Chapter 22: Information

T.R leashed him anger the best he could, wondering how the Pharaoh could dare insult him in such a way as he forced his arm through the crack, pushing through the fluffy light of her mind and tightened his hold on the wall. Sluggishly, he shoved his other darkened arm through and paused a moment. Taking a deep breath, he closed the eyes of his mind and quickly rammed his head through.

His arms flexed as he slowly pulled himself to the other side, until about to his abdomen when suddenly the barrier creaked. His eyes flew open widely, knowing that sound was not good. He eased the pressure on the divider gingerly, and let his eyes flicker over the structure worriedly.

Just as he removed his strength the force cracked loudly to his left. Instinctively the thief threw his hands into the sides of the hole and held up the wall as it collapsed around him, making his worse fear come true, trapping him inside it.

"Damn it." He growled softly at the wall, trying to pull his hands free, but soon found it impossible due to the large black glue slowly dripping down around him, sealing him in. Breathing deeply he struggled to kick himself free from the other side, hoping maybe he would just wiggle his way out.

It didn't work, the darkness held him fast. He didn't want to blow the wall with any of his magic. That would make himself very apparent. She would definitely find him before he could make another one. To make matters even worse, his ears sharpened to a sudden soft thudding off in the distance.

His eyes widened in panic as he figured out they were footsteps. She was already aware of his presence. He swore viciously as he tried to throw all of his weight back through to his side of the barrier, struggling with all his might just to go back. His neck bulged as he tried frantically to slide back through with all his might, barely listening to Yami's muffled voice calling to him.

"Robber! Are you alright!" Yami asked him, looking at the huge amount of strain on the boy's face in reality, beads of sweet starting to trickle down his brow.

"No. She's coming." He puffed miserably, frustration clear in his voice. The Spirit struggled inside the mental reality, listening to the frightening footsteps getting louder, on the verge of complete panic, forced just to listen to his own doom.

"T.R?" The Spirit froze inside his trap as the familiar female voice echoed in the soft glow around him. Slowly, with growing dread, he shifted his head back, pointing toward the ground, and looked at the speaker.

Kaede stood about three feet in front of him, upside-down since that was the only way he could turn his head, in a light gray misty room. She wore a black t-shirt with darkened navy jeans with no shoes or socks. Her hair hung lifelessly past her shoulders, much like her wings on her back, with an expression of complete and utter dullness. Her eyes reflected a depressed care-free nature as she stared at him.

There was also a soft gray hue rippling around her form, a dull color, much like the scene around them. He stared at her with wide eyes and found he was unable to say anything, just knowing that she wasn't herself and it had something to do with the lack of brightness. The gray was wrong. It was faded; it was concealing the radiance of the normal color in here. It was a spell.

"Are you stuck?" She asked him, her voice flat and tuneless, with bored eyes. He hesitated a moment, fighting the urge to answer.

"Yes." He sputtered quickly, losing the battle as usual. He was surprised when she asked him no other questions, but instead simply came closer, until she was looking down at him. He watched nervously as she studied his mid-section with calm eyes, dreary eyes.

After a few moments she reached forward, plunging her hand into the black mass, and searched around his stomach, feeling wall and skin. He felt himself recoil from her soft bubbly touch, trying not to look at her or what she was doing, trying and failing not to react. She only glanced at him with a calm expression.

"Brace yourself." She said bluntly as she reached through into the blackness, past his middle, with one hand, her other hand holding onto his back. She used her arm to hold him horizontal as her right hand reached deeper into the shaft. The TombRobber felt the color from his face vanish as he was clearly aware of her fingers, prodding about his hips, until they curled around the rim of his pants. He noticed her arm tense on his back as she pulled on him.

He felt himself move slightly from the opening, a sucking noise echoing around them, and watched as she dragged him out a few inches before stopping a moment, letting go of his jeans and back to place her arms around his shoulders, then she heaved with all her might, until finally his hands were free. He pried them away from each other and pressed against the wall.

With their strength combined he little by little slipped from the crack, until, with a final tug, his feet came free with a large pop noise. Kaede fell back onto the floor, unable to keep her balance, dragging T.R with her until both of them were sprawled and stained covered, on the gray floor.

He immediately tried to rise away from her, but found her hands still warped around under his arms grasping him. He started to turn his head when her hands uncurled, leaving one small black hand print on his right shoulder with the other coal colored spots and smears as he rose to his feet, keeping his flickering eyes to the blank marble floor.

She rose from the floor and kept a distance between them with a depressed expression, watching him with weary eyes, only a faint look of wonder only lightly touching her face.

"Are you alright?" She asked in a sleepy voice.

"Yes." He replied, taking a glance at her before studying his completely blackened lower half and sticky hands. He attempted to wipe them clean on his shirt.

"Is there something you want?" T.R tensed at that question.

"Yes, many things." He answered, deciding to be vague. She nodded to his reply, like it answered everything as she put her hands in her pockets, not really caring that she was also covered in the blackness. She didn't seem to be caring about anything, except-

TombRobber blinked at himself a moment, freezing on spot as an odd thought occurred to him. He looked at her slightly inquisitive face with confusion, realizing her curiosity was the only other emotion besides apathy she was exhibiting. It was clear the spell was suppressing any of her feelings, or at least trying to cover them. From what he could feel from it, he knew it was pretty strong. Even the most powerful emotions would only seem slight on her face. Which meant she was deeply puzzled about him?

"Do you know where you are?" T.R asked, his tone as annoyed sounding as he could make it. The girl hummed for a dull moment, before blinking once, and opening her mouth.

"In my mind." She replied.

"No, I mean where are you physically?" She was silent, holding up her hand to her face as she yawned deeply with depressed eyes. T.R shook his head in really annoyance and refrained himself from shaking her.

"We if you can't tell me where you are, can you show me?" T.R asked her bitterly. He didn't have time for this, but that wasn't the main point. The main point was he was starting to get very prickly, and he really didn't like it.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" She asked him in a bored tone.

"Yes." He replied snappily. The girl blinked and sighed wearily.

"Fine."

Kaede reached forward with her right hand and lightly touched his shoulder. T.R watched with wondering eyes until he felt himself thrown up suddenly into a blinding light. Confused he blinked his eyes and froze, trying to see, and wondering what the hell had just happened.

He tried to lift his hand but found it caught, wrapped in something soft and fuzzy. The smell of apples was strong and a relief. He blinked several more times before things slowly adjusted. He saw the familiar brown branches framed by green leaves and knew something was very wrong.

"Kaede? Are you awake?" T.R stiffened at the sound of Bakura's voice and clamped Kaede's hazel eyes shut, spreading a look of dread on her face. Unfortunately, he found that worse, increasing how much he felt. He was forced to open her eyes again and concentrate on a single branch, studying it.

"Oh Ra, why me?" He muttered, her voice instead saying the words in a tuneful tone. He winced at it.

"Kaede?" T.R turned her head toward the voice and looked at Bakura's hopeful eyes, through a golden shimmering cage in the corner of the room, a few feet away from him.

"Nope, she's not in right now." T.R said with a choked tone, looking at Bakura desperately with calm eyes. He was the focus of attention, anything as to not be aware of the body he was in now. Bakura's hopeful expression was shattered by a hot raging face.

"You!" He growled.

"Me." T.R retorted, being as still as possible. He was fighting the urge not to let his eyes wander and ordered them with his entire mind to stay dead-locked on his former vessel. Bakura was too angry to notice the thief's odd behavior.

"Get out of her." He snarled, getting up off the floor and leaning very close to the bars, but not wrapping his fingers around them. Just by looking at the red raw flesh of the inside of his hand was enough to tell the robber that the bars would burn.

"Would if I could. But, I need information. The Pharaoh's got me fishing." T.R grumbled, "The quicker you tell me where this is, the quicker I'll be gone."

Bakura thought for a moment. The thought of the Spirit helping his daughter escape was sickening, but he'd rather see her free than a tool. The problem was the plants were constricting around her. Could T.R, being inside the body, as for the plants to release her and have it work?

"Can you get the plants to move? Get her out of here?" Bakura asked him, his tone optimistic.

"Won't work. I'm not her. It's a mental thing." T.R answered in a wary tone, his eyes flickering away him very few seconds now.

"Who is the enemy?" T.R asked bluntly, trying to keep the father on subject. He already knew it was Marik, not the good Marik, but a part of him, now. The Rod had to have somehow taken control of one of the family. Bakura looked at him with slightly pained eyes.

"I'm not sure. Who ever it is, is using Mat as a body puppet. He knows a lot about ancient magic and uses the Millennium Rod."

"We already know that." T.R growled, rolling her eyes. He immediately winced, having caught a look down at her. He wanted to howl with frustration.

"You know we're in the attic of the house? The apple tree room?"

"Yes and yes. Anything else?" Bakura pondered for a long moment.

"Is Christa alright? I heard a slight scuffle down stairs-"

"YES! She's fine; she's at Yugi's house." The Spirit growled viciously, ignoring Bakura face slightly lifting.

"Any idea what he'd want her for?" T.R snarled desperately.

"Christa?"

"No, Kaede, you fool!" Bakura ignored T.R's attitude.

"No idea, except that they might want her magical abilities…"

"That is obvious." T.R snapped.

His temper was frayed. He was glad the mortal was too upset to notice. Bakura opened his mouth to say something but the words never came. A noise from down stairs suddenly disturbed the conversation, making both of them look to the floor.

They were silent for several seconds, until even Bakura could clearly hear footsteps echoing from the other side of the room, coming from the stairs.

"Shit." They said simultaneously. T.R was surprised by the next thing Bakura said.

"The bastard's coming back. You better leave. Tell Yami not to worry about me, just take care of my kids." T.R was even more shocked at what he answered back.

"Don't worry, the Pharaoh has a way of meddling like that." Bakura barely noticed the change; he braced himself as the treading drew closer. T.R struggled with the back of his mind, trying to find away out of control of her body. After a few seconds he felt on the verge of panic. It didn't help when Bakura commented with a whisper.

"Go already!"

"Patience, mort-" Suddenly, he felt himself recede back into the corridors of her mind, leaving the body to relax from T.R's tenseness. A blink of his eyes and the robber found himself in front of Kaede again, in a gray world, as her hand moved back from his shoulder, her eyes still reflecting a bleak emotion.

"Have you got what you need?" she asked him.

"Yes." He said in a sigh of relief, forgetting to keep himself in check, he was so relieved it spilled out onto the top layers of his mental form. Her face twisted slightly, until a tiny smile formed on her face. The gray blanket about them shifted as she did so, brightening the scenery for a moment, before it faded back when the Robber looked room again with an odd look on his face.

"Will you leave now?" She queried, the faint sound of sorrow rippling through her voice. T.R just stared at her for an unbelieving moment, before he swallowed a large breath of air.

"Yes...why do you care? I will be out of your head." The teen said nothing to this, her eyes slowly moving downward to the floor before she closed them and was silent for several long moments, before her mouth twisted.

"Because I choose to." She answered in a forced shaky voice, "You should go back. Someone is calling you." The thief blinked as his ears sharpened and found she was correct. The Pharaoh was screaming up a storm out there, he could see it rattling at the wall.

"Will you come back?" T.R let an uneasy look slip onto his face despite how hard he fought to hide it.

"…I'm not sure." He said, looking at her hooded eyes with uncertainty, trying to sound irritated. To his disappointment it came out huskily. He watched her tilt her head with a hint of puzzlement pulling at her expression.

"Why would you want me to?" He asked, despite how much he didn't want to. She was quiet for another long moment before she answered.

"Because I trust you. Now go." The tomb robber wasn't surprised when his legs immediately stiffened and turned himself around instantly and walked away to the wall, where he started to remove more of the inky blackness until finally he was sure he could fit through. Without looking back he climbed through the wall successfully with nimble movement. The moment he was across he opened his heavy eye lids of his body.

Yami was crouched over him with his hands clasped tightly over his shoulders, a look of worry on his face that lifted as the teen glared at him. Yami had to jump up and hold onto him when T.R tensed so violently his fingers slipped from the wooden seat of the chair and threaten to wake him from his trance-like state.

"Let go of me." T.R growled. Yami obliged instantly and gave him some space by backing away and sitting on the bed. His usually stern face was warped with many other emotions the burglar could not understand, nor cared about.

"Are they alright?"

"Describe 'alright'." The expression of the ancient Pharaoh turned grim as he brushed back his hair with wide spread fingers, knowing that this wasn't good.

"What's their condition?" He asked delicately staring at the floor with shadowed eyes.

"No one is dead. Bakura has slight injuries and the girl is relatively sound."

"Relatively?"

T.R explained about what he had seen and bits of their conversation. He told him in such away that he didn't explain what was said, but how both of them where in unfeeling details, his voice completely flat, as he watched the Pharaoh's pained face twist.

He knew he should have been enjoying this, but on the inside he was completely numbed and depressed. He figured it was probably some of the enchantment leaking through the hole from Kaede and he'd have to fix it later, but for now he didn't want to deal with any of it. He wanted nothing more than to just sleep and not think at all.

Yami left the tomb robber inside Yugi's old bedroom, shutting the door quietly and leaving the spell on it, so he could recover. Even though he wouldn't admit it, Yami was sure that it was probably one of the most nerve-racking things he ever had to do, and causing him more pain just made the Pharaoh feel even guiltier.

He was actually unable to keep the indifferent mask and knew he'd need to be alone for a while to let himself heal…or at least bury all the remorse need down somewhere for a time.

He was taken by surprise by the two teen standing right outside the door.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked after a moment of just Javas and Christa staring at him. Javas started up at him into his wide violet eyes with confusion and tried to ignore Christa's arm wrapped around his own.

"Yugi said to get you. Some people just showed up, claiming something about needing to see the Pharaoh. Are you alright?" Javas asked, looking around him at the door with curious eyes. Yami glanced at the door behind him and cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure.

"Yes, tell them I'll be down in a moment." He said with a fake cheerfulness that didn't fool anyone. Both teenagers turned and headed down the stairs. With their backs turned they glanced at each other with wondering looks, but said nothing to what could actually be bothering him.

They brought the message back to Yugi and Joey, who were discussing whether or not to buy pizza for dinner or make something, talking with the visitors as politely as possible with Joey being there. Yugi nodded at their reply and looked at the two olive skinned men and woman standing next to him with an apologetic look before asking them if pizza was acceptable.

They nodded to his question absentmindedly, and pressed on with the current problem. Javas wasn't absolutely clear on what was being said (again there was talk of evil spirits, seven items, and some dangerous magic), but by the grave look on Yugi's usually cheerful face made him very nervous about the whole situation.

He was also curious by Christa's content puzzled attention at the oldest man, who looked like he could be in his early sixties. It wasn't that he was wearing a robe since all three of them were, nor the strange jewelry. Maybe it was the turban?

It was only when his father left with the other adults to discuss business did Javas actually get his answer.

Book Dragon: "Please Review!"