Rin was sniffling into her pillow when Sesshomaru entered their home.
"Rin?" Sesshomaru inquired. "What troubles you?"
"I'm no help to anyone," Rin said into the pillow. "I make things worse."
"Lies," Sesshomaru said. He sat beside her bed and put his hand on her back. "You helped me. If you can help one such as I, who hated humans, to find a purpose for his life, then there is nothing that you cannot do."
Rin sat up and dried her eyes and nose on a tissue. Then she laid her head against his side and hugged him. "You have to say that, Lord Sesshomaru. But I believe you anyway."
Just then, a voice called up form outside. "Hey! Anyone order a party?"
"Shippo?" Rin said, getting from Sesshomaru's side. She ran to the window and saw Shippo hanging from a bundle of balloons, and her other friends, plus Joey and Mai, holding a huge banner that said 'Thank You, Rin!'
"Hey hun," Mai called up. "I was wrong before."
"What?" Rin asked from the window.
"Yeah," Joey said. "You really did help me and Mai."
"Do you mean it?" Rin asked.
"Yeah, you helped us see what big jerks we can both be. And that's no way to be to each other and to you."
"Then I do spread sunshine!" Rin giggled. She rushed past her guardian and ran outside. "Thank you all so very very much!" Rin ran straight to Shippo and threw her arms around him.
"Uh, it wasn't all my idea," Shippo lied.
"That does not matter." she said, smiling. Then, out of nowhere, she gave him a big kiss. Everyone's eyes bugged out.
"Uhhhhhhh…." Shippo was speechless and his face was redder than the balloons he was holding, but very appreciative.
"Well, f this is al over-" Mai started, but suddenly, she groaned and touched her hand to her head. Then, the Millennium Eye fell out of her forehead!
"Mai, what happened?" Joey asked her. Just then, the Key around his neck snapped from it's chain. He reached inside his shirt and took it out, and tried to make it into the staff. "What's worng with this?"
"Same thing that's wrong with my Eye, hun," Mai said. "I think they're busted."
Sesshomaru jumped from the window and walked over, examining the Items. "They have lost their magic. I have always been able to sense the strong pulse of power form these Items you hold. I sense nothing now."
"What does this mean?" Joey asked.
"He has touched the Earth," Rin suddenly said.
"Rin?" Shippo looked at the girl. Her eyes were blank.
"He has come once more. His feet have touched the soil of the earth again…" then she fainted. Quiker than lightening, Sesshomaru caught her in his arm.
"Return to your king," Sesshomaru told them. "I fear King Yami has fallen." As they all ran to Mai's car, Souta turned and ran for the Shrine.
"Young god," Sesshomaru called out. "There is a darkness around you… Be careful of it."
Souta stopped, looked back at them, then he ran on.
Transition
Hearing the commotion in the shop, Solomon Mutou and Tea hurried out ti see if Yugi was alright.
"My word!" Grandpa gasped.
"Yugi?" Tea asked. Where Yugi had been standing was an orb of darkness.
"I've seen this before," Grandpa said, "He's in the Shadow Realm." Then, the orb shook, and burst. Out form it fell two unconscious bodies. Grandpa caught one, tea the other. Then came Ra.
At that moment, Joey and the others rushed into the Game Shop, and saw the disguised deity. He looked back at them, and held up the Winged Dragon Card for all to see.
"You're that guy!" Tea finally managed to say.
"I am Ra," he said to her. "And I have reclaimed my stolen property. The Winged Dragon has returned to my deck, where it belongs." He turned and looked the the flabbergasted group blocking the door. His eyes fell to Shippo and Mokuba. Then he chuckled.
"I see the imprint of the Avatar on you," he said to them. "You may be touched by the gods now, but that will not save you. All will bow before me when I take control of this world once again… And as for you, my former Priest," she said turning to Joey, "Expect me to come again. Next time I will pay a visit on you."
"Eat Fox Magic!" Shippo cried, he took out one of his leaves and yelled "Fox Fire!" The green flames bounced off of Ra, and he walked right out, like he owned the place. Then, standing on the street, he raised his arms, and arose to sky, enveloped in burning sunlight.
"What did he mean?" Mai asked Joey.
"I'm afraid we have bigger problems," Grandpa said, turning their attention back to them. In his arms was Yugi. In Tea's …. was Yami.
Transition
"Thanks for your help Seto." Mokuba said to his older brother as they sat in the computer control room of the Kaiba Corp Science laboratory. Kaiba made no pretence of it being any kind of pleasure to see Yugi and his friends again. Especially under the current circumstances. "How is he?"
"Yugi will be fine, but this Yami character you guys brought with him is in pretty bad shape. If not for the fact that they are exact copies of one another, I don't think that Yami would have survived the loss of blood or the burns. Yugi's body can certainly spare a pint of blood for now but he needs rest and so does his clone over there." Kaiba said.
"Clone?" Tea and the others asked.
"That's right, his clone. Once I scanned his body with my machines, it came up as a one hundred percent DNA match. Yami is not just Yugi's other half spiritually, he's his other half physically. And here's the really strange part, according to their ex-rays, they each only have one organ each. One lung, one kidney, one of everything. It's as if they were literally split in two." Kaiba explained to them.
"What about Rin?" Sesshomaru asked. She lay in a bed in the adjoining room.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Kaiba replied. "She seems to be in a completely comatose state but she's breathing on her own and she seems to be responding to the therapy."
"If what you're saying about Yugi and Yami is true," Kagome asked as she carried her twins on her back, "what about their hearts?"
"It's there," Kaiba said. "Both separate and working."
"So what do you think happened to them?" asked Inu-yasha.
"I wish I knew," Mai said. "I can't read minds anymore, hun. The Eye doesn't work."
"Neither does my Necklace," Serenity said. "And I would really like to look into the past right now."
"You don't need to," Joey said. "I recognize these burns."
"How's that?" Tristan asked. He rushed right over and was filled in on everything after he heard about Yugi.
"I got these in Battle City when Marik sicked the Winged Dragon of Ra on me." Joey said, flat and serious.
"No way that Ra could have used that card!" Mokuba insisted. "I remember those duels. The Winged Dragon can only be used by people who know those ancient words!"
"You're forgetting that Ra is an ancient being himself," Kaiba said, "He would know the ancient languages."
At that minute, they heard a small voice mumbling. Rin was talking, but she was still asleep. Sesshomaru leaned down to hear her, and said, "The Phoenix of Light and it's brother of Darkness, Phoenix of the pure Heart, the Rising Phoenix, the Great Phoenix, the Guardian Phoenix, The Most Sacred Phoenix, The Almighty Phoenix, and the Maiden who summons them all. Never let them fall under the Shadow of The Burning Bird. Extinguish the Birthing Flame. Trample the Ashes. Do not let the Gate be opened."
"Is that all she's got to say?" Joey asked.
"No," Sesshomaru said. "She asks for water. I believe she will wake soon."
Serenity went to get water while Kaiba typed down everything Rin had said. "None of this makes sense. These sound like card names, but these cards don't exist… or do they?" he quickly checked the Kaiba Corp. Database, came up with only two matches. "The translation on the Winged Dragon's card," Kaiba said. "If I cross reference it with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs…" the symbols on the screen separated themselves. Then, he looked over the translation, and laughed. "Of course. The Phoenix Mode. If this is correct, the real name of the card is 'The Almighty Phoenix of Ra.' I'm guessing that moron Pegasus must have gotten the symbols for phoenix and dragon mixed up."
"Well that's one card we know about," Rebecca said, looking at the screen, "What about this other match?"
"According to this, Pegasus made a series of cards that were supposed to go along with the Winged Dragon, but they were burned in an accident in his factory. I however think it's more likely that he hid these cards with the Winged Dragon and Ra must have found them."
"When this Marik guy couldn't?" Kagome asked.
"I'm a genius, not a psychic." Kaiba told her. "I'm not even a Sorcerer without my Millennium Rod."
"Ohhhhhh," moaned little Yugi as he opened his eyes. "My head… it feels so weird…"
"Yugi," Tea said, kneeling beside him, "Don't move too much. Are you ok?"
"I guess… but why do I… feel like a vampire snack?" he looked at his arm and saw the tube running form his arm to Yami's. Yugi did a double take. "Uh, can everyone see him too?" he asked. "Can everyone see me?"
"Yeah," Inu-yasha said, "We're not blind."
"Uh oh, I was afraid of this," Yugi said. "Ra split us apart."
"Tell us something we don't know," Kaiba suggested.
"It's worse than that," Yugi said. "With out Yami in the Puzzle, the Puzzle doesn't work. And because that doesn't work, your Items can't work now."
"Well that explains the busted magic thingies," Tristan said.
"Wait a minute," Kagome said, "Then what's keeping Li Zhou inside the Millennium Ring?"
"Where is it?" Yugi demanded.
"Um, we had old Keade burry it before she died," Kagome said sheepishly.
"Well, then, I guess it can't do to much trouble." Yugi supposed.
Transition
Li Zhou walked the streets, laughing as he relished in his newfound freedom. "At last! After centuries of silence and mud I am free! Yet, it seems as if here I have missed little. Now I wonder what happened to my little friend Bakura." He turned a corner, and there was the complex where Bakura once lived. "And I know where he keeps his extra keys." he went round to the small garden beside the building, and under a flat stone was an apartment key. Then, walked in, went up the elevator, and strode right up to the door.
As he entered the near empty apartment, he remembered the all the horrible years he had to share a body. And worse, all the times Bakura would try to get rid of him.
"He even went so far as to give me to a senile old herb witch," Li Zhou said out loud. "Well, now it's time to pay Ryo Bakura back for my imprisonment." He looked around to the pictures that got left in the apartment. One was a clip from the ill fated Opera House venture. A cast photo taken before Li Zhou had made his singing début. Next to Bakura, dressed as the Phantom, was Sango in that incredible costume that flattered every part of her. Li Zhou smiled, and said, "And afterwards, I'll take a little trip down the well." he dropped the picture frame and ground it under his foot.
Transition
Yami awoke in the Kaiba Corp. Infirmary after a long time. When he looked and saw all his friends gathered around him, he rested a little more easily, but the fact that he, and Yugi, were now in separate bodies still troubled his mind. They had been separated before but those were always unpleasant times of great strife.
"Why do these dark times persist?" He asked, half expecting an answer. "It seems as though we're always facing some new kind of evil. Or maybe what we're doing is futile.
"Never believe that Yami." Kaiba said as he came into the room to check the Pharaoh's vitals.
"Kaiba?"
"You heard me. Never believe that what you're doing is futile. If you believe that then your enemies have already won. You and Yugi never gave me a break so why should you give this Ra, one?"
"It's more difficult than that, Kaiba. This new menace is greater than you, or me, or any of us. We're talking about the ancient gods here. They've returned to cause humanity more trouble as they never have before. Ra wants to regain his dominion over the earth. There is only one way that we can stop him and that is to destroy him, the same way that you and I and Yugi destroyed Anubis."
"You can't seriously be thinking of dueling him again?" Kaiba asked. "You alone could never win a victory against Ra. Anubis was defeated through shear strength of will, not that you don't have any, but let's face it Yami, you're not one hundred percent anymore."
"You're right, without our shadow powers, we're just mere mortals." Yami admitted.
"We may be, but I know some friends of ours who are more than what they appear to be."
Transition
Mokuba, Souta, Shippo, Rebecca, and finally Rin, when she'd awakened, were all brought to Yami and Yugi's room where all their friends had gathered.
"Will the bearers of the Millennium Items please come forwards." Yami asked. Joey, Mai, Kaiba, and Serenity stood together with Yugi around the five children. "What we are about to do has not happened for millennia." Yami stated.
"What's going on Seto?" Mokuba asked.
"Don't ask me, I think that Yami's finally lost it." Kaiba said as he waited.
"We have gathered as many of us as can be found to this one place in time to perform a ceremony that I once performed Thousands of years ago." Yami told them. "The bearers of these few Millennium Items will use what little shadow powers we have left in us to infuse you with the abilities to defeat our new enemy."
"What? We can't fight Ra?" Mokuba exclaimed. "Besides, Souta and Rin are gods, they don't need shadow powers, do they?"
"That's why we're here." Rin suddenly realized, "To make up for the missing items. You want us to use our powers to contribute to the creation of new Millennium Items." "What?" The others exclaimed. "Yugi, can you and the Pharaoh do that?" Tea asked.
"We have to try Tea, otherwise Ra will continue to grow more powerful and eventually conquer the world." Yugi told them all. "Now the way this works is we've all got to join hands together around Mokuba and the other kids, then we concentrate all our minds and hearts on trying to create these new Items."
"We should all join in too, and lend our powers." Tea said to Kagome and the others.
"Kagome and Inu-yasha maybe, but what powers do you or Tristan have to contribute?" Kaiba asked.
"We have the power of friendship." Tea said assertively. "We have just as much to contribute as any of you do."
"Tea's right, it will take every last one of us to make this work. Now let's begin." Yami said.
"But are you sure that this will work without Bakura and Shadi here too?" Tristan asked.
"We're about to find out." Yami said. He took Yugi's hand and Yugi took Tea's, she took Kagome's, then Inu-yasha, Miroku, Sango, Serenity, Kaiba, Tristan, Joey, and Mai. Once they all had joined hands, the five children centered within the circle joined hands and they began to glow. Suddenly a huge burst of energy flooded the room and shook the building as their powers combined to create the new Millennium Items.
"Behold!" Yami said. "The Millennium Sword, the Millennium Flute, the Millennium Chain, the Millennium Reed, and the Millennium Shield. Now each of you five are infused with the shadow powers which created these new Items." Each new Item materialized in the children's hands. In Shippo's open hands appeared the Millennium Sword, it's blade a rival for both Tetsusaiga and Tensaiga. In Rebecca's the Millennium Reed. The Millennium Shield covered Mokuba's arm, while the Millennium Chain wrapped around Souta's. And into Rin's hands came the Millennium Flute. And on each Item was not the Eye of Ra, but a blazing sun… Amaterasu's Rising Sun.
As the magic settled within the Items and the kids, Shippo tried to take a swing with the Sword, but he fell over instead, and couldn't pick it up.
"Hey! What is this?" Shippo complained. "It's too heavy!"
"So's the Shield," Mokuba said. "I can't move my arm!"
"This isn't exactly made of paper you know," Souta added. "How come the girls get the light stuff?"
"Well excuse me," Rebecca said. "I didn't exactly ask to be given a really pretty stick." They al stopped however when Rin started playing the flute. Everyone was in shock as the enchanted melody she played brought the other Items to life. The Sword suddenly went light in Shippo's hands, Mokuba could pick up the Shield with ease, and Souta's Chain really was as light as paper. And Rebecca started waving the Reed in time with Rin's song. Almost as if she were conducting her.
"That's amazing," Serenity said.
"It's the power within them manifest," Yami said. "As long as they work together, then these new Items cane be an unstoppable force. Of course, they will need training." he looked at Inu-yasha and Kaiba. "Shippo needs a master swordsman to show him discipline, and Mokuba must taught to have patience."
"Then I suggest you not ask my brother, if it is a master you need," Sesshomaru said, grinning.
"Did he just make a joke?" Sango asked.
"I don't know, but that smile's scaring me," Tea replied.
"I'll teach the buff ball alright," Inu-yasha said. "But he can't ditch me to come here to hang out with you guys all the time, like he's been doing."
"And there couldn't be a better instructor for my little brother than myself," Kaiba said. "For once you're using logic, Yami."
"Uh sure," Yugi said, snickering. "You're perfect for teaching patience."
"What about me?" Souta asked.
"And us," Rebecca asked for herself and Rin. "I don't suppose any of you know much about music?"
"Let me field this," Tea volunteered, "Music and dancing go hand in hand, so I know about both."
"And if he is willing I will teach Souta chain work," Sango volunteered. "It will be like when I trained my little brother."
"Then it is settled. The new Bearers shall be trained by those who came before them. And in time, we may be able to stop Ra."
End of Book Two