A/N: If you are reading this, Update Monkey has succeeded. Thank you to her- Have a cookie! (Tosses Cookie)

No Review Responses today, due to the fact it's still only Wednesday. But I'll reply to them all when I get back!

Disclaimer: Really sick of these things…

And now, a Short Chapter with a long Title!

Nine: 'We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of… A Giant Rubrics Cube!'

"Great timing." Seto commented, smiling at Azreal.

"Hey!" She said "Never doubt other-worldly timing! It never fails!"

"Then why are you always late…?" He smirked. She punched him on the shoulder.

"If your nose wasn't already broken…" She growled, before glancing at the aforementioned broken nose and Jenna's current state. "So, in a very short version, what happened here?"

"She was 'questioned'," Mokuba replied, gesturing a thumb at Jenna. "Ryou smacked him in the face." He finished, gesturing at Seto who glared harder as Azreal laughed slightly.

"He got you hard…" She said admiringly.

"Thanks for your sympathy." Seto spat back.

"Ah, you deserved it!"

"What did I do!"

"Knowing you, everything." She teased. "Besides, I don't think there's a human alive who doesn't want to punch you every time they see your smirking face…"

"Those two really don't like each other, do they?" Jenna whispered to Ryou.

"Are you kidding?" Ryou muttered back. "Last I heard, they were dating!"

"Really…?"

"Yes… I'm just surprised he isn't more resentful of Yugi turning up…"

"Maybe we should move." Yugi said, looking round at them all. "Isn't it time we all got out of here?"

"Okay!" Azreal yelled, clapping her hands "Everyone! Move out!" She pointed dramatically at the doorway, which promptly collapsed in on itself as the all the light went out.

"I didn't do it!" Azreal protested. "I so did not do it!"

"The whole building's rearranging!" Mokuba yelled back as the floor changed beneath them. "Woah!" He screamed as part of the ground beneath him folded back and a wall slid up, the fifteen year old jumping out of the way just in time. Although in the pitch black he had no way of knowing it, similar things were happening to the others.

The whole building was folding, morphing, twisting, turning. Doors gave way to holes, corridors became ceilings, the whole world was confused, nothing was where it was supposed to be, everything became something it wasn't before, like a manifestation of insanity.

Somewhere between a minute and an hour later, the movement stopped and Mokuba got shakily to his feet, no way of knowing where the others were or if he had lost them in the confusion.

"I think it's stopped." Azreal's voice came from his right. Not alone after all, then.

"Thank goodness…" Jenna grumbled from behind him. "I'm sure the floor flipped right over…Anna? Did we lose anyone?"

"I'm here." Mokuba offered, realising he hadn't spoken and therefore the two girls would be unaware of his presence.

"Me to." Ryou's voice echoed from the darkness. "Everyone okay?"

"Blind but alive." Yugi said- Mokuba had no idea where he was but could practically hear his optimistic smile.

"Seto?" Azreal called worriedly. "Seto? You still here?"

"Would you all shut up and help me find the lights!" Someone responded grumpily. Mokuba rolled his eyes- that was Seto alright.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

In re-tellings of the tale, more fanciful reporters would claim that Seto had in fact said 'Let there be light', however out of character that may seem. The reason for this is that no sooner had he finished his sentence was his wish granted as the floor tiles lit up, blinding them with harsh yellow light.

A moment later, Mokuba's eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness and as his vision cleared he could see his surroundings for the first time.

They were in a long, thin, corridor where there was barely room for two abreast. The walls were in fact made up of a seamless mixture of various floors, walls and ceilings of other rooms, and the only light came from the floors where the tiles seemed to double as fluorescent lighting strips, making everyone seem slightly yellow.

"This is pretty amazing…" Azreal said in awe, running her hands over the perfectly fused wall "The entire buildings like… like… a giant… Rubrics cube."

"I never could figure those things out…" Jenna commented glumly.

Ryou shook his head, before asking "Well, what now?"

"Don't you get it?" Azreal asked.

"Nooooo…" Everyone else replied.

She sighed. "Oh c'mon…" When she realised that they weren't going to get it, she said in her best Munchkin voice "Follow the Yellow Brick Road!"

"That was a creepily good impression…" Mokuba shuddered, leading the way. He had never liked that film…

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"This must be a pretty long corridor." Jenna commented. "How long have we been walking?"

"I could tell you if someone hadn't blown up my watch." Ryou joked, but then nearly walked straight into Mokuba who had stopped suddenly. "What's the matter?" He asked curiously. He couldn't see anything…

"Ssh!" Mokuba prompted "Can't you hear it?"

The group listened attentively for a moment, before shaking their heads.

"No…"

"I don't hear anything!"

"But…" Mokuba said in frustration. He could defiantly hear something… A low humming, hanging just out of ear shot.

"Well…" Azreal said quietly "Mokuba does have very acute hearing. Like a wolf."

"Uprising, considering how loudly he plays his music." Seto commented wryly, pushing his way to the front to stand next to his brother. "What's the matter?"

"I'm not sure…" Mokuba frowned, looking around them. "There's just something… Aha! See there!" He pointed. Seto nodded as everyone else craned their necks in a failed attempts to see what they were looking at. Mokuba turned back to explain.

"There's some sort of projectors here." Mokuba said slowly.

"I think they're some sort of lasers. Pity we can't see them…" Seto said, crouching. "I can't be sure…"

"One way to find out…" Ryou shrugged, pulling a random Euro from his pocket. "I really should have gotten around to changing these." He commented. Ryou flipped the coin high in the air, and it flew over the Kaiba's brother's heads, arcing before finally tumbling back down to Earth.

Everyone held their breath. At first, it seemed like the coin was going to make it, then, as it reached waist height,

It set on fire and crashed to the ground, making a small blackened dent as the tile it had landed on went out.

"Well, I guess that that mystery's solved." Azreal said wryly. "How do we get past?"

"There's a terminal hidden in the wall!" Mokuba realised, pointing some five metres down the corridor where a small box was barely noticeable. "I bet if we could get there, we could turn it off…"
"but how do we get there?" Yugi asked.

Mokuba felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked down- for he was taller then Azreal now- and gave her a quizzical stare.

"Well, go on then." She said.

"But…" Mokuba began.

"Go!" She yelled.

Mokuba swallowed and ignored the quizzical looks being thrown at him. He shut his eyes to optimise his hearing and listened carefully, trying to plan out where the lasers were in his mind.

"He's not seriously gonna-!" Jenna began, before Ryou told her to ssh. Trying not to let his concentration be disrupted, Mokuba took a step forward.

And he didn't go up in flames.

So far so good.

He didn't dare open his eyes. All he could hear was his scared breathing and the low humming. The silence- or maybe his fear- was deafening. He could feel a slight heat on his ankle. It had been close. Steading himself, he took another step.

Forward. Forward. Left. Duck. Right. Step High, Step High. Left again…

The process seemed to last an eternity, every step like the passing of years. Suddenly he heard an eruption of noise behind him, and, opening his eyes in surprise, realised he had got past the lasers and was standing right next to the control box.

"Yes!" Azreal cheered. "Go on, Wolf boy!" The others joined in the exuberant celebrations for a moment.

"I never want to do that again…" Mokuba half-groaned, half-hysterically-laughed.

"Now you just have to turn them off." Seto said, thus killing the mood completely, earning an elbow in the hips from Azreal.

"Right." Mokuba nodded, licking his lips and jiggling with the lock on the control panel, surprised to find it wasn't locked at all. He swung the door open, studying the working inside. "This might take a minute…" He said.

59 seconds later, the lasers flashed briefly into view before puttering out completely.

"Well, give the boy a gold star." Azreal grinned as they resumed their trek up the floor-lit corridor.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"How much longer can his corridor last?" Ryou wondered.

"I don't-" Mokuba began, still in the lead. Then he noticed that the light from the tiles beneath them was fading under another, paler light. "Wait!" He cried. "I think we must be nearly there!"

They came out into a large glass dome, that gave a clear view of the Sun setting.

"It's evening?" Yugi wondered "Just how long were we in that corridor…?"

"Long enough for it to be Sunday night?" Ryou wondered. "Surely not!"

"Maybe you're just really slow walkers…" A voice came from somewhere.

"I know that voice!" Jenna snarled, as they looked around for the new arrival- where was there to hide in a clear glass bubble…?
"Of course you know the voice." Azreal said cheerily. "It's the Wizard of Oz!"

"Not much of a wizard- He was trying to electrocute me!"

"From what I remember he wasn't much of one anyway…"

"No way! It is you!" The voice echoed incredulously "No way! Oh, this is just too good…"

"Show yourself." Seto said dangerously. Someone flickered into the visible spectrum on the far side of the dome. Mokuba felt a bristle of tension- Not only through Jenna, but through Azreal and Seto too…

"Kiyoko." The guy spat her name as though it was a curse.

"Lira…" Azreal said calmly, even a little remorsefully. "What are you doing here!"

"You should know." He glared at her accusingly. "You're the reason I'm here."

"…?"

Jenna, Ryou, Yugi and Mokuba looked at each other in confusion.

"Anyone else get the feeling that we've missed something…?" Mokuba asked.

"Hmm." Azreal shrugged, looking surprised. "Well, it's not the Wizard of Oz."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: Eek! Lira! For those of you who don't know who he is… Meh. I can't be bothered to explain, I have to get chapters 10 and 11 written by this time tomorrow. You'll see next chapter… Wait till tomorrow!