(I don't own Yu-gi-oh, or any mythology located within this story)

"Well, we're finally here. See, Honda? I told you just sailing to Rome would be much easier and faster than riding there."

"Yeah, except for that pirate situation we had somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. That was entirely avoidable," scowled Honda at his Egyptian companion.

"Why do you keep laying the blame on me, it was your damn fault," retorted Malik.

Honda looked around, and seeing a sign that pointed to the location of their target cathedral, he began to walk in the said direction. "Ah, never mind. Why did Kaiba have the stupid Egyptian travel with me, why not Jou?"

"Because Seto didn't want two stupid idiots messing up an important task, both the blondie and you have the combined IQ of a doorknob."

Honda clenched his fists. "I've been exhibiting restraint from the great urge to pound you to a pulp. If you continue to tempt me I will be happy to unleash my anger upon said self."

"Wow, that's the first time you've actually said an intelligible sentence. Nah, I'm wasting my time to fight a loser like yourself. It'll be over in ten seconds flat."

"What are ya talking about you piece of Egyptian crap, my grand mom could beat up your ass handily."

Malik raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so you've lost to your grandmother in a fighting match?"

The pair to argue violently back and forth while still walking toward their destination. Slowly but surely, the towers of St. Peter's Basilica were soon within sight, able to be seen in the far reaches of the ancient city.

"Well, Bakura? Do you think you're ready?" Seto asked as he walked, his anxious fingers stroking the shimmering metal of his twin rapiers.

"Hell yeah. I'm ready to rip out that vampire's throat after what he did to Ryou," replied the white-haired vampire angrily. "By why did you have to send two pathetic humans to retrieve the panacea, why not me or something?"

"Because we need you to help us defeat 'him', we need to be certain that we can defeat this malice."

"Don't worry then. It'll be my pleasure to kill this vampire personally."

Seto nodded. "We do need to be careful though, because 'he' is a great vampire fighter, probably more powerful than any of us. We'll also need to......... What the hell was that?"

The sound of a huge blast deafened the air, causing Bakura and Seto to gaze around nervously. Since the explosion seemed to have originated at the Khurkvan cemetery, the two vampires began running in that direction.

Upon reaching their target destination, they found pieces of smoldering metal, all that was left of the metal gates that blocked the entrance to the inner reaches of the cemetery. "Well, I guess Yami has had some anger management issues since we last saw him," Bakura muttered.

They proceeded cautiously into the cemetery, glancing around tombstones and grave markers. "Hey, Seto. Did that letter mention anything about WHERE in the cemetery we were supposed to meet? Any place in this cemetery is creepy enough to meet with 'him'."

"I have no fucking idea about where we're supposed to go, so shut it Kura. We just have to follow Yami's energy trail, that's all."

"The time's fifteen-before-six, so we have some time before "he" gets here," murmured Bakura. "Oh yeah, Seto; who exactly are we up against? I've fought the werewolf Ryuuji before, but who is this big mastermind person?"

Seto's pupils glazed over as he recounted his past. "Actually 'he' was once a normal human being who lived five thousands years ago, during the same time when Yami and I's pre-vampire selves existed. He was the son of a priest in the Pharaoh's royal council, the same council of which I was High Priest. The pharaoh at the time as you know was Atemu, or the pre-Yami human. And of course, you had to be that blasted tomb robber who kept on pestering us."

"Hey, back in those days a guy had to make living for himself, legal or not. Besides, I ended up being a vampire too," replied Bakura.

"Yeah, well, I guess people who lived in those times had a higher chance than others to be reborn as vampires. Unfortunately, 'he' had it much worse. He was bitten by the vampire Dracula, but you know him by Pegasus, who performed the baptism of blood upon the boy's poor soul. As you know that specific ritual will let the initiator of the ritual control any newborn vampire when that vampire is created. He became Pegasus' servant, bidding upon his every whim."

(The 'baptism of blood' was a ritual that vampires used for humans to create more vampires. A human is bitten by a vampire, but does not die from blood loss. Instead, after a few days the human will become a newborn vampire. However, after that the human is forced to drink the vampire initiator's blood, killing the human. The human is then reborn as a vampire.)

"Ugh, poor kid." Bakura grimaced at hearing of the vampire's unfortunate fate.

"When the ritual was inflicted upon him all traces of the good-natured human I knew was gone, and a blood-thirsty vampire took his place. 'He' fought against the ritual as hard as he could, but failed. There could have been hope to save him when Pegasus was killed, but he already drank the blood of a human being, combusting the idea of changing him back to a human. This vampire then became Pegasus' shadow, even revoking his own name to be known by the former Dracula's nicknames, such as 'The Impaler'."

"Then what was this vampire's real name?"

"His former human name was Marik, though he barely even recognizes it now. In one of his bloodlust rampages, he killed the lover of Yami, and he and Yami fought. The rest is history." Seto stopped walking. "And over there, I believe, is Yami."

Yami sat upon an unmarked gravestone, his eyes shielded so no one could determine his emotions that were noticeable within his eyes. His beautiful tri-colored hair had been dampened by the many days of rain. Even his deep voice was strained and unnaturally cracked when he spoke to them. "Kaiba, Bakura, what are you doing here? You have to get out of here now."

Bakura raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think we'll leave? I didn't come all this way here to Khurkvan for nothing."

Yami slowly got up from his position and walked straight up to Bakura, both of their eyes meeting. Yami's crimson eyes were even redder from many days of no sleep and crying, Bakura noticed. His face also seemed to exude an aura of depression. "This is a private between me and him, please do not interfere. Go now or I will force you to leave."

Bakura's eyes gleamed red, with a quick movement he had hoisted up Yami by his neck collar. "Listen you damn Pharaoh, I have better things to do than to listen to that shit. Ryou's dying and I aim to blast apart that guy who did it to him; if I have to get past you to do that then I will."

Before Yami could respond, Seto interrupted him as well. "Do you seriously think Yami, that you can rescue Yugi all by yourself? I have been looking for you all these days, trying to find you, except I couldn't. Now do you expect me after finally finding you to just let you walk to your death?"

However, the crimson-eyed vampire was still unfazed. "I'm very sorry about Ryou, Bakura, but I have to do this alone. I will not drag you two into..................." Yami's voice trailed off as he caught sight of an eavesdropper sitting upon another gravestone before him.

"Ah, finally you've finished arguing. May I join the party?" Out of the shadows a vampire stepped out, causing all three vampires to hastily draw their weapons. The vampire was an Egyptian, his skin dark from the scorching of the great sun. His hair was wild, his blond hairs jutting out in abnormal ways. Dark marks adorned the vampire's eyes, the pupils itself narrow, dull, and sinister.

Yami took a step toward the Egyptian vampire. "Here I am, where's Yugi?"

The vampire's violet eyes gleamed dangerously at Yami. "If you expect me to just give you him outright, you're wrong. You know what of which thing I want, give me the item if you wish to receive Yugi back to you."

Now it was Yami's turn to be confused. "What the fuck are you talking about, what do you want from me?"

Marik growled; his teeth grated together like a saw. "Are you as dumb as you look? You know damn well I mean the Millennium Puzzle, now hand it over!"

"Why you think that I have the item, I haven't seen it!"

Narrowing his eyes even further than they already were, Marik replied, "I went to retrieve The Puzzle once my body had been reformed, but the item had been already taken. Only you could have done it, you knew where it was located. Exactly where we had left it."

"Or not! I haven't seen The Puzzle and I don't know where the fuck it currently is, get that into your thick skull."

"Do you arguing vampires mean this?" Bakura had sheathed an item from his cloak, laying an object of brilliant golden radiance upon a tomb marker. Yami gaped. "All this time you have had The Puzzle, Bakura, and you didn't tell me about it?" roared the angry crimson-eyed vampire.

Bakura ignored Yami's rants and instead turned to Marik. "Here's the deal, you give us Yugi, and we give you this item."

"Of course," came the reply.

Seto was infuriated. "Where the fuck has your brain gone, Bakura? You are really willing to GIVE that item to that mad vampire? Do you know what he could do with The Puzzle in his possession?"

Bakura nonchalantly tossed the item to Marik, much to both Seto and Yami's surprise and fear. Seto grabbed a slightly smiling Bakura and started throttling him. Marik turned The Puzzle over, only to find............."

"There's a piece missing Bakura, where is it? I don't have time for hide-and-seek games. Hand it over now."

(Did you actually think that Bakura was THAT evil, and was going to betray Seto and Yami? Well, actually............ Never mind........)

Bakura then bared his teeth, spitting to the ground on the side of him. "Give us Yugi; then you will receive what's coming to you. You will not get the puzzle piece out of me, without giving us Yugi first." Marik's fists clenched until it turned white from the pressure. "Fine then, as you wish," growled the ancient vampire.

In a moment Marik had reached behind him and materialized a certain boy with tri-colored hair and amethyst eyes. With a grunt, he heaved Yugi cruelly upon the ground, the boy's battered body smashing upon the dirt until he came to a rest before the three vampires' feet.

"Yugi!" Yami immediately rushed over to Yugi, turning the boy over onto his back. Yugi seemed unmoving, so Yami placed a healing hand upon the young boy's forehead. Yami's eyes brightened with color as he felt a pulse, as well as HUMAN blood coursing through Yugi's veins. Only then to hear a small choked whisper from the bundle of tri-colored hair.

"Get away from me you vampire."

Fear gripped Yami's heart, his face turning ghost white, as did Bakura and Seto's features. "P-please Yugi, I'm s-sorry.

Yugi's body suddenly trembled with rage, and with a furious yell had jumped away from his former lover. Yugi's normally amethyst eyes were now tainted with anger and hurt, the mere sight of Yugi's pupils drove a guilty hole right through Yami's heart.

"Y-yugi, please listen to me, I'm sorry."

The normal cheery and loving voice of Yugi that Yami had known so well had vanished, an angry tone filled with pain and frustration had taken its place. "No, Yami. It is I who should be sorry. Sorry that I was so foolish to love a vampire, a monster; who would only suck the blood clean out of me. At first I couldn't believe it. I thought that you weren't the kind to betray me. I guess I was wrong."

Yami was desperate; he could see that he was losing control of Yugi very quickly. "Onegai, Yugi, Onegai. I would never hurt you, please. Please, you have to believe me."

Yugi snorted with contempt. "And what then Yami? Listen to more of your cleverly-made lies? I trusted you completely Yami, and you have broken that trust utterly. And to believe I actually was in true love with you. Get away from me Yami, I never want to see you again, or I will kill you myself."

With those words, Yugi took off in a dead sprint away from Yami, tears forming around the edges of those amethyst eyes.

Yami slumped to the ground, his chest hurting with the pains of his despair and loss. A river of tears began to flow from Yami's hurt eyes; hope of forgiveness had deserted the poor vampire.

Incensed, Seto turned to Marik. "What the hell did you tell the poor boy?"

"Everything that truthful Kaiba," Marik gave a beaming smile. "Bakura, now give me the remaining piece, that was indeed the bargain wasn't it?"

Bakura slowly nodded his head, his hand fumbled within cloak for an item. "Well, I did say I'll give you what's coming to you, so THERE!"

The chocolate-eyed vampire threw a capsule directly at the Egyptian vampire, which proceeded to detonate right before Marik's face. A huge ball of green energy blasted Marik away, while Bakura grabbed Yami and directed all three of them to flee, the pockets of Bakura still containing the last Millennium Puzzle piece. "Okay now, time to run!"

An unhurt Marik slowly picked himself off the ground, cleaning the dirt off his clothes. "So Bakura, that's how you want to play. Here, in this cemetery, I will make sure that you all will perish. His eyes started brimming with a greenish glow.

The dirt before the gravestones started to sift.

Like always, PLZ REVIEW PLEASE! I need to know what others think about my story.