Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. After all the disclaimers everyone puts on their stories, you would think people would get it, no?

"Yami? Yami, answer me. Say something! ANYTHING! Just please, say something... The other vampires are gone, they can't hurt you for speaking!" I was continuously trying to get my yami to answer. After a couple minutes, I got up, and went into the hall, and ran to catch Ryou before he called the hospital. I couldn't send my yami there when he wasn't even making a sound.

I caught up with Ryou right before he got to the phone, and pulled him back so I could talk to him.

"Ryou, don't bother calling the hospital. We can't send Mariku there, he's in a worse condition than they could help. The other vampires... They broke his spirit. Completely. He won't talk to me, he won't even move anymore. It's like he has no soul, he's just sitting there..." I said to Ryou, when he looked at me from keeping him from the phone.

"Well, if that is true... If he really did become broken in mind and spirit... Then the only way to try to help him is get Yami, Set and Bakura to heal his most major wounds... Then hope his state of mind improves over time... But that would take possibly months... That damage can't be improved within a couple of weeks, or days, like physical wounds." Ryou said back to me, proving how much he really did know about helping one the matters of their mind.

"Good you agree. Mariku is awake right now. But, as I said, not really responding. If this is what the other vampires were aiming for, then they succeeded. Because I guess once someone is broken in spirit and mind, you could just order them around if you were the one who broke them. Then... they would be able to have used Mariku as a killing machine once his injuries healed up."

"Then, if they had Mariku as their killing machine, they could attack with him, he'd get all the blame, and then they would just have to go and find another pawn... This is all fitting together now! But why would they attack this school? That just doesn't make sense, why would they bring Mariku? Unless..."

"Unless what Ryou? That unless could really help us..."

"Unless... No, never mind, that wouldn't make sense... Or does it? Whatever, I'll tell you later. Right now, I want to go and see how bad Mariku really is at this point. Maybe he might be in shock. Marik, go and get Bakura, Set and Yami, they need to heal Mariku as much as they can right now."

I nodded. It was odd to hear Ryou giving orders, but he does know more of the mind than anyone else we know, except maybe Shadi, but Shadi is not here, so he's our expert now. I just hope Bakura, Set and Yami can heal Mariku enough to keep him at my house or somewhere safe. I ran down the hall to the Boiler Room, hoping to find the three yamis.

Ryou POV

I walked into the room that Mariku was still in, only to see that he was moved from his original spot in the middle of the room. I turned to see him sitting up partially, leaning against an overturned desk. It seemed as Mariku had said about the yami, that he wasn't making any response at all. I walked over to him and crouched next to him, observing his limp limbs and wings. I grabbed his chin in my hand and softly turned his head towards me so that I could see his face, and his eyes most importantly.

When I peered into his eyes, I saw almost nothing of emotions but pain and despair. I cradled his chin in my right hand, and used my left to feel along his jaw line, attempting to get a reaction. I trailed my hand down to the back of my neck, and pressed down on his spine. I only got a bodily reaction, a shiver. My hand pressed down until I found the extra bit of bone from the spinal vertebrae that protected the nerves that went out to his wings. Contrary to how I acted before, I am very knowledgeable about vampires and their ways. I act so no one would suspect. I know all about vampires from Bakura who is, or was one. He's now part vampire, part spirit, and part human, too, I guess.

I followed the extra spine to his left wing, following the main bone of the wing to the tip. Gently but firmly I grabbed the tip, and pulled out the large black leathery wing to its full extent. I had to stand up and let his chin gently down to stretch out the wing. It seemed to be about 160 centimeters high, and about 2 meters and 30 centimeters long. They were quite large for a vampire to have been bitten and turned for as shortly as Mariku, however it may mean that he's near his changing. This was the time that vampires would grow in power, how often a changing occurred depended on the age of a vampire. If he were to change the first time, a set of assault wings((1)) would be growing under his skin, and would break through at the end of changing.

I brought my hand to the skin about 7 centimeters from his spine, and felt a large ridge under the skin, it seemed as if a spike was come up from under the skin, and was blood covered. The white bone shone in the dim light from a pocket flashlight I carried with me. Sure enough, it was same on the other side of his body. I would have to get Bakura to slow Mariku's changing for a day or two, when he was out of danger.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall, and quickly put the wing back in its place. I stroked down one of the leather flaps between bone on his wings, then stood up. I actually am very much in awe at vampires, they truly are marvelous. I also love the wings on them, often when Bakura is calm he allows me to stroke his wings. I think it calms him a bit.

Bakura, Set, and Yami ran into the room, looking as if they ran all the way. And the probably did.

/Bakura, Mariku is near his first changing. The first spikes of his assault wings are coming out, one is fully exposed, so the next are soon to come out. Try to delay the changing so Yami and Set Don't Notice./

I'll make sure they don't notice, they don't need to know more than they do now. Did you get any reaction from him mentally?

/No, I got a body reaction to putting his spine under slight stress, but nothing really, just a shiver. I didn't check his fangs, but there probably isn't anything wrong with them. Please make sure Set and Yami don't notice the spikes, I want to get out as soon as possible/

As do I. I'll make sure they don't notice, okay?

/Okay./

I watched as Bakura went over to Mariku and waved over the others impatiently, and noticed he seemed to be standing at Mariku's back on purpose, though Set and Yami didn't notice. Bakura put one hand on Mariku's back, and made it look as if his was healing a large cut, but I knew that he was using magic to push Mariku's assault wings back into his back. This didn't hurt a vampire at all, so Bakura didn't have to worry about Mariku struggling.

After all of Mariku's most major wounds had been closed up slightly and his internal bleeding fixed up, we were prepared to leave. The oddest thing yet was that there weren't any police or emergency personnel here. I mean, a huge attack on the high school with hundreds killed and the elementary school attacked, where as far as we know no one might have survived. Mokuba would have probably survived and be found, if he wasn't Set would be helping Seto look for him. If Seto hadn't been found, then Set would be freaking out.

I jumped when Yugi and Joey suddenly ran into the room.

"You guys, turn on the T.V.! Now!" said Yugi, jumping to hit the power button on the T.V. When he hit it, a special news report was on, showing destruction on a major scale. What I recognized as the police station was in flames, many of the parked cars were blown up. A picture of the high school and elementary school how they were currently was also shown. A voice came over the T.V.:

"Scenes of complete destruction and mayhem are surrounding the city of Domino today after many chaotic attacks. The attacks on the school..." I tuned out the rest. That's why the police weren't here, the station had been attacked. This was all to coincidental.

"Bakura, Marik and I were discussing something about Mariku, and the vampires. We think that the vampires meant to break his spirit. This way, he can be used as a killing machine, and none would know who really did it. The vampires can just order him around now, he obviously won't fight back. But I have a question, can vampires gain access to the mind of another that they've broken?" I whispered to Bakura, who was right next to me, watching.

"Yes, they can. Why do you ask?"

"I thought you would figure it out, but very well. If the vampires can control Mariku from a distance, they can command him to attack. So, maybe they meant to leave him here. It was all to easy for you to get rid of the vampire. Maybe they meant for us to find him. Maybe they wanted us to take care of and heal him. Mariku wouldn't know how to fight their control, and this way, he would be close to people. Mariku would be like their puppet. This is the only explanation I could find. Maybe they wanted us alive. Isn't it unusual? That only we survived? Set, Yami, You, me, the other hikaris, Joey, Duke, Tristan, probably Mokuba also? Everyone else was killed."

"That does make sense. Why would we be the only ones left? They are smarter than I thought. Knowing that we would take care of him whether he was their puppet or not... That's why the other fled only when we found Mariku... Dirty things want him to be with us, they know we would not kill Mariku. Have you mentioned this to anyone else?"

"No, but they should know so they won't kill him if he's being controlled. Let's just get everyone back here and tell them... Then they'll be on their guard." I said, before turning to Yugi and explaining the situation.

"If that's the case, you're right, we can't kill Mariku. Maybe Yami could place a spell to protect Mariku's mind. But if he's broken, the spell might make it impossible to contact him mentally, leaving him in this state. I'll tell Yami and everyone else. We should get Mariku out of here when there is no one to see us."

"Maybe the Shadow Realm? No, Mariku wouldn't survive in there. Let's just try to carry him out. Maybe someone will be able to pick us up, like Ishizu. Where's Marik?"

"He and the rest are headed this way. The others are Mokuba, Joey, Tristan, Duke, and Kaiba." said Yugi, as he turned to Mariku, and crouched next to him, concern evident in his eyes, "Is he sick? He looks it... His wings look so... magnificent, they're huge, they look like dragon wings... Do you think I could touch one of them?"

"I don't think it would hurt. Maybe a friendly touch would help Mariku. Just stroke one of them."

Yugi reached out and felt one of the leathery flaps of the wings, and carefully stroked down. It seemed he was being careful not to hurt Mariku as he stroked down the wing again. He smiled slightly and continued to stroke the large wing.

"I love how his wing feels, it's so soft and smooth. But it looks so tough... Do you think it possible once he's in his right mind he might let anyone stroke his wings? I doubt it..."

"Hey Yugi, what are you doing? Are you petting Mariku's wing?" asked Yami, who was right next to the small teen.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I am petting Mariku's wing. Why? Something wrong with doing that? It doesn't seem like it could hurt him, and it's not dangerous."

"No, there's nothing wrong. Just you tend to pet cute and cuddly things. If you even suggested that to Mariku while he was listening, he'd probably think you insane. Well, whatever, we need to pick up Mariku and get him out of here. In case you haven't noticed. The rest are here."

Mokuba POV

Seto was keeping me close to him when we got into that Mariku was in. I didn't know if it was to protect or what, because it seemed Mariku couldn't hurt anyone right now. Yugi was crouched down next to Mariku, stroking one of his large wings. They were quite beautiful wings, and didn't look dangerous at all. He looked like he might be quite nice if he was clean and had his hair brushed, and all of his cuts healed. Marik had explained about Mariku when he had come to the hallway where we had all met up.

It looked truly like Mariku was soulless, even though I knew that he was simply broken in mind, not soulless. Not much difference though. Both ways you sit there doing nothing. I wanted to go over and see if I could also pet Mariku's wings. They looked like they may be nice to be able to pet. But there's no way Seto would allow that. Not that Mariku could hurt me, but Ryou, Bakura and Marik had explained to everyone that the vampires who did this to Mariku could take over him at any time they wanted at this point. So I guess I wouldn't be allowed to go near Mariku until Seto thought it safe.

Yami had said that he would place a spell that would keep intruders out of Mariku's mind, but couldn't use it until Mariku had recovered quite a bit, because the spell would drain Mariku when placed upon his mind. I watched Set immediately bound over to Seto and me. He was always somewhat hyper. It made life more interesting. He was odd looking in the school uniform, not unlike Seto. Set immediately nuzzled Seto's cheek. My brother and his yami were a couple, Set was the energetic one in the relationship.

"Yami, stop doing that. Wait until we're at the house. Anyway, I guess because I think more than the rest combined, I've called Ishizu. But we're having a limo picking us up."

Seto turned to talk to the entire room.

"Listen to me now, because I'm not saying anything twice. I've called Ishizu on my cell so that she knows of the situation. I do not want to be stuck here for an hour wondering what to do. We're going to be picked up by one of my limos in about 5 minutes. It's going to be in the overgrown part of the teacher's parking lot. We just need to get out unnoticed." Seto said. He looked around the room for suggestions of any unnoticed door to get out of the school. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

I knew nothing of how to get out of this school. It seemed the limo might have to wait. I knew Seto was going to think of a new plan to get out, until Joey raised his hand as if waiting to be called on.

"I know a way to get out pretty much unnoticed, but I don't know how it will work. There's a window in a utility closet in the back of the school. It's almost always unlocked, and if it isn't, I've got some keys. Anyway, the window is very close to the overgrown section of the teacher's parking lot. But I don't think it's big enough to get Mariku out with his wings. I don't know, let's just go see. Tristan and I have used it tons, no one has ever noticed before, but there are usually many cars and a couple buses to hide behind. I don't think we could hide his wings though." Joey said. I was amazed that it would be Joey to help the situation, but it was fine either way.

Joey POV

The others had decided to take my suggestion of the utility closet window, and so Tristan and I were leading them to the said utility closet. We go there after only 3 minutes. I climbed up on the bench in the closet and unlocked the window, opening it to be assaulted by the cool air of morning. I measured the window with my eyes, and looked back at Mariku, who was on Bakura's back. It looked like Mariku might fit if his wings were tied closed. Or held closed while being pushed through the window. I climbed on the window ledge and jumped down into the grass. Tristan followed, me, along with Duke, who was clinging to Tristan. I forgot about his acrophobia.

Everyone else eventually jumped out the window, whether they liked or not. We had managed to get out Mariku after about 5 minutes of experimenting different ways, without hurting his wings. We were in the one place I never thought I would be, Kaiba's limo, headed towards the Ishtar house. Roland was not surprised about the situation at all, I guess he dealt with these things quite a bit, being Kaiba's head goon.

We eventually got to the Ishtar house, after an incident where Mariku's wings had unexpectedly stretched out quickly after Mokuba was knocked to the ground and grabbed one of the wings. We had to make sure no one was outside to watch before getting Mariku out of the limo and into the house, someone seeing Mariku would cause quite a scene. All of us, including the Kaiba's, went into the Ishtar house. Kaiba figured that less people would be going to this place to find someone.

Bakura POV

I was carrying Mariku on my back to get into the house. I guess no one else really could. It wasn't because of weight, but that someone might damage Mariku's wings by accident. I felt alright about leaving Mariku with Ishizu, she had known about vampires when she had been the only one to help me. I had been attacked by hunters while out hunting, and ended up having a wing mangled. Ryou always locked the doors and windows, because I usually came right when he woke up. So the only person I knew could treat wounds was Ishizu, so I went to her.

I looked back at Mariku, and was stunned by how lifeless he was, but still looked full of energy. So mangled, yet so beautiful. I guess I didn't realize how beautiful he was in Battle City because of all the fighting going on. But by Ra he's lovely. Wonder if he looks better being covered by blood or without it. Probably without would be better. I glanced at Ryou, who was conversing with the Pharaoh. Probably explaining with better terms why he thought that the vampire's had left Mariku behind.

We didn't stop to ring the bell, Marik just unlocked the door and we all came in. Ishizu was ready for us, she was just coming down the stairs when we all went into the living room.

"Put Mariku on the Towel right there, I'll go and get the supplies. Oh, and Bakura," I looked up at Ishizu, "Come and help me get the supplies. You too, Ryou. I have A feeling we're going to need quite a bit."

I placed Mariku down on a towel that had been lain down on the floor, probably by Ishizu, and got up to follow Ryou after Ishizu.

Yeah, that took a while. I just got Diablo 2. It occupies and mystifies me. Please Review!