Book Dragon: "Hey, thank you for the reviews…This is my last already written chapter…I'm currently working on the next, so it may take a little longer than usual to post it, just to warn you…"

Chapter 27: The Quest Begins

They ate very slowly, all of them silent. It would be today that they would try to get them back. In the morning. They had decided that if they arrived then it would be unexpected. Still, Yami was wondering if they'd have to postpone anyway.

TombRobber was clutching his head as he tried to eat the toast in his hand, Javas seemed stunned, Joey still half a sleep, and both he and Kaiba felt exhausted. Only Marik, Isis, and Shadi seemed to be alright so far. Yami sighed inwardly as he stirred his coffee, looking at Yugi through the stem. His counter part also looked stressed. Yami knew he was going to ask to come with them. It was what he was dreading. He wanted Yugi to stay here, safe. If he were to die, then at least Yugi would live. That's how it worked with these bodies. If the copy went down, the original lived, if the original when down, both where destroyed.

Yami sipped the brown liquid and watched Christa enter the room. She smiled in Javas's direction as she went to one of the cabinets and politely asked Yugi if she could have something to eat. Kaiba was glancing at the redness that had just flushed to his son's checks, but did not saying anything. Yami was interested to find TombRobber completely uncaring.

When breakfast was done, they went about their ways. Joey got up and went looking for his jacket, not before messing up Javas's hair with his hand. The boy started after him, a little confused, but rose moments later, looking expectedly at his father as he waited. Yami got up and went looking for his duel deck. He noticed how Yugi followed him, but said nothing.

When he came back to the kitchen, clothed, armed, and feeling slightly better, Yami looked at the wide open briefcase and Kaiba taking out a number of gadgets. Javas had a pair of headphones on, with a speaker close to his mouth with his own computer open. Kaiba was putting on his own headphones as he glanced at Yami, flipping his own computer open, and spoke to his son.

"Did she give you the basic layout?"

"Yes."

"Good. Email it to me."

"Okay." Yami looked up to find Joey entering the room, his leather jacket on fully, a look of determination in his eyes. Something else to worry about. He turned to Marik, who was also fully clothed, his duel deck at his side, and smiled.

"Did you eat yet?" Yami asked as Joey sat down with the biggest bowl in the house. The biker then grabbed the nearest cereal box and emptied it without a word.

"That's a no." Marik muttered checking that his duel disk worked, trying to avoid the blonde's gaze. Javas watched the Wheeler shoveling down his meal with round eyes, unaware that Kaiba was rolling his. Christa's giggling broke the boy's stare. Yami sipped his coffee and knew exactly what Joey was going to say even before he paused his rapid food shoveling.

"We're all going to need our strength when we go."

"Joey, it's dangerous-"

"I don't care! Bakura was my friend, too, and last time I checked friends support each other! We've been through worse as kids."

"That's the point, Joe." Yugi said quietly, "We're not kids anymore. There's magic to deal with as well, and you don't have an item to protect you."

"I've got my deck, and that's never failed me."

"How are playing cards going to help you?" Christa interjected. For a minute, no one said anything. She sounded disbelieving. Yami put his coffee down, trying to think of an answer when the TombRobber spoke.

"They have power, here, my dear." She glanced over at him, curious.

"Power? How?"

"Their based on an ancient game that was so powerful it could defeat Pharaohs, which is why it was sealed away for a time. It came back strong about thirty years ago. People forgot as they grew older." Yami ignored the bait and said nothing.

"You're going to need all the help you can get, Pharaoh. I suggest you take him with you." T.R continued airily. Yami narrowed his eyes. Why would the thief say that? He wanted Joey dead too. Anything to get some pain out of him for revenge…or perhaps not. That would be too direct. The pharaoh noted the avoidance of the robber's gaze and dared to wonder if he was actually trying to help. It was Kaede that was also in danger after all…

"There is safety in numbers." Yugi agreed, unexpectedly. Yami looked at him sharply.

"I want to go too." Yugi thought loudly in Yami's mind.

"…You might get hurt…" Yami sent back. He had almost lost his vessel once. It had not been a fun experience. Ever since that moment he had jealously guarded him from all harm possible. Like the fierce love an older brother has for his younger. Yugi started at him sternly, though sympathetic.

"We can go in your body, if it makes you feel better." Yami stared. They never tried that before. Leave the original vessel here and use the copy. If the copy goes that Yugi can get back. Only one soul needs to go with the death of a body. If push came to shove, he could force his lighter half out into safety. It was tempting. Seeing the flickering light in Yugi's eyes, Yami also knew that if he didn't let him come, he'd come anyway. It would be easier to keep him safe that way…

"Alright then." Yugi smiled grandly.

"But you must promise me one thing." The smile faded slightly.

"Yes?"

"If anything should happen to us, you must go back."

"…Yami-"

"Promise." His light squirmed.

"…I promise."

(…)

The teenage boy walked around his sister in tight circles. His eyes scanned her zombie like expression and slouching depressed stance with icy vigilance. He tapped the rod in his hand impatiently as he thought to himself. Never once did the girl stir from her dazed trance. It made the father growl.

He was ignored. Carefully, the boy took one last prowl around her, before backing off. Bakura watched his cloaked form take stocking steps toward the chest he had laid out, right in front of the great apple tree, between two large roots, positioned ten feet in front of her. He knelt, stroked the top of the case for a brief moment, and then unhinged both clasps of it with a loud click.

For a moment, he paused, and then slowly, he lifted the cover.

Bakura stared as black cloth swirled out of the polished case in his son's nimble hands, his breath catching as a thousand different memories filled his mind at a single moment. His eyes clouded over as the familiar scent tickled his nose, images flashing like rapid fire. A woman laughing. Green hawk wings. Whispering. Wedding bells.

A cool dark laughter shook him from those images. The man blinked his brown eyes and found the cape fluttering swiftly around his daughter's form, and stilled on her back. The boy gently removed her hair from beneath the velvet midnight, and with agile fingers he took the two black strings around her neck and hummed as he tied a bow. The girl stood motionless. He smiled wider when his work was finished and took his sister lightly by the shoulders and lowered to her height.

"Are you ready sister? It's time to do something wonderful…" For a moment she was still. Then she nodded.

A cryptic smile met his lips.

(…)

The sun was high in the plain blue sky as four shadows where painted themselves across the grass. They moved in swift determined strides, three tall looming shadows and one short one leading they way. In reality, however, five spirits traveled together.

Each of those five different consciousnesses preserved the large red bricked building standing proudly a head of them, topped with a massive cap of green. An innocent looking building, but each could feel the dark swirling about them. It prickled at their skin and tried to force them back, but the white-haired boy simply slashed through them with the great cloud of controlled hatred swimming dangerously with in him.

And this is what the boy saw, coming toward his newly made fortress through the highest window, to which he stood watching, his fingers tapping the sill as his mind whirled with thoughts, plans, and ideas as a steady smirk filled his face.

"Do you see this, Matsimela? You sister has some fans…" He whispered, his other hand tightening around the rod protectively. The vessel inside himself struggled deep, deep, deep inside himself. The spirit smiled coolly. There was nothing to fear; he had locked the boy so deep he wouldn't have the strength to break through. Still, he enjoyed torturing him, so he had left a one way channel that let him hear everything, feel all that he felt. He chuckled softly.

"Looks like I'll be able to show you the joy of killing soon…what say you, my Vessel?"

Silent thrashing was all he needed to know the answer.

Book Dragon: "Please review."