Wah! I'm sorry for not posting a chapter as soon as I had planned it! I've been sluffing off I know. I haven't been sleeping well lately and 1 hour each night just isn't enough to go off of. I'll try a hell of a lot harder to get these chapters in. Gomen ne!

Mariku had surrounded himself in chains with skeletons attached to the links. He had hoped that they could keep him company for the time being. He tried to have a conversation with the old bones, but they couldn't talk back to him; he tried to hold them and have them hold him like when he was with Bakura, but they were brittle, lifeless hugs. It just wasn't the same.

The keeper had already grown bored of this world he was trapped in and he wanted to go home and be with Bakura. He was lonely and longed desperately for physical contact from a living being and not these old brittle bones he had surrounded himself with.

"I wonder what Bakura is doing right now…" he had started to think, and then speaking of Bakura had given him an idea. "I can hack my way into his mind link and speak with him. Maybe he can get me out of here." Mariku said with hope in his tone.

He pushed away the chains and skeletons and closed his eyes peacefully and took a deep breath before attempting to break through in the link.

Hall of Doors

He looked round and was relieved that this place didn't look like the shadow realm, but it wasn't normal either. This place was composed of one very long hallway and what looked to be thousands of doors. Behind each door was a different mind, one for each person in the world, which would explain why there were so many to test.

Mariku sighed and opened the first door and covered his eyes when the bright light hit him like a ton of bricks. He peered out under his arms and saw that this was a child's room, it was decorated just as such. He backed out and closed the door quickly and looked disturbed. He had never seen so much pink in his life or in one room.

He continued onto the next door and opened it slowly now that he was actually afraid something evil might come from within it. He opened it fully and a pile of paper collapsed upon him like a tidal wave. The impact was incredible. He found his way to the surface and found a man sitting at a disk in the flood of paper, crunching numbers as it seemed. "Accountant," he sighed and pushed the paper back into the room and forced the door shut.

"This is going to take forever…." He complained. He had no choice but too continue his search and did so. Each different door he searched seemed as tretcherous as the next and he was growing weary of searching.

He opened another door regretingly and was shocked to see what was inside. It was a maze of stairways and doors. This room was unlike any he had ever seen before. A shadowed figure appeared before him and walked into the light coming from the hall and to Mariku's surprise it was the pharaoh himself and this was his complexing mind that Mariku had stepped into.

Mariku slammed the door in Yami's face and grabbed a chair from the last door and wedged it tightly under the knob so that Yami could not get out of the room. He growled and muttered something like a curse and continued on.

So far he had gone through a grand total of 845 doors and he had, had no such luck as to find Bakura's door to his mind. He was tired of these damn doors and these stupid people that he had come across in his journey down the long hallway. He wanted to go home or at least back to the shadow realm, but it would take him forever to walk back down the way he came to his door at the very end of the hallway.

He walked exhaustedly over to the next door and grasped the door knob only to get a slight shock from it. None of the other doors had done such a thing to him, someone was trying to keep visitors out. Mariku picked at the knob again and received yet another shock.

He smirked playfully at the knob and held out his scythe and hacked away at the knob, but again received a very painful shock to his system. He fell back on the ground, his body smoking from the heat and the continued shocking.

Mariku glared at the knob and was not going to be out smarted by such a stupid thing. He ran back to the last room and grabbed the young man playing his guitar in his mind room. He dragged him back to the door and carefully instructed him to take hold of the door knob and force the door open.

The stupid boy did so and was shocked to no end until he had opened the door. He fell back as a pile of ashen smoking flesh. Mariku thanked the youth and continued inside. The boy gave him at thumbs up, "No prob, bro."

Mariku noticed that this room had a certain darkness to it that none of the other rooms had. The floor was made of sand and the things in this room were made of gold. He cocked his brow and picked up the small golden statue. "Intriguing. Maybe I will take this home with me as a memento of this torture I have endured."

A quick hand stole it away from Mariku and set it back down in its proper place. "Who the hell are you?" The voice said dangerously to him. Mariku smirked and bowed. "It is me, Mariku."

Bakura's Living room

Bakura's eyes shot wide when he heard the voice in his room speak that one name. He felt more at ease now that he knew that Mariku was still alive, but it was odd to him that Mariku had not returned.

Bakura's Mind Room

Bakura lunged at the male to hold him tightly in his arms, but went right through him and fell into the sand. "What the hell?" He looked at his hands and then back at Mariku.

"You idiot, be careful." The spikes and the leather sank into Mariku's body and disapeared from him completely leaving behind the clothing he had been wearing from much earlier. Bakura sat up and looked at him and saw that his body was translucent.

"Well, I'm glad I got your attention. I looked all over this hallway for your fucking door and it took me forever and a day." Mariku complained at him.

"Mariku, how the hell did you get into my room?" Bakura inquired; he stood and brushed the sand from his clothing and stood in front of Mariku desperately wishing he could have reached out and felt his soft skin once again.

"I broke in here. You aren't the only one that is good at that."

"Why are you translucent? Where is your real body?"

"In the Shadow Realm." Mariku replied almost hesitantely.

Bakura glared at him and crossed his arms in a cocky manner. "I knew you would get yourself into some kind of trouble!"

"Yes, but I am not hurt nor am I dead. Just as you told me not to be." Mariku said sarcastically with a smirk on his face.

"Being in the Shadow Realm is fucking worse, you ass." Bakura retorted and wanted to knock Mariku's head cleanly off of his shoulders. "Calm down, Bakura." Mariku rolled his eyes and leaned back against one of the taller statues.

"How can I when you have already gotten yourself into trouble like this," Bakura growled at Mariku and clenched both fists at the other. "Then calm yourself and tell me how to get the hell out of here already." Mariku looked around the room slowly and noticed all of the beautiful golden things from their ancient times.

Bakura's eyes widened again and he just stared stupidly at Mariku. "You don't know how to get out…?" Mariku nodded and shrugged just as stupidly as Bakura was looking at him. "I…How the hell would I know what they are? I don't go there for a nice little walk every damn morning!" Bakura raged at Mariku.

Mariku looked away and realized that this was more of a setback than anything for him. Now who could he rely on? "I assumed that you would, but that was my first mistake." Mariku looked back displeasingly at Bakura who backed away from him slowly. "Don't look at me like that." He stopped and was far enough out of Mariku's glaring reach.

Mariku scratched at the back of his neck and sat down in the sand and leaned back against the wall of the room. "That's a very large set back. I guess that means I'll be in here longer than I had planned for."

"I'm not going to let you stay there. You need to get out of the Shadow Realm, its dangerous." Bakura said almost worried about Mariku. The keeper looked back up at Bakura with a care free smile on his features. "The shadows won't hurt me. I've got things under control."

Bakura frowned at the thought that Mariku had things under control. "Pfft…yeah right," he said sarcastically. "Of course, everything is under your control as usual."

"I don't actually intend on staying in the shadows. It is really boring. At least you spice things up." Mariku sighed and thought to himself for a moment or two. "By the way, how is Ryou doing?"

"He is calming down…but he is still very traumatized."

"Are you hurt?"

"I am fine, I can still feel what Ryou is, but it is nothing that I cannot handle." He said quietly. Bakura sighed and sat down beside the translucent keeper against the wall and looked over to him. "I am more concerned about your current state, and how well you will be in an hour or so. The shadows will slowly squeeze every drop of life out of you. You'll be another puppet under its control."

It was then that Mariku was hit with a truly tired feeling. His body didn't want to do anything but lay there and rest. "I don't remember the shadows ever being this strong…"

"You need all of the help you can get. I'll come for you." Bakura volunteered himself and started to stand. He felt a cold breeze go for his arm and looked down to see Mariku reaching after him. "Don't bother, just stay with Ryou. I'll find my way out."

Mariku was feeling more weak than usual and his translucent form was beginning to fade out. "I can't keep this link up. I love—" Mariku's body faded out before he could finish what he was trying to tell Bakura.

Mariku's real body, which had been left behind in the Shadow Realm, collapsed in a heap on the ground. The shadows were taking their toll on him and he would perish within the next hour.

"I am going to help you whether you want my help or not you stubborn ass." Bakura grabbed his old black trench coat and walked out of the house in search of a proper entrance to the Shadow Realm.

Mariku looked around and tried to stand, but his body was too tired and weak to move of its own accord so he just laid there looking out into the darkness. "I hope he understood me before I faded out." Mariku thought to himself. He felt a sudden pressure in this weakened state and felt as if his chest was going to collapse.

I'll drop it there, and hopefully I can get another chapter in much sooner than I have been. Hope you enjoyed it. Please RxR for those of you who oddly enough still don't know the drill or choose to ignore it. I still need the criticism!