping into the dark, a temporary dormancy...


Meanwhile...

All the boys in the group urged Yugi to pick the pace up. "Come on Yug! Run faster!" Joey shouted as the spiders gained on the boy's heels.

"This is as fast as I can run!" Yugi exclaimed.

Tea then thought back to when her friend had switched places with Yami, obviously the Pharaoh wasn't going to make much of a difference. So, taking matters into her own hands once more, the brunette lifted Yugi off the ground and carried him herself.

Everyone sweat-dropped. "Tea!" Yugi complained, a tinge of pink spreading across his face in embarrassment.

In the meantime, the guys were trying to suppress their laughing very subtly. This excluded Bakura, who was kind enough to stay quiet.

"I have two legs, I can run on my own!" he stated matter-of-factly.

Tea gave him a glare of annoyance as she said, "You didn't mind last time." This caused the other three to nearly fall over in laughter.

"That was Yami, that didn't count!" he yelled. Yugi was desperately trying to squirm out of her hold, the girl only rolled her eyes at his futile attempts. "Why me?" he asked, giving up in his escape with a weary sigh.

The guys' laughing abruptly stopped that Yugi worriedly snapped his head up to see what had happened. Tea was giving them the most venomous look...

The now nervously chuckling trio knew that look, which quite clearly told them, "If I hear one word, one word, about this, you three will be sorry!" The three boys merely gave her meek nods. In their eyes she seemed to be towering over them. Her evil eyes boring through them as she held onto the helpless rag doll Yugi.

Bakura, meanwhile, was immensely enjoying himself, mainly because he wasn't in trouble.

"There, all settled, Yugi," Tea informed. But the semi short boy had already turned extra chibi in her arms, putting the reddest tomato to shame.

Finally they all arrived to the water cavern, not wasting any time in swimming across to the jagged platform wall. The rocks were now tumbling down like falling snow, but they were sure the exit would hold for a little longer. "We're almost there guys!" Tristan shouted over his shoulder.

"Yeah! Woohoo!"

Everyone suddenlyfroze in mid-cheering. Yugi's eyes swiftly darted to the tunnel like hole that led into this chamber.

Someone or something was sliding down and was likely to come after them. Yet they were somehow compelled to stay rooted on the spot...

...and before they knew it, out of the blue, Kaiba's figure slipped out and plunged into the icy water.

"Kaiba!" Yugi and his friends called out in horror and relief. He had yet to resurface the water so they could see how he was doing. They stared on as the water was soon tainted with blood.

Kaiba finally awoke, only to find himself sinking to the abyss like bottom of the cold lake.He nearly gagged as he breathed some water in.

His colbat eyes lazily looked about his surroundings, not recalling how he had gotten there, only that he had fallen into a sort of slumber like state at some point. Squinting his eyes to try and see who the approaching figure was, Kaiba immediately decided that swimming back up would do his lungs some good.

Joey and Tristan were just about to jump into the lake before Kaiba resurfaced all of a sudden. Startling most of them out of their wits.

"Gee, we thought you forgot to swim or something!" the blonde shouted. And although Kaiba was greatly disoriented, the boy had enough grace to send him a deadly glare in warning. "Yeah, yeah! Hurry up already, man! We found an exit!"

Duke looked around at the still collapsing tomb. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" he suggested anxiously. The raven haired teen motioned Tea forward, indicating that she be the first to get out. The girl was then closely followed by Yugi before Bakura made his way up afterwards.

Meanwhile, Kaiba was drowsily making his way over to the group, quite slowly, purposely done on his part. He would rather die before giving away that he was actually glad to have found them all. This was when he noticed that something else was swimming in the water besides him.

"Sheesh, man! What dump did you jump into?" Tristan's exclamation interrupted his thought process.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kaiba countered, abruptly taking to the offense. His two remaining roommates only stared at him, making Kaiba look at himself.

His jacket was thoroughly soaked in blood.

When the brunette could not recall what had happened he just shrugged, it wasn't like he would have told them even if he knew to begin with.

Tristan, having grown impatient with the young man, harshly pulled Kaiba out of the water and shoved him towards the tunnel above them. "You're up next!" he ordered.

Lesson to be learned when with the CEO: never ever touch Seto Kaiba, unless you want your head ripped off.

"Touch me again Taylor and you'll find yourself armless in ten seconds!" Kaiba threatened, turning a menacing scowl his way.

Joey fidgeted, as he was the man in the middle at the moment. Duke had already gone. "Um, hehe. Maybe I'll just go next, since, you know..." the blonde laughed, clambering up to the tunnel.

"Some friend," Tristan mumbled.

But no matter, he wasn't one bit afraid of the teen before him. So what if Kaiba was the multibillionaire of Kaiba Corp.? What made him any different from any of the rest, other than his riches?

Seto was completely undaunted by the glare being sent his way. "Is there a problem, Taylor?" he asked in his frighteningly calm tone.

Alright, so maybe he was just a tad bit intimidated. "Uh, no. Just wondering how you're going to handle them with sprained limbs and everything." Tristan pointed at the gathering creatures behind them.

"That'll be my business to worry about, alright?" Kaiba ended his case then and there. Tristan obligingly clambered up to the exit then.

The skinless like human pets crawled on the walls, three new spiders joining them, as Kaiba made a face at the horrid sight. He too was now in the tunnel, turning to take a look at the monsters but once more before his sight was blocked by rocks from the inside of the tomb.

The boy technically considered himself now outside the tomb.

All would have been relatively well, he would have enjoyed making his way out if only his brain would give him a rest for once in a long while! He sighed, his thoughts drifting to their own conclusions.

'For starters,' he began, '...the exits were wide open for anyone or anything come in and out of. What should happen if some of them are already outside at this very moment?' Kaiba ended in horror.

True, the spiders and Leviathans were too big to fit through the exits, but the creepy crawlers were just the perfect size. Not to mention that they were able to climb walls with fluid ease...

Seto was cut short on his new discovery when he felt hands grab the back of his jacket. "Yeah, yeah, you'll rip our arms off in ten seconds, we know!" the six friends laughed.

He was pulled out the last few feet by the Yugi squad, much to his annoyance and relief, he was exhausted.

When he stood up was when everyone ran out of the cave in unison. A cliff was up ahead of them, but that stopped no one from jumping down the rocky and slippery path of the high mountain.

If they died, they were going down running as far as possible from the mountain.


"Did they find them?" Ms. Dian asked, taking nervous glances out her room's balcony window.

Mr. Haiahashi shook his head, saying, "No, but they did find these. The manager wants to know if they belong to any of the missing students."

Taking the three items from him, the woman gave them each a thorough look, nodding along. "Yes, these are the items of three of them. The yellow wallet is Joseph's, the red one is Tea's, and I believe the necklace is Mr. Kaiba's," she stated, trying in vain to open the card like necklace. Her teeth grit together in held in irritation, as she started slamming the poor locket onto a table.

"How does that boy open it?" Ms. Dian growled, "Why won't you open?"

The male instructor backed away from his friend, nervously inching his way towards the door. Unfortunately the door suddenly opened then, hitting the man in the face.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, dear!" his wife apologized, stepping inside and looking over at a raging Ms. Dian, who was stomping on a necklace.

Once Ms. Dian finally had all her anger vented out onto that single item, which was still in mint condition, she gave her full attention to the two.

"Um, feeling better now?"

"Ha! Yes, much better," she sighed, "...but anyway, these are their things."

The red headed womantook the items back. "At least they're looking in the right place. Who knows, they probably found shelter in a cave. They'll be fine," she comforted.


Above the tomb...

Having run a good long distance away from the mountain they had previously escaped, everyone had hit the ground and had covered their heads. The shaking subsideduntil only the howling winds from the snowstorm were left.

Warily standing up, the group of friends waited in silence for a few minutes before jumping into the air, dancing and hugging each other in celebration. "We actually made it out!" they cried disbelievingly.

"Come on, let's all get to the lodge! Warm food is better than wet and cold food any day!" Tristan cheered, tears of happiness pouring down in buckets.

"Yeah! Now, which way is north?" Joey asked in eager excitement.

Yugi took his compass out. "North is...that way!" he stated. And so everyone joined hands to start their long delayed journey back to the lodge's refuge.

Duke then waved his hand behind him, searching for Kaiba's hand. "Kaiba, grab my hand!" he yelled over his shoulder, but turning he found no one. "Um...I don't mean to be the party pooper again, but we're kind of missing Kaiba again!" he informed the others.

Everyone froze.

"No! How could he have gotten lost so fast?" Tea wailed in despair.

Joey merely laughed, saying, "And he calls me a dog? He's the one constantly getting lost that we should probably keep a dog leash on him or something!"

But the others were only growing headaches. "What do we do? Should we look for him?" Tristan sighed, "This is what got us nearly killed last time after all!"

Yugi and his friends looked indecisively at each other, but soon shrugged it away. They would dig and look through the snow to see if they had any luck.

Yet in the endtheir attempts ended in vain.

"We better get going before we freeze to death!" Tea said, and the six stiffly, not to mention guiltily, headed off towards the lodge.

'Yami?' Yugi chattered.

"Ah Yugi, have you found an exit yet? I thought I felt a surge of power explode somewhere, I hope that wasn't me. And what about Kaiba...?" the spirit bombarded anxiously. He was more concerned with the surge of power he had felt, hoping he wasn't the cause of some form of explosion in the tomb.

His counterpart shook his head. 'Hm, we're already out of the tomb, as for the surge of power, I have no idea what you're talking about. And well, we found Kaiba for a little while...then we sort of lost him when we got out of the tomb...'

Yami nodded knowingly. "You want me to relocate the Rod again?" he questioned.

'It depends...can you locate things even through storms?'

The Pharaoh gave a slight frown. "That could be a problem..., but I'll see what I can do anyway," he offered.

The alter ego took a deep, concentrating breath in. Becoming quiet for a few tense minutes as he searched for said Rod's location. Of course, his powers had a limited distance they could travel before he became too exhausted to continue. "Sorry," he sighed.

Yugi scratched his head, now out of ideas. 'Don't worry about it, he'll be fine, I think,' he said and disappeared from his sight with a small shrug.

Disconnecting, Yugi found the others waiting expectantly. "Anything?" Bakura asked.

"No, the storm is too strong!" Yugi informed.

Looking disappointed the group started backtracking once more towards the lodge. "How long do you think it is from here to the lodge?" Tea asked.

"Well, let's see! We traveled one maybe two miles with the instructors. We must have traveled more than two miles in that tomb, so I would guess around four or five miles!" Tristan replied.

This further dampened their exuberance as they struggled on through the storm. No one spoke much, except to check if everyone was tired or alright every now and then.


Further away...

Shaking the snow off of his dampened hair, Kaiba stood up for what he felt had to be the umpteenth time.

"Well, now I'm back to where I started from, lost without a compass," he heaved wearily. "Hmph, but one thing's for sure, I'll die of cold before I try and find any form of shelter ever again."

The Millennium Ring then suddenly pulled him forward, causing him to fall into the snow, again. Spitting chunks of snow out, Kaiba noted that it was pointing him towards a nearby Millennium Item.

"Maybe it's that weird Puzzle thing or whatever, again," he muttered, his smirk widening as he recalled that Yugi did have a compass and was probably already heading north.

Perfect.

Kaiba soon set off in the direction the Ring led him towards, trudging over lumps of rocks hidden underneath the snow.

A cloaked figure appeared out of thin air on the cliffs above the brunette's head. The man's apathetic colbat eyes carefully studied the boy from a distance.

'Seto Kaiba, so we meet again. Hmmm, so it is he whom holds the stolen Items now is it...?' the man thought in doubt. His eyes narrowed and he vanished into a black warp like realm.

The stranger needed to have a word with his old Pharaoh.

Soon, after some time of walking, Kaiba could barely make out a blur of a forest not too far ahead of him.

He had long ago seized to stop his futile attempts to climb the steep walls of the vast snow canyon he had fallen into. He had save his remaining energy for the long hike ahead of him, after all.

Kaiba's first reaction when he stepped into the forest's boundary was to nearly lose his balance. The sudden change from fighting against the wind to a still atmosphere was shocking to his senses. Shivering, he craned his neck to study the tall pine trees around him, covered in snow and gently swaying along with the rest of the wind.

Other than a light drift of snow swirling around the trees as the light from the moon made the place glow with a blue hue, the forest was relatively calm and quiet.

Kaiba felt contented for a mere fraction of a second, almost as if he was more than familiar with this place. Where had he seen it before?

But his head was all too soon brought back down to reality by a tug from his neck. "Right, back to business," he muttered, obligingly continuing his aimless stroll straight into the heart of the forest.

The seconds slowly turned into minutes and the minutes slowly turned into an hour or so. "How long...is this...forest?" the brunette wondered, stopping for a bit of rest. Out of habit he glanced at his wrist, recalling that he no longer had a watch.

In all honesty, he would have given up trying to get back to civilization then and there. If it weren't for the fact that he still had Mokuba to live for, he wouldn't have even tried to make it out of that tomb. But...he had someone to live for and couldn't go around trying to give up on life.

Now that struck him as odd. Since when did he start thinking such depressing things about life? Thoughts like that never once strayed across his mind, even for a split second, ever. The boy came to the conclusion that it was probably just the hopelessness of the situation getting to him, nothing to worry about.

To clear his mind, Kaiba took the new addition to his collection out from his pocket. Heraised an eyebrow. "I've been hanging around those weirdos for far too long, new addition to my collection?"

The boyshook his head and brought the golden sphere to his face. His expression going from hopeful to crestfallen.

It didn't show him any visions of the Blue Eye's past incarnation, like it had before.

So bringing the Eye down from his line of sight, he was nearly startled into a heart attack by a figure's abrupt appearance.

A man with beige robes and a turban stared down at him in silent contemplation. "Seto Kaiba?" the man inquired monotonously.

"Who wants to know?" Seto responded rudely.

"I am Shadi, holder of the Millennium Ankh, and guardian of the Pharaoh's tomb," he explained.

"What do I care?"

Shadi seemed undaunted by his harsh tone, almost as if though was used to it by now. He simply responded, "I am aware that you have come to possess the Millennium Eye and must ask for its return, my Pharaoh."

Kaiba scowled and turned his head away. "Too bad, I won it fair and square so you can just take a hike, pal. Besides, you have me confused with someone else," he informed.

Shadi's eyes slightly widened. 'So he does not remember? How odd, he already has the Rod, I would have thought he would have regained his memories back by now,' he thought.

"Hey, earth to freak, are you just going to stand there all day or what?" Kaiba snapped peevishly. He had been talking to the spaced out Egyptian and had received no reply.

"Hm, unfortunately you have not changed much over the years, have you?" Shadi countered out of the blue.

"Heard it about a million times today, so save it for someone who cares to hear it, alright? Now, please leave my presence in peace," Kaiba commanded with an air of haughtiness and...royalty.

The turbaned necromancer was now annoyed. An odd feeling, since throughout the millennias he had always been unnervingly patient. Only one particular comrade and Pharaoh had ever been able to grate on his nerves like that. But he had a duty that needed to be dealt with.

"Straying back to the task at hand though, it may be true that you won it under fair rules, but the Item was stolen and therefore does not count as a win." Shadi then extended his right hand out. "The Eye, if you please."

Kaiba hesitated, his eyes darting from the man's hand to the Eye. He had worked too hard just to win the darn thing, now he had to give it away?

Now that was what he called unfair.

But, with much reluctance, he handed the Item over anyway.

"Thank you, your compliance and help in returning the Item is greatly appreciated and will not go unrewarded," Shadi said, placing the golden sphere in one of his robe's pockets. Then, taking an ebony orb out, he handed it to Kaiba. "Here is your prize and heed my warning, it will come of use to you, Pharaoh."

The CEO examined his prize and asked, "What is it...?" but the turbaned man had disappeared as quickly and quietly as he had come.

Kaiba put the small orb away and followed the Ring's directions. "Those Egyptians are really starting to creep me out," he whispered, paranoid that one of them might pop out at any second.


At the lodge...

Sobbing students were gathered in the lounge, whispering their worries out to their friends. The female gender being the one's doing the most crying and wailing.

"Do you think Kaiba's alright?"

"Poor Bakura."

"I hope Tea's okay."

"No way, Yugi gone?"

"Those three were oddballs, but funny ones at that."

The students continued mourning for their fellow classmates' absences. The Search Department had already given up looking for the students an hour ago.

The main reason for this being that two of their members had gotten severely hurt while searching through the mountains. Other members had fainted from fatigue and others from the cold. Thinking that since their professionals couldn't handle being outside for a short amount of time, then how could a small group of teenagers for a large amount of time?

As the manager of the Search Department walked in, a grim expression etched on his face, he started his speech. "Well, I'm here to, unfortunately, give you all bad news kids," he started off. "Now, as you all know, seven of your fellow classmates have been reported missing for the past three days."

Everyone nodded.

"But we were unable to find any traces of them other than three items. Some of our members were seriously injured and so, I'm sorry to say, that we are assuming that they are dead."

Everything was silent, until more crying aroused, some small sobs here and there.

"We really are sorry, you may go to your rooms now. We'll see if anything new turns up tomorrow," the manager announced shakily.

And so the classdispersed fromthe lounge, slowly making their way back to their rooms when the main doors slammed open, letting gusts of wind and snow in.

"Sweet warmth!" shouted a frost covered Joey.

He andthe othershad previously tackled the door down in a frenzy to get in. The door being locked and the people inside unable to hear them yelling from outside drove them to such an act.

"You traitors! You were just going to go to sleep while we were right outside! We would have frozen our butts off out there!" Joey exclaimed melodramatically, breathing as hard as a raging bull now.

His albino headed friend then whispered, "Weren't we the ones who got ourselves lost? So in a way it was our fault we were out there to begin with."

The blonde turned, his index finger pointing accusingly at the bewildered class behind him. "That isn't the principle of the point. The point is that they don't know that, so what they don't know can't hurt them," he stated in an undertone.

Bakura nodded in understanding, but then stopped, confusion taking over. "Huh?"

Tea shook her head. "Always go along for Joey's sake," she advised, shivering from the cold.

Tristan then joined in, saying, "You should all be ashamed of yourselves! Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to get cleaned up."

"Let that be a lesson to you all!" Joey said haughtily.

Everyone present, besides his best friend, sweat-dropped.

The group of six were then ready to start ascending the stairs, when Ms. Dian came storming down at that exact moment. "What is it? What's all the racket down here?"

Her eyes soon brightened upon noticing her six missing students. Yugi closed the main doors, a loud click indicating it was locked.

"Oh, thank goodness, you're all back! Where were you? What happened? Are you alright?" She looked from one disgruntled face to another and her smile faltered slightly. "One of you is missing. Where is Mr. Kaiba?"

Duke whistled. "See, that's how it all got started," he grinned meekly. "But it's late and we're exhausted, so if this can wait until tomorrow?" he trailed off, the others following him sluggishly to their rooms.


Kaiba was beginning to fall asleep, he was merely walking out of sheer will. That is, before he tripped over a small heap of snow.

"This just isn't my day!" he shouted in exasperation, ready to pummel the heap of snow until it was flattened like a pancake. But he noticed in time that it was in fact breathing.

'Frosty the Snowman is real, well, now I've seen everything,' he thought sarcastically, inching towards the breathing snow in curiosity.

Dusting a bit of the snow away from what he guessed was the head, Kaiba found a person lying there, deep in slumber. "Well, she's obviously not dead," he murmured, checking her wrist just to make sure her heart was at a normal rate. "Hm, seems fine to me. I wonder how long she's been out here."

Looking at the girl's face closely, he noticed that she was stirring awake.

Her eyes opened a crack as she stared at a silhouette in the clearing above her head. "Feeling alright?" Kaiba asked in mild concern, but the stranger seemed unable to hear him clearly. "Guess not," he sighed, "...come on, let's get going. You need a doctor or something."

And grabbing a backpack not too faraway, which he assumed was the girl's, he managed to hoist the now unconscious girl onto his back. "This is going to be hard, " he gruntedin great pain.

Kaiba then continued his leisurelimping after the source of the Ring's activation.


Outside...

It might have taken him longer to get there than the others, but he made it, and Kaiba was grateful for at least that.

Shifting the weight on his back, the boy reached the main door to the lodge. But, to his utter dismay, the door was locked.

"What? How can it be locked?" he cried, he felt like his head was about to explode with the anger.

Instead he opted for shouting over the wind's howling, only to be drowned out once again. Good thing too because the people he was calling wouldn't have liked a word he was calling them.

"No! I was almost killed by everything imaginable and this is how I'm going to die? By a lousy locked door?" The brunette started pacing around the premises when he caught sight of a window to the left of the main doors.

His trademark smirk flitted across his face.


Inside in an office...

A woman around her early 40's sat behind her desk, putting some files and a few medical items away.

"Finally, I'm done. Sheesh! Who would have thought that such little cuts would take such an amount of time to bandage up?" Nurse Clare was referring to Yugi and his friends.

It was well past curfew and she was exhausted. "Well, time to head to bed," she yawned, standing up and stretching.

Exiting her office, Clare was passing by the main doors when a loud crash startled her out of her wits.

Everyone was obviously too tired and knocked out to have even heard the breaking glass, plus the winds were probably loud enough to make the corridors sound proof.

'Oh! What if it's a burglar? What do I do?' she thought frantically, staring at the snowy figure who suddenly stood and looked in her direction. She froze in fear as she stuttered, "Please s-sir, there's n-nothing of value h-here."

But the figure ignored her and walked towards her office. "Sir? What a-are you doing?" she asked, trailing behind this person. Then to her horror the snow covered figure looked in her direction again.

The person then coughed, shaking chunks of snow off of his head and shoulders along the way. "You should really leave that door unlocked, I wouldn't have had to resort to breaking through the window if you had." Kaiba shook his head and glared at the nurse. "Well, don't just stand there! Do something! Start the fire, I have an injured girl here!" he shouted.

He was surrounded by incompetents!

Clare was stunned to the point that she didn't know what to do first. "Start the fire first, right," she whispered to herself in a frenzy. She had the fire started in a few seconds then quickly helped Kaiba place the girl down on a sofa.

Grabbinga few supplies from nearby, the woman set to work.

"Where did you find her?" Clare inquired, gaining some of her composure back.

"What does it matter?" Kaiba replied coldly, earning himself a scowl from the older woman.

"Well, it seems that being stuck in the cold and almost dying has just worsened your attitude, young man," she scolded.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Thank you for the lecture, mom," he said mockingly.

Clare grit her teeth, asking once again, "Where did you find her, Mr. Kaiba?"

"A forest, happy now?"

The nurse snorted, blowing some of her brown hair away from her eyes. "That is very funny, where did you find her?" she asked again.

He gave her a silent reply.

"Sorry to tell you, but there are no forests in the Snow Mountain Resort," the nurse stated.

Kaiba scoffed, "Then you people are obviously blind. Hey! Don't touch me!" he shouted in admonishment.

The nurse was trying toapply some penicillin to his wounds only to have her hand smacked away.

"I'm helping! My goodness, how immature can you children get?" Clare hissed venomously.

"Well thanks, but no thanks. I can do it myself. Now, I'll be leaving her in your care," Kaiba informed, taking the supplies he needed from the nurse's office as he left to his room.


Three boys bolted upright from their restless slumber. "What was that?" Duke whispered.

They listened closely for any further sounds. "Sounded like breaking glass," Tristan answered, but soon enough shrugged it off. "Maybe we're just hearing things, you know we were pretty shaken by that tomb."

The blonde hid under his covers. "Eeeh, what if it's those creepy crawlers, come back to get us?" he asked. He possibly found an enigma he feared more than ghosts.

Joey quickly got up and went to press his ear against the door, for a while he heard nothing and so somewhat calmed down, hopping back into bed again.

His friends didn't answer his previous question though, and another moment of irritating silence passed as a thought came to Tristan. "Hey, about those creepy crawlers. Remember, when they took Yugi, Bakura, and Kaiba?"

They nodded.

"Well, they tried eating Tea, why didn't they eat or hurt them? Yugi said that he and Bakura were just in different chambers, asleep," he finished in suspicion.

This new fact puzzled the three so much that they didn't even hear the footsteps nearing their door until the last minute. "Creepy crawler alert!" they shouted and leapt out of bed to tackle said monster.

"Ow!" someone cried from underneath the trio. "Get off me, you morons!"

The trio blinked and looked down to find their fourth roommate. "Kaiba?"

But Kaiba wasn't in the mood for greetings and roughly shoved them off his back with such force that they collided against each other.

"Hey, watch it! It was just an accident, man!" Tristan rubbed the back of his head.

Seto only stood up, dropped two backpacks onto the floor, and headed for the bathroom with his needed items in hand. A loud slam from the bathroom door was the last they heard from the brunette for the remaining night.

"Seems someone still hasn't learned anything from this experience," Joey said crossly, holding his face in pain, again.

"No kidding, and where has he been anyway?" Duke shook his head and got back into bed. The other two followed suit, moaning in pain from the collision along the way.


Later in the morning...

"Just wake him up," Yugi told them for the fifth time.

"No way! He'll have our heads for breakfast if we even dare to!"Dukeexclaimed.

"You do it!" Joey directed towards Tea.

"No, you do it!"

The group continued to bicker about who would wake the sleeping boy, whom was under a bunch of blankets. "How about we all do it?" Bakura suggested.

His friends thought it over and found it to be the only solution, but instead of walking forward they found themselves jumping ten feet back. "Bug. Off." Kaiba mumbled grumpily, further burying himself under the covers. "Look you geeks, I'm only going to say this once. Leave me alone."

Tea scowled, pushing her friends forward. "Where did you go after we got out of the tomb?" she asked.

How dare he make them worry, when they shouldn't even have had to in the beginning!

In response, Kaiba incoherently muttered something along the lines of, "Just shut that big trap of yours for once in your life, Gardner." Fortunately for him, considering his injuries and all, she didn't hear him clearly.

It was quiet now, a little too quiet, and Kaiba found himself idly wondering if by any chance his luck took a drastic change and the six had left. But then Joey and the others, minus Yugi and Bakura, started pulling on the brunette's multiple covers.

Unfortunately, they were still there and the squabble continued until they managed to drop him off the bed.

Someone was going to die, Kaiba was going to make sureof that. The geeks were saved from his wrath when the room's door flung open.

Ms. Dian's head then came into view. "What are you kids yelling about...? Mr. Kaiba?" she asked in shock. "When did you get back? Are you alright?"

Her delighted smile widened, suddenly looking sinisterly foreboding. "Well then, now that you're fine, I would like too have a word with you all in my office...now," she ordered more sternly.

Yugi and his squad groaned, leaving a disgruntled Kaiba sitting on the floor. He crossed his arms, still clad in his long blue pajamas, and received a murderous glare from Ms. Dian. "Let's go!" she commanded.

"I'm still in my pajamas!" he protested.

"I don't care, you're to blame for waking up so late!"


In an office on the third floor...

The blonde headed woman gave each an accusing glare. "I am deeply disappointed in you six," she directed to every student other than Joey.

The boyblinked, looking around. "Um, does that mean I'm off the hook?" he asked.

But everyone knew why she hadn't included him in the intelligent department, to put it lightly.

"I gave you specific rules, which I expected you six to maturely follow," the angry teacher ranted.

Joey cleared his throat for the third time, but still went ignored as Ms. Dian began to pace back and forth behind her desk. "Helloooooo, all of us includes me, you know? I'm still here, aren't I?"he waved in his seat.

"You had everyone worried sick, I nearly lost my job, and something worse could have happened to you!"

Joey sat there looking steamed, his friends looked ashamed, and Kaiba, well, he was quietly snoozing away.

"You broke numerous rules, and this will not go unpunished! So..., you all have detention for the remaining school year!" Ms. Dian announced.

Her right eye began to twitch. "Get up, young man!" she snarled, waking Kaiba from his dormancy.

Yugi and his friends sighed, glad that detention was their only punishment.

"I'm suing!" the brunette blurted.

"Sorry, care to repeat that? I don't think I heard you correctly," Ms. Dian asked testily.

Now it was war.

Kaiba didn't want to help his rival and his friends, but he was willing go to that length at the moment. "I said, I'm suing. You can't give us detention because it was technically your fault we got lost."

"Oh, detention isn't all you're getting. No, no, no, this is also going in your permanent records!"

Tea's eyes widened and she snapped out of her seat. "You can't do that! The academy I'm trying to get into doesn't allow anyone with a bad permanent record in!" she shouted hysterically. Her hard work as a dancer was going to waste if her precious record was ever tainted.

Ms. Dian sighed. "You should have thought of that before you ran off."

Everyone sat there, looking crestfallen, minus Kaiba, who didn't need any record to get him a decent career. Too bad for him though, he owed them and that was one thinghe detested, owing people. So this would be the repayment.

"Tell me, who was the one that didn't give me a compass? And who was the one that didn't have an adult in the back, making sure nobody was left behind?"

Ms. Dian didn't answer.

So he continued, "You also mentioned that you were looking for us for two days? We were missing for almost four days! And any one of us can sue for injuries, damage, you know the rest."

His teacher's eyes narrowed. "You're all talk," she countered angrily. Kaiba was well acquainted with the suing business and so was left undaunted.

"Ha! No, you're confusing Wheeler's job with mine. I, unlike him, actually take action on what I say." Kaiba ignored the shout of protest from an indignant Joey.

Ms. Dian turned to the now quiet and meek looking bunch of friends. She asked, "You're just going to sit there and agree with him?"

Tea was not normally one to like petty revenge, but her dreams were hanging on the line. If she had to turn cruel in this case, then so be it. "Well, it's true. This never would have happened if everyone had gotten a compass."

Yugi nodded along with Duke and Tristan. Joeymerely sighed. "Phew! That would have been one too many bad marks, eh Yug?" He gave a laugh, patting Yugi so hard on the back that he was nearly thrown off his seat.

Ms. Dian's glare intensified. "I can't believe you would all sink so low as to lie! Surely you're going to tell the truth, Mr. Ryou?"

The albino boy whistled innocently as he shifted his eyes in every direction but towards her.

"Unbelievable!" She slammed her hand on her desk, although she wanted to continue this arguement, she knew when it was best to retreat before it got ugly. Throwing all their files into the fire, the teacher pointed at the door menacingly. "OUT!"

Literally being thrown out of the room was quite rude, having the door slammed closed in front of their faces didn't make the matter any better either.

But that was the last thing on their minds, as the six friends high fived each other, including Yugi. They thenturned to Kaiba, Yugi holding his hand out. "Thanks for helping, we owe you one!" he said cheerfully.

Kaiba would have said something scornfull and cruel. He would have, but he was just not in the mood today. He would make up for it tomorrow though. The taller boy slapped Yugi's hand away from him and stomped off towards his room, calling over his shoulder, "That still doesn't make us friends."

This surprised no one in the least, but Joey let the comment slide, that time. He had an important agenda in mind right now. And he was going to need Bakura's help in this mission. "Pal of mine, you and I are one in the same, it's time...to eat!" he cheered.

Everyone face faulted.


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