Disclaimer: *cheesy TV dude* Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related merchandise is property of Kazuki Takahashi and ... *Inwe shoves him away* Yu-Gi-Oh! is owned by people who aren't me. There!

Inwe: Yay! Another chappie! Yes I know it's a LONG update... but I updated as soon as I could! You see, there was a 42 hour Yu-Gi-Oh marathon on Nick and I just had to watch it. I didn't need to use to thesaurus really, 'cause I learnt so many new words from last chapter. And thank you to the reviewers! BTW, for Cara the Mord Sith's sake, Queensland is in Australia and yes, Craine is my OC.

Chapter 7: The Plot Thickens

Craine was watching the group's progress on a large screen. The room was empty apart from him. "Good," he said out loud, "They've stumbled upon my cave... Everything is going to plan..."

He grinned widely with satisfaction. He looked down to his keyboard controlling the actions on the screen. "Now the second phase of my plan..." He pressed down a series of buttons on the board.

"Certain members of the group will not be able to see what I have placed there. The ones I want to stay... Of course I shall need the 'pharaoh' to stay, he shall not be able to see. To tear him apart more, I shall let his hikari see it, and leave as soon as the prophecy written upon it is fulfilled. I do not need this 'Tristan' to stay, he shall see it. And the holder of the Millennium Ring will not stay either... I still have much to learn about the nature of this Item. Now, who else should I keep...?"

He stared intently at the screen for a moment, his brows furrowed in concentration.

"I shall keep this 'Joey' here. He is a good duellist, it will be interesting to see how he fares when the others have gone. To make his time here more difficult, I shall let his sister see what I have placed in the cave. And to spice things up a bit, I shall keep the girl he is always fighting with... 'Mai' I think it is."

"One more left... Shall she stay... or shall she leave?"

There was a long pause as he considered the choice.

"I should think... stay. The number staying and leaving will be equal then. Very well. Now let's just wait and see how the plot unfolds..."

(~Sorry if that confused any of you guys... Yami, Joey, Mai and Téa are staying and Tristan, Serenity, Yugi and Bakura are leaving~)

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Téa took a step backward in astonishment, her hand covering her mouth. The cave was completely furnished, as if some one lived there. Simultaneously, Yami moved forward, into the cave. He surveyed the room, his expression unchanging. From the outside the cave looked rough, a part of the wilderness. But inside, the place was furnished as if someone had lived there and still lived there. Someone had almost surely been there recently, the fireplace in the corner still contained the cooling embers of the fire and a half filled pot of some kind of stew was still over the fire. Yami glanced at the girl standing beside him. Their eyes met. Téa's eyes were still wide with amazement, her mouth slightly agape in shock. For a reason unknown to Yami felt his face heat up slightly. He looked back into the cave pretending not to have noticed. As his eyes swept the room once more, he lifted his hand and brushed his fingertips fleetingly against his face. The warmth beneath his fingertips felt strange, something that seemed alien to him.

(~Sweet Ra, I can't write romance... to socially immature...~)

His hand fell back to his side as he felt Joey behind him, trying to catch a glimpse of what was inside. He moved aside, allowing the rest of the group to pass through into the cave. He was too deep inside his own thoughts to notice Yugi's exclamation of disbelief. He didn't even notice Joey shouting, "Yuge, what is that?" at a volume loud even for Joey.

But he did notice someone taking hold of his wrist and pulling him forwards. He looked up from the floor, and met Téa's azure eyes once more. Her face was flushed but she didn't release his wrist.

"Yami?" she asked in concern, "You don't seem well... are you feeling OK?"

"It's nothing, Téa... I'm just thinking..." he said, almost vaguely.

Yami felt himself being jolted forwards by the force of Téa's hand. His feet started to move and looked in the direction he was being taken. The rest of the gang were clustered around something that Yugi was holding. They were all saying things like,

"I wonder what it is?" or "Maybe it's got some kinda treasure inside!" or "Doubt it Joey."

These last two comments had come from none other than Joey and Mai. They're fighting had lessened, and become just pointless teasing. It seemed to amuse the others greatly, could those two be any more obvious? (~Not really...^_^~)

"Wait, Téa, what's going on?" he asked, suddenly aware that he had no clue of what was happening.

"I'm not sure, that's why we're going over there to find out," she said with a trace of a smile.

They reached the table. Mai looked around as they approached. She shot an exaggerated look at their hands. Téa let go of Yami's wrist as if Yami's hand had suddenly produced an electric shock. Mai smirked slightly and nudged Joey.

Téa tried to break the awkwardness between her and Yami by saying quickly, "So, Yugi, can I see what it is?"

Yugi held out a small object. It was nothing out of the ordinary really, just a small round box, light brown in colour, with a dull gold clasp.

"I found it over here on the table..." Yugi said.

Yami picked it up and examined it closely. Closer up, he could see something carved into the wood in a strange text. Nothing he could read, but he couldn't help thinking that he'd seen that writing somewhere before. He ran his fingers along the carving and suddenly, the box sprang open.

Inside lay a small sheet of parchment, that still looked new, rolled up and tied with a small mauve ribbon. Yami pulled it out with a renewed interest. He unrolled it and...

It was blank. The parchment was completely and utterly blank. Yami stared at the piece of vacant paper like he had never seen paper before.

Yugi craned his neck to try and see what was going on.

/Yami? What is it?/

//...the paper's completely blank, Yugi.//

/Really? Let me have a look./

Yami passed the parchment over to Yugi. Yugi took it and glanced at it.

/What are you talking about? It's full of writing!/

//What? But when I looked before, it was bare... How can you see it when I can't? I'm not sure Yugi, but something about this place seems wrong... It's as if there is a shadow lurking behind every corner.//

Yugi gave a small shiver at Yami's answer.

/I don't know what's wrong either Yami, but whatever it is... we'll defeat it as a group. Me, you, Joey, Téa, Bakura, Tristan, Serenity and Mai./

Yugi noticed a slight lapse in Yami's concentration at the mention of Téa's name.

//... we will defeat it...//

"Yuge, what's dat ding you're holding?" Joey asked suddenly, breaking Yugi and Yami's conversation. He leant forward and grabbed it from Yugi's hands.

"What's de poin' of dis? It's got noding written on it!" he said, after looking at the parchment back and front.

Tristan caught a glimpse of a couple of words as he peered at it over Joey's shoulder. He snatched it off Joey. "What are you talking about, ya nimrod, there's a ton of writing on it... well, unless you can't read..." he said with a sly grin.

"Tristan! You know I can read! You're seeing dings!" Joey shouted in retaliation.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Would you two please stop it!" Téa shouted over the two of them in exasperation, "Let me have a look."

"Fine, you can, then Joey'll see that I'm right," Tristan said, passing the parchment over to Téa.

Téa looked it down, seeing no writing on the front or back, like Joey and Yami. "Tristan, Joey's right, there's nothing of any kind written on the paper."

"WHAT!?!?!?!?!?" Tristan shouted in annoyance, "There is writing there. I saw it!"

"Give it up Tristan. Unless it's written in ink that vanishes when anybody but you sees it, you're making it up." Joey said smugly.

"Big brother? May I see it please?" asked a small voice in a polite manner.

Joey, Tristan and Téa turned to face Serenity, who was standing behind them, with an angelic smile on her face. Before Joey or Téa could say a thing, Tristan seized the parchment from Téa and passed it to Serenity.

"Thanks Tristan," Serenity said with a sweet smile.

Tristan went red. Serenity took a quick look at the parchment and said quietly, "Joey, I can see writing..."

Mai had been watching the scene before her with amusement. "Kids, I will have a look and tell you what I see. Maybe that will clear all this up."

Serenity passed the parchment silently over to Mai.

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Inwe: How was that? It wasn't much of a cliffhanger... Review please! Sorry reviewers, I won't be updating for a while 'cause I've got my half- yearly exams (Yay! *sarcasm, sarcasm*) coming up and I promised my mum I'd lay off Fanfiction for a while... :( Heh... I wasn't even supposed to write this chapter...