Calai'di: Hey, welcome episode four. This chap's a bit lighter than the last two or three. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with this story!

And for anyone wondering, I don't hate vampires; it's quite the opposite. I wish I could be a vampire, like Duzell or Miyu. That would be totally awesome. -sighs- But alas, I'm not. Yet.

Disclaimers: I do not own Google (did you know that if you Google search my screen name, you come up with a lot of sites in Spanish? It's weird. I thought all the words in my language were just made up.) or this site But I do own my own stories!

Warnings: I do put myself in this story (sorry it was necessary), but no one really finds out anything from me. Well…maybe a little…

Episode 4: Soul Stealer

Yugi knocked quietly on the door to Daniel's office and peaked inside, only to giggle quietly when he saw that Ryou was fast asleep with his face in a book on the page he'd last been reading. Yugi was starting to figure out why Ryou looked so pale all the time; he was always under a lot of stress, what with school and Bakura being the way he was. And now Ryou had been spending all his time trying to figure out the words that were written on the pendant that Saint Dane had given Bakura.

The shorter duelist finally decided that maybe the safety of the book was more important than Ryou getting sleep, so he quietly walked in and shook the other teen awake. Ryou sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking around sleepily.

"Y-Yugi? Wh-what time i-is it?" he asked, yawning.

Yugi smiled kindly and looked down at his watch. "It's three in the afternoon. You fell asleep."

"Oh." Ryou blushed and closed his book. "I've just been so busy and–"

"Ryou, you need to sleep. Even your body's telling you that."

"But–"

Yugi shook his head and pulled Ryou out of the room. "No 'buts'. You're going to bed this minute."

Ryou groaned but let Yugi steer him down the hall. "I guess you're right, Yugi. But I'm really close to figuring it out! The text seems to be a derivative of Latin, but it's also a lot like Ancient Egyptian, almost like–"

"–'the Gou'ald and the Ancients made their own together,'" Yugi reeled off, causing Ryou to blush. "I know Ryou. You've been 'close' for the past three days." He pushed Ryou into his room. "Now get some sleep."

Ryou sighed and closed the door, muttering that he'd try to get some sleep.

"So, Yugi, how's our boy doing?" Malik asked as Yugi walked into the commissary. Yugi shrugged and sat down next to him at the table, grabbing the Egyptian's glass of Jell-O as he did so. "Hey!"

"I put him to bed," Yugi said. He batted away Malik's hand and started eating the blue Jell-O. "Hopefully he's actually sleeping and not just staring into space."

"Knowing Ryou, that's probably exactly what he's doing," Atemu said. "Hey, I was kidding!" he added, pushing Yugi back down into his seat.

"Well, I can't blame him for being so into his research," Yugi muttered, thinking back to the necklace. "I'm interested too."

"Maybe you could help him," Malik suggested, poking a fork into his newly found ice cream.

"I...guess." Yugi made a face. "I'm not really good at that kind of thing. More like gam–"

"YUGI MUTOU, PLEASE KEEP YOUR MONSTERS UNDER CONTROL!"

Yugi blanched and kept his head down. "I'd forgotten about that."

Atemu stood up. "I'll get them." He ran out of the room, almost forgetting to leave his food behind as he went.

"I guess I'll go help him," Yugi said as he got up as well. "See ya, Malik."

Ryou, indeed, was sleeping, but it wasn't a very easy sleep and certainly wasn't dream-free. In fact, Ryou was having an extremely vivid dream. He was back home in Japan walking down a street headed for Yugi's house, though he had no idea why, but he knew he had to get there soon, that Yugi was in some kind of trouble. But before he got very far, Yugi came running out of nowhere and collided with him, sending them both sprawling to the ground. Yugi quickly got to his feet and pulled Ryou with him as he started running again.

"Yugi–"

"Can't explain now, Ryou! Just come with me!" Yugi lead him through the streets and down an alleyway where he stopped; it was a dead end. "Oh, no." Yugi glanced back at the entrance of the alley but it was clear by his expression that there was no hope.

"What's going on, Yugi?" Ryou asked, also glancing back at the street.

"Yugi stared up at him, fear apparent in the back of his eyes. "I was being chased by this huge shadow!"

"A shadow?"

"Uh-huh, like...the Shadow Realm, almost, but it was following me! It wanted to capture me!"

They waited silently in the alley for a few minutes, but nothing showed up. Yugi cautiously walked to the entrance of the alley and peaked out down the street.

"I don't see anything." He walked out of the alley, glancing back and forth. "I think it's gone."

"Yugi, wait!" Ryou called as Yugi started walking down the street again, but Yugi seemed not to hear him and soon disappeared from sight. Ryou called out and ran after Yugi, but the small duelist had completely vanished.

"Yugi? Yugi!"

"Ryou!"

Ryou jerked awake by someone shaking him and calling his name. It took him a few moments to remember where he was and to recognize who was shaking him. He sat up, swatting his yami away.

"Bakura, what's wrong," he asked sleepily. Bakura pulled him out of bed toward the door.

"It's Yugi–"

"Yugi? What happened?"

Bakura sighed and pulled him out of the room. "You should see for yourself."

When Ryou and Bakura stepped into the infirmary a few minutes later, Yugi was lying perfectly still, except for breathing, on a bed, and Atemu and Malik were sitting at his side. Ryou's eyes widened as he saw Yugi, memories of the dream still fresh in his mind.

"Yugi! What happened to him!" Ryou asked, running forward to the bed. Atemu glanced up and almost glared at him.

"I thought you would know," he growled.

Ryou recoiled slightly. "What do you mean? I haven't done anything."

"Ryou…Yugi's soul is gone," Malik said softly. "And only the Ring and Eye have the power to take it."

Ryou stood stunned for a few moments, trying to process what they were accusing him of; did they really think he would steal Yugi's soul? He was one of Yugi's best friends, for Ra's sake! He turned around abruptly, glaring at Bakura. "Do you know anything about this?"

"They already asked me about it," Bakura answered, looking away; he hated to see his hikari so mad at him. "They already determined I didn't do it and made me go get you."

"Well, I didn't do it!" Ryou exclaimed, turning back to Atemu. "Why would I?"

"He was the last person you had contact with," the Pharaoh argued, "and he said you weren't too happy with him when he left you."

"But I wouldn't do something like this! I can't believe you would accuse me of something like this!"

"Ryou…" Malik stood up and grabbed the paler hikari's hands. "Please don't be mad at us. But there is no one else who could have done this."

Ryou sighed. "I'm aware of that. But think about who you're accusing. Would I really be able to steal my best friend's soul? I don't even know how!"

"But then, who could have done it?" Atemu wondered aloud. "If it's not you or Bakura…"

Malik suddenly hit his palm to his forehead, groaning, "Gah, all this thinking is making my brain hurt. I'm going to bed, and Ra knows Yugi would want you to get some more sleep, Ryou." He smiled and pulled Ryou out of the infirmary. "Come on, Pharaoh can watch over Yugi on his own for a bit."

As soon as Malik got Ryou a good distance down the hall, though, he stopped and placed something in Ryou's hand. It was the Sharat Bakra.

"Here Ryou, look at this." Malik pointed at one of the eight sections of the pendant; it was now filled in with what looked like crimson glass. Malik noticed Ryou's shocked look and added, "I was looking around in Dr. Jackson's office and noticed it. I thought you might like to see."

"Has Atemu seen this?" Ryou asked, examining the pendant closely.

"No…should he?"

Ryou turned the Sharat Bakra over in his fingers. "I'm not sure. You don't mind if I go back to my research, do you?"

"Nah, you got enough sleep I'm sure," Malik said, grinning. "I won't tell Pharaoh that though."

The pale hikari hugged his friend tightly. "Thank you, Malik."

Malik blushed and pushed him off. "You're welcome. Maybe you should go research stuff now?"

"Good idea. I'll see you later Malik!" Ryou said as he ran off, waving.

"You'd better come to breakfast!" Malik called after him before shaking his head and walking the opposite way down the hall.

Ryou's research went just as well as all the other tries, which was not well at all, so he decided to wander to the commissary to get something to eat like Malik had told him to. He picked up a few items on his try, then went to sit down at the table where Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c were eating; the rest of SG-M hadn't shown up yet.

"Morning, guys," he said tiredly, watching with amusement as Jack gobbled up his oatmeal; they had no idea why he liked it so much, but Daniel said it had something to do with the time loop he'd been trapped in.

"Good morning, Ryou," Teal'c said almost cheerfully. "Is your research progressing successfully?"

Ryou sighed and started eating. "Not even close. I haven't been able to find anything. Just a few leads that don't lead anywhere."

"Sounds familiar," Jack said, grinning at Daniel, who pretending he had no idea what his friend was talking about.

"I think the problem is that I don't know much about ancient languages, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch."

Daniel smiled and a patted his arm. "You know, I did offer my help."

"Yes, but I wanted to do it on my own–"

"Ryou!" Bakura ran into the cafeteria and all the way to their table, nearly collapsing on his hikari. "Ryou, Pharaoh's disappeared and Malik just collapsed in the infirmary! You have to help me!"

"But Malik was doing just fine when I left him!"

"Well he's not fine now!" The spirit finally noticed the other members of the table and stood up straighter. "Jack, Teal'c, Daniel, everything is under control. Come on, hikari."

Jack stood up at the same time that Ryou did, food completely forgotten. "I'm coming with you."

"O'Neill-san, you really don't have to–"

"But I want to. Come on, Daniel." Jack ignored Daniel's soft protests as he dragged the archaeologist out of his seat. "Infirmary?"

"Yes." Bakura pulled Ryou out of the commissary and down the hall, Jack and Daniel following. They walked in this mini parade all the way to Daniel's office, where Ryou pulled free off his yami and dashed inside.

"Ryou–"

"Just a sec!" Ryou rummaged around through the papers on Daniel's desk for a few moments before he found what he was looking for: the Sharat Bakra. As he examined it, his eyes widened in shock. "I don't understand…"

"Ryou!"

"I'm coming!" He stared down at the pendant again, hardly able to believe his eyes. Two more sections of the necklace were filled in with the glass like substance, one with dark purple, and the other, gold. Still staring at the necklace in disbelief, he walked out of the room back to his yami.

"What took you so long?" Bakura asked as soon as Ryou appeared. He grabbed the hikari's arm and started pulling him down the hall again. He glanced over at Ryou as they walked down the hall, noticing that the hikari was holding something and examining it closely, but he couldn't tell what it was. "What are you looking at?"

Ryou jumped, startled, and held out his hand so that the Sharat Bakra was revealed. "It's that necklace you got from Saint Dane."

"It looks different," Bakura commented as he took it to look at it more closely. He noticed the filled in sections and pointed them out. "These sections are filled in."

"I know. That's what I was looking at," Ryou said as he took the necklace back. He placed the cord over his head, then started pulling Bakura faster toward the infirmary, though they were almost there anyway. He felt he needed to test something.

"Damn, it didn't work," Ryou muttered, letting the Sharat Bakra fall back against his chest from where he'd been holding it over Malik. His yami, Jack, and Daniel looked on in confusion.

"Hikari, what are you doing?"

Ryou turned to them, looking extremely confused and irritated. "Well, I thought maybe this thing would react to being in Malik's presence, but I guess not."

"What do you mean?" Daniel was asking this time.

"Well, you see these two sections that are filled in?" He pointed to the purple and gold sections. "This only happened after Malik collapsed and Atemu disappeared. And the red one filled in only after Yugi's soul was taken. I thought they might be connected."

Bakura nodded, perfectly understanding the logic his hikari was using, but then he noticed that, once again, there was something different about the necklace. "Ryou, there's another section filled he," he noted. This one was black like obsidian glass.

Ryou stared down at the necklace in disbelief. "But we don't know of anyone who's–"

"Colonel O'Neill, sir!" called a nurse from the doorway as she entered. They turned to look at her as three more wheeled in a collapsible bed. "I'm sorry, we don't know what happened. He just…collapsed, sir," she went on, referring to the body the nurse were lifting onto a hospital bed. It was Teal'c.

Ryou gasped and stared wide-eyed at the other three, slowly shaking his head. "I didn't do it…I had no idea…"

"It can't be anyone else, hikari," Bakura said, looking at him sadly. "You're the only person capable of it that has had contact with all of them."

"Yami, I didn't do it! I swear I didn't! Please, I don't even know how! Besides they're my friends! I swear I didn't do it!" Ryou pleaded, but he already knew that his yami's mind was made up and there was no way he could change that. So, sighing, he stepped back a bit and bowed to the Colonel. "Sir," he began, taking in a deep breath and sounding determined, "I would to advise that I be isolated from human contact, at least until this problem can be sorted out."

"No, Ryou!" Bakura exclaimed, instantly losing his composure. He hadn't been ready to hear that.

Ryou went on, trying to ignore his yami however much his heart was aching to do so. "I don't know if it will help any, but I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I suggest I be taken to a Holding or Iso. Room for now, before I come in contact with anyone else." He took the Ring from around his neck and hastily put it about Bakura's, which instantly switched their places so now he was in spirit form. Bakura fingered the cord that was now around his neck and looked up at Ryou in shock, but the hikari was avoiding his gaze.

"Colonel, should we go now?" Ryou asked, staring at the floor.

Jack sighed and nodded. "All right. Daniel, you go tell General Hammond about this, then come straight back here and sit on one of those beds. I don't want you to hurt yourself if you 'collapse'." He gestured for Ryou to follow as he walked out of the infirmary; the hikari followed dutifully, but before he got too far down the hall, Bakura ran after them and placed the Ring about Ryou's neck again.

"Ryou, I want you to keep the Ring with you–"

"No, Bakura." Ryou took the Ring off and gave it back to him. "I don't know why our friend's souls are being taken away, but if it has to do with me, than it probably has to do with the Ring. I can't have it with me."

Bakura sighed and kissed his forehead. "I hope we can solve this soon."

"Me too." Ryou hugged him tightly before letting go and walking down the hall to where Jack was waiting, following him as he started walking again.

"Are you sure he won't be a hazard while he's down there?" Hammond asked, watching as Ryou paced in the Iso. Room below.

"As long as none of us goes down there, it should be safe, sir," Carter said from next to him.

Bakura sighed and leaned back against a computer desk, determinedly looking away from his hikari in the room below. "He doesn't need to be down there," he grumbled quietly, picking at the Ring's cord.

"Until we're sure he's not connected to the recent…events, he'll have to stay in isolation," Hammond answered firmly.

"And at least no one else has collapsed since Daniel and Colonel O'Neill," Carter added. Bakura briefly glared at her but still didn't look down into the Iso. Room.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure that's a good thing," he said bitterly. "The problem here is: my hikari is down there, by himself, with six of his friends gone. He doesn't do well in situations like this." He pushed off from the desk and started for the door of the observation room. "I'm going to go help him research."

"You can't go down there," Hammond warned.

"I'm not going down there," Bakura answered as he opened that door. "I'm going to Daniel's office." He bowed once and stepped out, closing the door behind him.

Ryou paced about the Iso. Room, wishing that Bakura could be here with him, just like when they had first come to the SGC. He smiled as he remembered the show they had put on for the Americans, a show they had put on in this exact room. A hand reached up to touch the Millennium Ring as he momentarily forgot it wasn't there and the hand touch the Sharat Bakra instead. He looked down sadly at the pendant and the two more sections now filled in, one a dark green and the other a sea green. The silver ring was about half the size of the Millennium Ring and was quartered by a cross, then each quarter was cut in half as well, making eight holes. On the back of the pendant, tiny words were inscribed along the silver, and it was these that Ryou was trying to decipher. He hadn't gotten anywhere so far.

He sighed again, sat down in a chair, and turned on the computer that had been brought into the Iso. Room for him–it was one of the few on the base that had an Internet connection–and once it was booted up, opened up a browser and started a search on the word 'sharat'. He frowned as he saw the few relevant results that actually showed up. He checked out a few of the results, but nothing promising came up; just stuff about bands and weird cults. Even Google had its limits, he supposed. Then he set the search for ''bakra'…and something very interesting came up. He shifted in his chair as he pressed the link.

The link took him to a story on a site called Fanfiction dot net that was by a person named "Calai'di." The story was called The Holy Crusade of Bakura the Dark, and it was about four gods the author had added to the Egyptian pantheon; four gods that were, not surprisingly, named after some of Ryou's friends and himself. He'd known for a few months that people often wrote about famous people in their stories, but it was almost shocking to find one about himself. The word 'bakra' came up in the very first chapter of the story as the name of a realm that 'Bakura' was ruler of–Bakura being the name of one of the gods.

As he read through the story he was both impressed and embarrassed about how much the authoress knew about him and his friends (AN: This guy just has NOT read enough fanfiction. That story's rather mild…) and near the end, he'd figured that the authoress was also a firm believer in the ancient Egyptian religion, she knew so much about it. In fact, she knew so much, he decided he needed to investigate what other stories she might have written. And it turned out she'd written quite a few, and they were all somewhat about him and his friends.

But as he scanned through the stories (WAY too much time on his hands here) he couldn't find any other reference to 'bakra' or 'sharat'. It was beginning to look like another dead end until he looked at the authoress's profile. It claimed that she had come up with the name "Calai'di" herself, and that various other words of her made up language popped occasionally in her stories. And there was an email address.

Ryou copied over the address and quickly wrote an email to the person before promptly falling asleep over the keyboard.

Dear Calai'di,

I've read a few of your stories and was wondering if you could tell me what the words 'sharat' and 'bakra' mean. It could really help me a lot.

Thanks,

Ryou Bakura

Bakura was watching Ryou sleep from the observation room with mixed feelings. He really wished he could be down in the Iso. Room, sleeping with Ryou in his arms on the bed, or better, sleeping back in their own room on the base. But the sad truth was before him; Ryou was the only person to have contact with every one of the victims before they collapsed so he must be responsible.

He sighed slightly as he booted up a computer and started browsing the Internet the same way Ryou had hours earlier, but he searched on all the words written on the pendant, not just what it was called. But every few minutes, his attention drifted back to watching his hikari until soon he was only watching his hikari again.

He stood up suddenly, staring into the Iso. Room.

Ryou was waking up.

But he wasn't acting like Bakura remembered him acting when he woke up. Usually, Ryou would grumble and complain, and it would take him ages to even open his eyes much less get out of bed, but this time he jerked awake, sitting straight up in his seat and looking around wide-eyed. Very wide-eyed. Bakura was strongly reminded of Yugi. Ryou stood up and looked around the room frantically.

"Hello?" he called, voice sounding a bit higher than normal. "Is anyone there? What am I doing here?"

Bakura was sorely tempted to talk to him through the microphone, but decided to wait.

Ryou walked around the room almost in a panic, unable to find a way out. "Hello? Can someone help me, please? I don't know what I'm doing here! Someone? Ryou? Malik?"

This got Bakura's attention. "Ryou, what are you talking about?"

Ryou stared up at the two-way mirror with confusion, starting to panic again when he saw his refection. "That's not me! Why do I look like Ryou?"

"All right, just calm down. What are you talking about? Of course you look like Ryou."

"But I'm not Ryou," argued the hikari. "I'm Yugi!"

"So you're saying that somehow Yugi's soul got put into Ryou?" Hammond asked incredulously, staring down into the Iso. Room. He, Carter, and Kaiba had gathered in the observation room after Bakura had called them saying that Ryou had woken up but sure as hell wasn't acting like himself.

"Exactly. I don't know why I didn't see it at first. He acted like Yugi, sounded like Yugi, and had Yugi's thoughts and memories." Bakura started hitting his head lightly on the glass. "A shrimp has taken over my hikari!"

Carter reached over and stopped his self-mutilation before it could do much damage. "How could this happen? Do you know?"

Bakura sighed and shook his head. "The Ring can only transfer someone's soul to an inanimate object, like a card. It can't put one into someone's body unless that body is already soulless."

"Hey guys?" called Yugi-Ryou, staring up at the mirror. "Could you please tell me what's going on here?"

Bakura glanced down at him and grabbed a microphone, ready to say something, but Kaiba beat him to it.

"Listen Yugi, just calm down. We'll figure this out, all right?"

"All right." Yugi-Ryou sat down on the bed, not looking calm at all. "What happened to Malik? Where is he?"

"We're not sure," Bakura spoke up, sending Kaiba a quizzical look. "His soul was taken a short time after yours. There's a good chance he's in my hikari with you."

This caused Yugi-Ryou to jump to his feet, panicking again. "What do you mean? I'm not the only one? Why is this happening?"

Kaiba spoke up again. "Yugi, we can't help you if you don't calm down." This caused Yugi-Ryou to sit down again. "Good." The brunette looked to Bakura, not comfortable with what should be said next.

Bakura glared slightly at him, but did pick out the microphone again. "All right, Yugi. Can you tell if there is anyone else with you in Ryou's head?"

"I don't know…I can't tell…I'm scared, Bakura…" He suddenly stood up and looked right at the two-way mirror, attitude completely changed. "Hey! What's goin' on!"

They stared at him with shock for a few moments before Carter stepped forward in realization.

"It's Colonel O'Neill." She took the microphone from Kaiba before anyone could react and said, "Sir? Are you all right?"

Jack-Ryou made a small face and gestured to himself. "I'm in the body of a seventeen year old with girlishly long hair and practically no upper body strength at all. Do I look all right to you?"

"Watch it, Colonel," Bakura growled, his eyes flashing dangerously. "That's my seventeen year old you're talking about."

Jack-Ryou grimaced, though it wasn't because of what Bakura had said. "You have no idea how weird this is."

"What's going on?" Bakura questioned, forgetting his previous annoyance.

"Well, Ryou's yelling at me," Jack-Ryou answered, still making a face. "So's Malik. Loudly."

"You can hear them?" Carter asked excitedly.

"Are they all right?" Bakura demanded.

"Can you hear all of them at once, or just one at a time?" was Kaiba's question.

"Whoa, whoa, one at time!" Jack-Ryou exclaimed, holding up his hands defensively. They shut up for a moment as he became still, making a face of concentration. "All right, I can hear everyone, all at the same time and otherwise, and everyone's just fine." He smirked suddenly and added, "Well, except for being in only one body, Malik says."

"That sounds like Malik," Bakura said, smiling.

"Uh…uh-oh…" Jack-Ryou made a face as though listening for something, looking very concerned. "Kids, I just lost Teal'c."

"Lost him?" Kaiba asked.

"I can't hear him anymore. Like he just went poof!"

Bakura waved his hand dismissively. "That's not a problem. With that many souls in one body, one or more may descend into the subconscious to help protect the others from an overload."

"Overload?"

The thief sighed and gently pulled at his hair. "Technically, only one soul is supposed to occupy a body at a time. Having two isn't really pushing it; mostly there's just an increased need for food and sleep to compensate for the extra energy required. The brain is perfectly capable of handling it. But if too many souls occupy the same body, the brain doesn't have enough capacity to hold all of those souls, at least not consciously, so if it stays that way for too long, the brain will fry."

"Fry?"

"Like an egg."

Jack-Ryou looked considerably disturbed. "Why did no one tell me this before?"

"We didn't know until now, sir," Carter said. She suddenly stared at Bakura. "Wait, if you have the Ring, don't you have the physical body?"

"Well, I should I suppose." Bakura smiled mischievously before frowning again. "But I'm using the Ring to drain energy from the Shadow Realm to keep up a physical solidity and appearance. Ryou has our body at the moment. He doesn't know that, but he's sure to figure it out."

"Hey, guys?" Jack-Ryou called "What am I supposed to do to keep my brain from frying?"

"It's Ryou's brain, and we don't know yet," Bakura growled into the microphone. "Is Teal'c the only one you can't contact at the moment?"

Jack-Ryou was silent for a few seconds before answering, "Yugi's not answering either."

"All right, that's two that have retreated," Bakura verified. "That should be good enough for now."

"Do you know if Ryou was able to find anything about this?" Kaiba asked into the microphone.

"…He says he didn't find much, just some story on the Internet that used the word 'bakra'. He says…he says he emailed the author but doesn't expect to hear back from her this soon."

"So, he actually found something?" Bakura asked, sounding almost incredulous. In an instant, Jack-Ryou's expression changed dramatically to one of extreme ire. Jack was gone.

"Yes, Bakura, I 'actually found something'," Ryou said bitterly, glaring up at the mirror tat he knew his yami was behind. Bakura recoiled slightly; Ryou angry would scare even the coldest of hearts.

"I'm sorry, hikari. You know I didn't mean it like that. I was just surprised."

"I'm so sure." Ryou smiled sweetly at them, a smiled promising much pain and servitude for his yami once this was over, and sat down at the computer to start working again, blatantly ignoring them. Bakura sighed and sat down his own computer, opening up an IM window to try and talk to him and see what he could do to help.

"Report, Major," Hammond ordered as he entered the room several hours after leaving it. Sam shot to her feet, slightly startled.

"Uh, well, sir, Ryou seems to be handling it rather well, having all those voices in his head–"

"Of course he is. He's had me in his head for the past two years, after all," Bakura commented without looking up from the screen.

"–So far, Teal'c is the only one who hasn't taken control yet. Colonel O'Neill has been out a lot, and so have Malik and Ryou–"

"–Who has been the one researching–"

"–So there hasn't really been that much progress."

"I want my people back in their bodies," Hammond said firmly.

"We're working on it, sir," Carter answered, squeezing Kaiba's shoulder. He looked up at her, nodded, and left the room. She turned back to look at General Hammond. "Sir, I honestly believe that this won't be solved until that author Ryou emailed gets back to him."

"And why's that?"

"Because then we'll know what it is that necklace does. We aren't finding anything just looking on the Internet."

"She thinks the Sharat Bakra is directly responsible for all this," Bakura explained.

"Well, think about it. All this started happening after you got back, and Ryou is the one it's centered around. He's wearing the necklace. And the sections of the pendant filled every time someone's soul was stolen."

Hammond nodded. "It makes sense. And you think that this author might have the answers we're looking for?"

"If she knows parts of the language, then she might, sir."

"Very well. Let me know the moment you find something."

"Yes, sir." Sam saluted him as he left, then sat down at her computer and began searching again.

It was about four in the afternoon the next day when they heard a shout of triumph from Ryou down in the Iso. Room. Bakura jumped to his feet to see him better, grabbing the microphone.

"What happened, Malik?"

"Ryou got an email back from that author!" called Malik-Ryou. He stared at the screen intently for a few moments before yelling again, "She's got an answer!"

"Well, read it aloud then!"

Malik-Ryou nodded and stared at the screen again. "'Ryou, sorry it took so long to get back to you. I've been busy with fanfics and RPs lately. To tell the truth, I was freaked out when I got your email. Like 'What the hell!' freaked out. I mean, Ryou Bakura emailed me. That was totally cool. Anyway, the words 'sharat' and 'bakra' mean 'soul' and 'thief' respectively, though I have no clue how you know of the word sharat cause I've never used it in a fic before. That almost freaked me out as much as actually getting an email from you. Well, I better let you get back to whatever you were doing. Thanks for reading my fics! Review! Calai'di.' And I thought I was weird," Malik commented once he'd finished.

"So, the Sharat Bakra is…a soul thief?" Carter concluded. She jumped slightly when Bakura punched the tabletop, anger emanating from him in waves.

"Damn vampire…" he growled. "That damn Saint Dane was planning this all along! He knew this would happen if we escaped!"

"Bakura…"

"No!" He began pacing around the room, looking angry enough that even Kaiba didn't stand in his way. "This is all my fault!"

"No it isn't–"

"It is! If I weren't…the way I am, I would have had enough sense to through the damn necklace away!" He gazed down at Malik-Ryou sadly. "He's hurting and it's all my fault." He walked back over to the computer desk and picked up a microphone. "Malik," he said loudly, startling the teen down in the Iso. Room, "I want you to email her back with all of the words on that pendant–"

"Bakura…" Carter warned softly.

"–do no omit any of them. Write it down just like it is on the back of the necklace and send it to her to see if she can translate it–"

"But, Bakura–" Malik-Ryou started, coming to the same conclusion as Major Carter.

"–no, wait…see if she has an AIM name and is online and ask her right now–"

"Bakura, be quiet!" Kaiba ordered. Bakura fell silent, glaring at him. "Good. Now listen to Sam, all right?"

"Thanks, Seto. Listen, Bakura, I know you're hurt and angry, and you want answers, but you can't jeopardize the secrecy of this base."

"How would getting a translation risk revealing this base?" Bakura asked, somewhat confused.

"Because this person is going to want to know where you found the words to be translated," Kaiba answered, catching on. "Apparently, she already is suspicious because Ryou asked about a word he couldn't have read on the Internet. What do you think she'd think if you reeled out a whole paragraph of words only she thinks she knows?"

"That she's either being spied on or–"

"Or there's something else going on," Carter finished for him.

"Authors are notorious for having overactive imaginations; I'm sure someone like this could easily come up with a reason that wouldn't be too far off," Kaiba added; yes, he had worked with a few authors in his time.

Bakura shrugged, leaning casually back against a chair, though his voice said almost the opposite of his body language. "You're all paranoid."

"Hey Bakura, what do you want me to do?" Malik-Ryou called, sounding almost desperate.

Bakura glanced down at him and spoke into the microphone again. "We're working on it, Malik, just be a little patient."

"All right." Malik-Ryou walked over to the bed and flopped down onto his back, gazing passively up at the ceiling. "But…Ryou's really scared, Bakura."

This got the yami's attention. "What?"

"He's…he's been crying somewhat," Malik-Ryou answered softly, barely loud enough for them to hear. "He won't listen to reason and keeps saying this is his fault."

"No, no, no…" Bakura turned and leaned over onto the computer desks, staring sternly down at Malik-Ryou whether the teen could see him or not. "Listen, Ryou, this is not your fault, got it. Don't you go blaming yourself for this."

Ryou looked up at them, smiling sadly. "I'm sorry, Bakura-chan."

"Ryou, listen to me! This is not your fault! Not. Your. Fault."

"I-it's Saint Dane's fault," Ryou said quietly, sounding unsure.

"Exactly! It's all Saint Dane's fault. You keep telling yourself that!"

"O-okay…"

Bakura sighed and sat down at his computer again, just staring at the screen without really seeing. Carter bit her lip and thought about saying something but decided against it and started researching again.

"Hey guys?" Daniel-Ryou called from where he was sitting at his computer. "I think I found something."

"What?" the three up in the observation room exclaimed at the same time.

"It…looks like a site on the ancient Egyptian language from…before the pyramids were built. That's the time when Ra was around."

"Well, Saint Dane said Quillan was a Goa'uld occupied world at one time," Bakura said, nodding in understanding.

"Yes, but the writing on the pendant isn't just like Goa'uld; it's like Ancient too." Daniel-Ryou looked at the screen for a few moments before going on. "But this site is about how all languages might have come from a common source, and it shows pictures of some tablets this guy found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. This is really interesting…" He mumbled a few more things before lapsing into silence.

"Hey, let's keep talking, okay?" Bakura called down to him. Daniel-Ryou glanced up again and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Anyway, there's a sort of dictionary on this site of all the words this guy has been able to translate so far, and it's quite a few actually. And–" he examined the Sharat Bakra for a few moments before grinning up at them– "every word on the necklace is here."

The three up in the observation room brightened up considerably.

"So, how long will it take to translate it all?" Bakura asked eagerly.

Daniel-Ryou looked down at the necklace again and after a few moments said, "Um, a couple hours, a half a day maybe–"

"What? Why so long!"

"Have you looked at this closely? The text is pretty small, and it's divided into paragraphs. I'm amazed Ryou could read this without a magnifying glass."

Bakura glared down at him and exhaled loudly. "Fine. Just…try to go as fast as you can, okay?" But Daniel-Ryou was already typing line after line of text on the computer, having stopped listening after Bakura's first word.

Carter pulled Bakura off his computer and out of the room for a moment. "Bakura, are you all right?"

"What are you talking about? I'm fine."

"When was the last time you took your medicine?"

Bakura glared at her and threw his hands up into the air. "You're as bad as Ryou, I swear! Why do you care in the first place? Why don't you go back in there with your boyfriend and leave me alone?"

Sam smiled and pushed him away from the door. "It's been too long, hasn't it?"

"A couple of hours too long, yes," Bakura answered, nodding. "But not long enough that I'm totally psycho yet!"

"Why don't you go get some sleep, hmm? I'll come get you if Daniel finishes the translation."

"All right," Bakura conceded, walking forward under his own will. "But I want to be the first to know! Not even General Hammond can know before I do!"

"You have my word," Carter answered, nodding once before entering the observation room again.

Hammond strode determinedly into the observation room, where Bakura, Carter, and Kaiba were already waiting, gazing almost anxiously at Carter, who had called him there.

"Well?" he asked. "Have you figured out how to help my people yet?"

"Actually, sir, we think so," Ryou called up from the Iso. Room. He joggled his mouse a bit and gazed at the screen. "I don't know why it took so long for Dr. Jackson to translate this though. There's not much here."

"Then read it, hikari!" Bakura demanded, though he didn't sound near as ticked off as earlier.

Ryou nodded, smiling, and read from the screen, "'This is the Sharat Bakra, the giver of eternal torture and sorrow. The Sharat Bakra shall be given to one of the Tau'ri when he is captured; only then may the leaders of Pheliosta try to change the course of the future. However, if the Pheliostan is unsuccessful and the traveler escapes, he will bring great suffering upon his friends and his world.

"The Sharat Bakra is a stealer of souls. The souls of the unfortunate become trapped within the eight open sections of the pendant and shall from then on be tortured endlessly. If another unfortunate person happens to be wearing the Sharat Bakra, he shall be possessed by these tormented spirits until he dies from a cerebral breakdown. The trapped souls would remain trapped in the Sharat Bakra indefinitely, or until another person wears the necklace and they may posses him.

"There is one way the souls may be sent back to their rightful bodies, but it requires a great deal of ancient energy and a priest that is capable of channeling it.' The rest is a detailed description of how the ritual has to be performed." He shook his head and gazed up at the two-way mirror. "I don't know where we're going to find a priest for this though. I doubt someone of a monotheistic faith would work."

Bakura was silently, thinking hard, for a few moments before saying simply, "Kaiba."

"What?" said CEO asked in shock.

Bakura turned and grinned at him. "You were a priest in your past life, and I don't know of anyone else that was. Other than Isis and Shadi, but I don't like either of them. So you'll have to do it, Kaiba."

Kaiba stared at him for a few moments before shaking his head vigorously. "You don't honestly expect me to believe that nonsense–"

"Kaiba..." Bakura, extremely stern now, strode over to him and grasped his shoulders. "Kaiba, our friends–companions," he corrected when the blue-eyed one made a face, "have been speaking out of Ryou's mouth for the past two and a half days. I, a spirit from ancient Egypt, have been around for the past two years causing you nothing but trouble. I'm here, Ryou's down there, so we're obviously not the same person. And you say you don't believe in this?"

Kaiba glared at him, obviously hating being forced into something that he truly didn't believe in. "I highly doubt I'm the right one for this," he muttered.

"You're the only one that can do it, Priest," Bakura answered, grabbing his arm to pull him out of the room. But just before he left, he grabbed a microphone, saying, "Ryou, do you have all of the instructions?"

Ryou gazed at the screen again, eyes scanning over it back and forth. "It looks like it."

"Good." With that, Bakura pulled Kaiba out of the room and toward the Iso. Room.

"Bakura!" Ryou exclaimed as the spirit entered the Iso. Room. Ryou ran up and jumped on him, practically knocking him over. "I missed you! I don't want you to ever leave me again!"

"Ryou! Get…off!" Bakura exclaimed, pushing his hikari back to the floor. "I'm glad to see you too, hikari." He smiled slightly and pulled Kaiba the rest of the way into the room. "Come on, let's get the others out of your head."

Ryou nodded and led them over to the computer where the instructions were plain on the screen. "It tells you how right there. I just hope it's not to late. I can't sense Yugi or Teal'c-san at all."

Bakura quickly scanned over the instruction. "We need something that uses ancient energy, something Kaiba can use…" He smirked and turned to look at Ryou again. "Ask Malik if we can use the Rod."

"Of course you can't use the Rod!" Malik exclaimed as he took control.

Bakura pointedly rolled his eyes. "Don't be an ass, Malik. I want you out of my hikari's body."

"Well, so do I but that doesn't mean you get to use my Rod!"

"Listen, there's no way we're going to use the Ring! Kaiba can't use it!"

"But it's my Rod?"

They were interrupted as a burst of laughter erupted from both Sam and Kaiba. Bakura and Malik-Ryou looked at them in confusion, unsure of what they had done wrong.

"What's so funny?" Bakura asked.

Kaiba tried to calm down and failed miserably, only able to speak after several minutes. "Y-You weren't listening to yourselves, were you?" The two light-haired teens glanced at each other, shrugged, and looked back to Kaiba again for an explanation. "It sounded very…innuendo," Kaiba said, smirking at them. "And I object to your notion of me not being able to use the Ring. I've used one before."

They stared at him in shock for a few moments before bursting out laughing, amazed that he would admit to such a thing, and surprisingly, their laughter was echoed by Carter up in the observation room.

"Wait," Bakura said after a few moments once everyone had calmed down a bit, "we still haven't resolved this. Are we allowed to use the Rod or not, Malik?"

Malik-Ryou wiped tears from his eyes, the result of his laughing too hard. "If it'll get us out of Ryou's body, I guess you can use it."

"Good." Bakura back away from the computer a bit and held his hand out in front of him, a large ball of shadow forming over his palm. After about a minute, the shadows dissipated and the Millennium Rod dropped into his hand.

"How did you do that?" Malik-Ryou asked as Bakura handed the Rod to Kaiba.

"It's a thing called 'Shadow Magic'; ever hear of it?" the spirit answered sarcastically. He looked over the ritual again and waved at them, saying, "Malik, you should give control back to Ryou and have him stand in the middle of the room. Kaiba, you need to stand in front of him with the to of the Rod touching the Sharat Bakra."

"What is this going to do exactly?" Kaiba asked as he and Ryou followed Bakura's instructions.

"Destroy it."

"What?"

"Yeah, it says right here: If this ritual is performed properly, the Sharat Bakra will explode, freeing the souls from their prison."

Kaiba actually looked worried for once as he glanced at the necklace. "Wouldn't that hurt one or both of us?"

"No, the necklace would be floating at a safe distance when this happens, and the Rod should protect you anyway."

"Floating?"

"Yes, floating. You'll see. Now, repeat after me." Kaiba nodded, looking back down at the Rod again. "'I, Priest Seto'–"

"I, Priest Seto…"

"–'call upon the magic of the Millennium Rod to aid me'–"

"…call upon the magic of the Millennium Rod to aid me…"

"–'in the release of six trapped souls from their prison in the Sharat Bakra.'"

"… in the release of six trapped souls from their prison in the Sharat Bakra. Good grief…"

The Rod began to glow and enveloped both Kaiba and you in light, and suddenly, Kaiba appeared to be wearing the clothes of an ancient priest, headdress and all. He looked down and then back at the glowing golden item, muttering, "Stupid magic."

"That's odd," Bakura agreed, staring at Kaiba's new clothes. "The Rod must recognize you, Kaiba, and it wanted you to look like you should be holding it."

Kaiba rolled his eyes, though he didn't look entirely uncomfortable in the new clothes, and turned his attention back to the Rod. "Let's just get this over with already."

"Are we sure this will work?" Hammond asked as he watched this from above.

"Well, sir, it's the only thing we've got. If it doesn't work, we may not be able to do anything other than keep Ryou in isolation indefinitely," Carter answered, also watching. Then, in a sadder tone, she added, "And Seto would be the next victim."

"You've grown very fond of him," Hammond remarked.

"I have." She leaned over, hands on the computer desk, looking closer down into the room. "I think they're actually starting now."

This was said about the moment the Rod began glowing and Kaiba was re-clothed. He and Bakura stood talking for a few moments, and then Kaiba began moving again with Bakura waving at different places, saying things to go with it. The 'priest' slowly walked around Ryou, repeating Bakura's words, touching the Rod to different spots on the floor. When he'd traveled all the back to stand in front of the white-haired teen, a glowing golden circle appeared on the ground around them with lines crossing it, forming a six-pointed star. Kaiba seemed slightly surprised at this, but Ryou didn't; he seemed extremely relaxed, as though in a trance, and his hair was floating slightly about his head.

Kaiba's head snapped towards Bakura when the spirit said something, a small sneer on his face. The priest answered curtly and looked away, lifting the cord of the Sharat Bakra over Ryou's head and seemingly hanging it in the air, though it must have been held up by either Shadow Magic or the magic of the necklace itself. While he chanted and waved the Rod around in unknown patterns, an orb of light appear in every corner of the glowing star, each one the color of a different trapped soul. At the same time, Ryou himself began to float few inches above the ground, still in a trance-like state, and it looked as though a field of anti-gravity had been formed just around him. Bakura looked slightly shocked as he noticed this, but after a quick scan over the text on the computer screen, he nodded and continued giving Kaiba instructions.

The priest slowly slipped the sheath off of the knife part of the Rod and made a couple of slashing motions between Ryou and the Sharat Bakra. Then he walked around the floating necklace once between it and Ryou and tapped the necklace three times with the rod. A small orb of gold lightly formed around the Sharat Bakra; then they heard a small explosion and the colored orbs that were the trapped souls flew off into the base.

Bakura ran forward as the golden circle on the floor disappeared and Ryou fell to the ground; the yami caught him before he hit.

Ryou blearily blinked his eyes open, gazing up at Bakura. " 'Kura?"

"That's me. I'm right here, Ryou," Bakura said with a small smile.

"Everyone's gone, 'Kura. They're all free now."

"That's good. You'll be okay, hikari. Why don't you go to sleep?"

Ryou nodded once and promptly passed out. Bakura glanced at Kaiba as he stood up with Ryou in his arms, vaguely amused to see that the brunette's clothes still weren't back to normal.

"Let's go see if everyone's all right."

THE END

Yay! I finished this episode! Hurrah!

Sorry for how late this one is. I had difficulty writing it (though why that is I do not know, for I'd been wanting to write it for a long time).

Now, on to episode ten!