Title: Shadow Wars

Disclaimer: I don't own them and I am not making any money.

The rest of the stuff, everyone probably knows by now

Chapter 16:

Seto was at peace sitting in the depths of his own soul. His back was snug against one male's massive side and the female's head was resting in his lap where he could easily stroke her, the contact reassuring him that she was well. The third white beast lay prone, neck arched over the female's back and tail laying over the other male's hindquarters. The three massive dragons enclosed him in a triangle of affection, their contented purring having long since banished his tension.

"So you killed him? It's really all over?" Seto tilted his head back to look at the dragon upon which he was leaning.

"Yes, master." The bass rumbled, "In the shadow realm the dark magician and we destroyed forever the Devourer of Copses. He will never bother the mortal world again."

With the hand that wasn't stroking the head in his lap, he patted the bass's smooth hide, "So its over. All the bad guys are dead." Every so often, Seto reconfirmed what his dragons had already told him. "And you're back? You're inside me again?"

The tenor wrapped its neck around into a U-shape until he faced Seto. "Master. We are always with you even when our bodies are in the shadow realm. We are you're soul monsters and this is your soul. Our bodies exist in the shadows, but our hearts remain with you."

The female blinked and raised her head from her master's lap. It was time to break the cycle of questions and reassurance. It was time for their master to return to his duties. Sorrowfully she looked down at him. "That is true master, and we wish for you to always be with us but…you know you can't stay with us here, trapped in the deepest confines of your soul, don't you?"

"What?" Seto looked up at her in confusion, "Isn't this my own soul? Am not free to so what makes me happy even here?"

"Of course you are master, but a man's body cannot live forever with his soul in hiding. You must wake and face life. The enemies are dead, but you are far from finished with living."

Seto faltered. He felt safer here than he had since he learned death could take everything from you in an instant, since he learned that circumstance could force a young boy to grow up well before the passing of his childhood. He didn't want to leave. Here in his own mind, he voiced complaints that he would normally stifle, "Far from finished? What is left for me to do? Why can't I stay here with you?"

"Master!" the bass scolded him, "Have you forgotten your responsibilities? Have you forgotten all the good people in your company that count on you to stand between them and the corrupt bureaucrats? Have you forgotten your brother and the two children that love you and need your support? Have you forgotten HIM?" The Dragon put a subtle emphasis on the word him. Unfortunately, subtle emphasis when your 5,000 pounds is booming.

"Him?" Seto's whisper seemed to cut through the clouds of white that surrounded him like a haze. "No, I haven't forgotten him. I will never forget him, but he will soon forget me. He has already declared that he is going to leave me." Seto's eyes pleaded with the creatures, "Thinking about it…it makes me so tired. I am always so tired. Can't someone else carry the burdens that were mine for a while? Can't I stay here with you?"

The dragon's looked at each other before focusing on their master one by one. The bass addressed him. "Have you given up already? Do you have no hope that you can make him stay?"

"Hope!" Seto scoffed as he stood, his peace now completely gone. "How can there be hope? In light of all this." Seto gestured at his surroundings including in his sweep the three monsters staring at him, "how can I continue to deny what he told me in the hospital. Yami is slated to die…again. There is nothing he can do to stop it." Seto turned his back on his dragons, voice straining, "There is nothing I can do to stop it."

The tenor sighed, "There is only nothing left to do when you've given up. If you give up and stay here, you will die, and though that is one way to join him, it is not a course of action I would ever have attributed to you. Self-sacrifice maybe, but not surrender." Seto listened and hung his head in shame. No, not to long ago, it was an option that he would never so much as entertain. Maybe he was getting weak. "No master you are not getting weak." Seto looked startled. He hadn't said that out loud had he? The dragons' eyes sparkled briefly in amusement. "We live inside you master. We can read a thought or two. We understand your weariness and respect it. We still believe, however, that when you remember that for which you fight, you will not choose to bow out of life yet. Here, let me show you something." The dragon knelt, prompting Seto to mount. Seto obliged and immediately was consumed by a feeling of disorientation, of movement without moving, similar to the feeling one got if standing alone in the center of a fast moving elevator. He experienced travel without sight, hearing, or touch…he didn't even feel the figure that he only moments ago straddled. He was sensory blind until…light.

Seto blinked trying to adjust to the burst of light. When he could see again, he noted he was hovering over himself and Yami's bodies both of which were lying side-by-side in his bed. He was sitting on his dragon, which was lightly flapping its wings to stay alight near the skylight in his bedroom. The light arching through the window did not cast their joint shadow to obscure the bed's occupants, however. Instead, it passed through them as if they were not even there. Examining the window briefly, he noted that he needed to have someone come and clean the glass. Returning to his inspection of the room's occupants, he saw that his body above the sheet looked a mess. It was paler than usual, covered in bandages and his arm that was carefully laid, underside facing up, was peppered with an assortment of tubes and needles. Yami, on the other hand, looked much better aside from the addition of a shoulder bandage. He appeared to be almost human again. The fangs were shorter and the nails seemed less like claws. The tattoo on his skin had become practically invisible.

Seto's gaze was drawn to the side of the bed only to raise a metaphysical eyebrow. Sitting on the edge of a chair placed at the bedside to the right of Seto's IV bags was Bakura. The man's elbows were braced on the bed, fingers interlocking to form a base on which Bakura was resting his head. The white haired man seemed to be lost deep in thought. Never in a million years had Seto imagined seeing Bakura guarding his sick bed. Seto's examination of the thief was halted by a tentative knock on the door.

"Come in." Bakura grumbled without looking up. He must know who was at the door if he wasn't jumping to his feet. Bakura tended to be antsy when he didn't know who was approaching him, an artifact of life as a thief Seto supposed.

"How are they doing?" Seto was surprised again by the appearance of another white head. Ryou was here.

Bakura just waggled his head no, never lifting his chin from his folded fingers.

Ryou approached the seated figure and continued in a soft, soothing voice while rubbing random patterns on his boyfriend's hunched back. "I finally got the children to go to bed. They are afraid of losing him. They don't know what to do."

Bakura grunted and Seto was curious. Bakura was usually more vocal than this. A matter of fact, there were times when he had seriously contemplated cutting the other's tongue out only to be stopped by his brothers odd liking for the demented security guard.

"Bakura? Are you sure it's good to have Seto and Yami in the same bed. Don't you think that will upset one of them when they wake up? If you want, we can put them in separate rooms and I'll watch one of them."

"That's not an issue, Ryou. Neither will ever know." Seeing the question in his boyfriend's face he headed off the question with a torrent of nonsense. "I'm looking forward to seeing Se…Kaiba pissed off. Let him blow a gasket when he sees Yami beside him. Anyway, this bed is huge…"

"Bakura."

"I mean, just look at it. It's monstrous, positively obscene. I mean it would be perfect if he ever threw a good orgy but…"

"Honey."

"Look at it. If it was a water bed, we could bury the bottom in the back yard, cut off the top, and have an in ground pool."

"Bakura!" Ryou yelled right into his boyfriend's face.

"Geez! Watch the ears. I would like to use them at another date you know. Anyway, you really shouldn't yell. I called you over here to help with the brats. Your not helping if you wake them back up."

"Enough ignoring the subject Bakura. What did you mean when you said them being in bed together wasn't an issue?"

Ryou just shook his head at his boyfriend's distraction tactics. Bakura sighed and tried once more to cover up his mistake. "They're lovers okay…sweethearts. They have been since ancient Egypt."

Ryou rolled his eyes and pushed Bakura back in his chair. Carefully, he settled sideways onto his boyfriend's lap. "I know that Bakura. I'm not blind. They've always been like that and they still wouldn't want to wake up next to each other…not yet. Neither is ready for that kind of vulnerability." Gently he rested his forehead against Bakura's looking deep into the others eyes, "That's not what you meant anyways. You lived in my soul remember. I know when you're hiding something from me."

Bakura growled quietly, "You're a pain in my ass, you know that."

Ryou just smirked, "Yes, and you love me for it. Now tell me what's going on."

Bakura, the eternal sneak tried one more evasion. "You don't want to know."

Ryou, the saint of patience, persevered. "Tell me anyway."

Bakura pursed his lips as he butted Ryou's forehead away, "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you." Bakura started to knead Ryou's thigh, a nervous habit of his, "It's not an issue because Yami is not likely to survive long enough for Seto to wake up and see him there."

"What?" Ryou shot out of Bakura's lap dislodging the others grip.

"I told you. I told you that you didn't want to know." Bakura raked finger's through his hair frustrated at his helplessness and angry that he cared, "Yami's body is made from materials in the shadow realm. If he gets too much power, he losses his soul and If he gets too little power, he losses his body. Last night he almost lost his soul."

Bakura stood and paced to the other side of the bed where he promptly pulled the sheet which had been neatly tucked up to the sleeping figure's armpits down the figure's knees. Ryou narrowed his eyes.

"I am not ogling his body." Bakura snapped. He was tired and not ready to deal with the other's, admittedly justifiable, distrust. "You see that pattern, the one that's almost gone now."

Now curious, Ryou approached the bed and studied the prone man. "Yes. What about it?"

"That is the sign that Yami is turning into a shadow monster. Humans that turn into shadow monsters change form. That is the major change that Yami started to undergo. If the pattern had turned completely black and had covered Yami's entire chest and back, he would have been beyond help." Bakura waved his arms about in aimless emphasis, "That almost happened. The pattern was complete everywhere except for a small section above his heart. If the pattern succeeded in covering that too, he asked me to kill him." Bakura threw the sheet back over Yami until it practically covered the man's face before he stomped over to the window to gaze at the lawn outside, "I'm the King of Theives, not the King of Killers. Not that I would mind killing him but I damn well won't do just because he ordered me to."

Ryou carefully fixed Yami's sheet before walking up to his Koi's back, gently placing a hand on one bent shoulder.

Roughly Bakura shrugged him off, his voice oddly choked, "I'm only angry because it didn't happen. I wanted to kill that smug bastard okay. Really, I did."

Ryou leaned his whole body against Bakura's back, arms wrapping around his waist, "I know Koi, I know."

"You know, he's still gong to die. Before the portal closed, he had too much shadow magic. Now, he has to little. He is sustained only by what is stored in his body and that supply dwindles every second. If he hadn't been so saturated by power in the battle, he would probably already be dead. On the up side, at least he's cosmetically superior again…stupid multi-colored, spiky-haired asshole." Bakura uttered every sentence methodically, apathy coloring even the insult.

"How long?" Ryou asked.

"I estimate twenty-four hours tops, if I don't smoother him first."

"Is there nothing we can do?"

Bakura let out an embittered laugh, "The only thing we can do is hope that the bastard doesn't figure out how to help himself. I guess I finally have a reason to pray."

Ryou stood straight. He knew his Koi didn't mean that. He just didn't express grief well. Time to change the subject. "The raid was successful. We found the complex under the orphanage. Yugi, Joey and the rest of the gang are all there trying to help the children through the chaos that's inevitably ensued. Seto's lawyers are out in force. It was a good thing you did, using the proxy authority Seto gave you to save those children."

Bakura was back to grunting and Seto was back to blinking rapidly. Bakura saved the children under the orphanage. Even he had forgotten that…and after his promise to Seth.

"We told them that it was Seto, Yami, and Bakura that saved them. You have a few worshippers now."

Ryou smiled as color filled Bakura's cheeks, "Great! That is just what I've always wanted. Just call me god of the demented brats." Under his breath he whispered, "Like I need a horde of midgets worshipping me. The little girl is bad enough."

"How is Seto? Mokuba will wake up soon and I am sure he'll have a million questions. I mean he's waking up to a whole new family unit. The paper work is complete and the two are officially Kaiba's regardless of what happens."

Bakura turned around and hugged Ryou too him. Pout evident in his voice if not on his face. Seto gagged. "You always worry about everyone but me. He's fine. He probably won't wake before Mokuba, but he'll wake up eventually."

Ryou hid a chuckle in the other's shoulder. What a big baby. "What do you mean I don't worry about you? Why would I need to worry about the King of Thieves?"

Bakura continued to pout, "You never even asked me what I was doing while the undead were raining from the sky. I don't have my ring anymore you know. I can only kill so many monsters with my bare hands. The only reason I was fine was because that stupid gold dragon of Yami's took it into it's head that I was a fortress that needed guarding."

"And did you need guarding?" Ryou teased.

Bakura growled again, "Of course I needed bloody guarding. Over half the damn things on the roof thought of me as dinner and my only allay was my worst-enemy-turning-monster. Geez, one would think you wanted me eaten."

"Don't be ridiculous love," Ryou thumped Bakura's chest, "The only one allowed to eat you is me."

Voice dry, Bakura replied, "Great, I am so reassured."

"Talking about the battle, did you ever find out why the Devourer was on the roof? Why not just hide in the shadows until the damage was done? Why push a confrontation?"

Bakura shrugged, "Who knows? Shadow monsters are confrontational by nature. Maybe he came out because he wanted revenge on Yami and maybe he was an idiot. The most likely possibility was he knew we were gathering information and he wasn't sure that we weren't capable of stopping him. Therefore he decided to take care of us himself. After all, all other attempts at taking only Kaiba's life had failed. Now he was looking at taking out three of us."

"True."

"See master. People are waiting for you. Your brother will wake soon, your children are scared, and even your head of security seems worried. Do you really want to stay with us until your body dies?"

Seto sighed and his shoulders slumped, "I guess that's not really like me, is it? No. I suppose I have to go back to my family with or without Yami."

The beast laughed at him and Seto was affronted, "Why don't you try with him first."

Seto's vision again became blurry as the sensation of movement returned. When his vision cleared, he was in front of a massive brick wall. This wall put the wall of china to shame. It seemed to stretch on forever both upward and outward.

"You know what the wall is don't you?"

"No, a matter of fact I don't." Seto was becoming slightly frustrated, "Do you recognize that all of you ask me a ton of questions?"

"Of course master. We are just here to guide you through the depths of your soul. We are helping you find the answers you already have. For instance, you should know this wall since it was you that built it to keep happiness out."

"To keep happiness out? You can't be part of my soul and honestly be that hokey," Regardless of his protestations, Seto studied the wall. He did know what it was. It was the wall he had built around his heart and mind to keep Yami out. Damn…he was a really good builder. Maybe he should go into construction.

"Can we get over it?" Seto asked eyes looking up and seeing no end to the wall.

"We can if you want to? It is your soul. Do you know whose on the other side?"

"Yes." Seto closed his eyes. No matter how much he objected, he wanted to see Yami again, even if it was only in his mind. "Take me up."

Again, Seto felt the displacement. When his senses returned, he saw that he was standing on a ledge at the top of the wall, the dragon flying behind him. In front of him, he saw the sandy plains of Egypt, their vastness interrupted only by a single pyramid, an arid breeze throwing golden strands into the otherwise clear air. "I have to go master. I cannot travel into that man's soul. Good luck to you."

"Wait!" Seto stopped the beast's departure. "Where is he? How do I find him?" Looking around him, "How the hell do I get down?"

"Jump, master. It is his world. If he does not want you hurt, you will not be. Sometimes you must trust in others enough to leap blindly. Goodbye master." The dragon's voice echoed back to Seto as it flew away.

"Jump blindly huh." Seto shifted from foot to foot nervously. How long had it been since he had trusted anyone blindly. Was he willing to place that much trust in Yami. Did he want to see the other that much? Seto answered himself. Yes. Yes he did. After all, his dragon was his soul monster and he was the one that told him to leap. That means that he really wants to right? Before he could have any further second thoughts, Seto closed his eyes and leaped. For a moment, his body felt weightless.

Startled, Seto opened his eyes to see a complete change of scenery. He was inside the most famous M. C. Escher painting ever completed, the one with all the stairs. All around him were stairs and doors traveling in impossible directions, up, down, sideways and diagonal. More importantly though, Yami wasn't here. Apparently, the other didn't want to hurt him but he also didn't want to be found. Well screw him. He said he loved him and he did not just jump into the jackass's soul to be ignored. Angrily, Seto shoved open the door closest to him and stormed in only to promptly fall through the floor as it collapsed beneath him. A hand on his wrist halted his rapid descent.

Effortlessly, Yami pulled Seto up onto solid ground, "Seto? Is that you?"

"What the fuck kind of soul room is this? Was that the room representing all the holes in your head?" Seto yelled at his rescuer and winced. He didn't mean to start this conversation on such a friendly footing.

Yami looked exasperated. Dryly he confirmed, "It is you." Studying the other man, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Seto blushed and walked back into the Escher room, "What do you mean 'what am I doing here?' I'm here to get your lazy ass of course. It's time for you to wake up so I can get back to my business. Don't be such an ass."

"You're being repetitive," Yami taunted lightly, back leaning against the threshold of the door in which he was standing. "You said I was an ass twice in a row."

Seto glared, "Well some things are worth repeating no matter how obvious."

"What a charming man, son. I see why you love him."

Seto spun to look for the source of the voice. It was beautiful. There she was, seated on a throne, delicate legs crossed at the ankle. She was stunning and her resemblance to Yami was obvious. Her hair was long, straight and mostly black. The black had a single burgundy streak that fell across the left side of her face and a single blond streak tucked behind her right ear. A simple coronet adorned her brow, its fragile point dipping between two pencil-fine, perfectly arched eyebrows.

It was easy to miss her at first, what with all the other…the room was just distracting as hell to look at. It was giving him a headache and he wasn't even in his own head. Shouldn't it be giving Yami his headache then?

"Mother? Why was it that Seto was led into a trap in my own mind?"

Seto watched as Yami aimed a level gaze at the woman who immediately looked guilty. Bitch. The woman was a beautiful bitch.

"It was for your own good. Look at what happened because you didn't forget about him last time you died. You stared at him everyday religiously, almost as if he was the god. You left paradise to go save him and you almost became a monster."

Seto stared at the regal figure with whom he had reluctantly fallen in love. The man did leave paradise for him. Technically, he always knew that but he hadn't really examined it. Yami left paradise to come be with him, even though he knew it would only be for a short time. Maybe the other really didn't want to leave him…maybe.

Seto, quite frankly, ogled the small man as he walked up to the seated woman, kilt-like thing swishing to tease bronze legs, chest naked and oiled to a sheen. Stopping in front of her, Yami knelt to place his head in her lap. Seto was left visualizing a few scenarios where the small man knelt in front of him. Although, in these scenarios, Yami's head wasn't lying idle.

"Mother, why can't you understand? Why can't you help me find a way to stay alive? I will come back to you some day." Seto stared wide-eyed at the pleading tone of voice. He'd never heard that type of pleading from Yami. Well, there was that time but that had been more like desperate commands than pleading. Even the word Please uttered in a certain voice was a demand.

Seto looked up at the woman's face and he couldn't stop his heart from going out to her. She looked like she had just lost a loved one…or like she was about to. Seto fought down jealousy as the woman softly stroked Yami's hair. He didn't feel right about intruding on this for some reason. Seto lowered his eyes to study his feet and time passed.

Later, Seto wasn't sure how much time had passed exactly, the woman gently lifted Yami's chin so that he could look into her eyes. "Follow me." She ordered before standing and walking away. Seto waited for Yami to disappear from his sight forever and was surprised with what happened. Yami turned to face him and held out an open hand.

"Come with me." The words were neither demand nor plea. They simply were. Seto complied. He drifted smoothly across the room to take the other's hand. Looking over Yami's shoulder, he saw what was hidden from his view earlier by the weird configuration of the room and his position in it. Underneath one stairway was an archway. Through the archway, a paradise of green valleys and wild flowers was visible. Faintly, he heard the tinkling of water and his nose was assaulted by the scents of a hundred different exotic blooms. More fantastic than the valley however, was the isolated stairway that traveled up into a pure azure sky like Jacob's latter. The steps were seemingly disguised as clouds; their color a luminescent pure white. Taken aback, Seto allowed Yami to lead him onto the stairway only to have it light up where either of them stepped on it. Slowly, the stairway began to move. Cool. He was on an escalator to heaven. I guess only hell is made up of unending stairs. Looking back he remembered the layout of Yami's soul room and winced. Oops.

"Where are we going?" Seto whispered to Yami, uncomfortable with blindly following anyone for long.

Yami looked back at him and gave him an indulgent smile. "Don't know. Towards hope I guess.'

Seto looked skeptical, "Towards hope huh. I Hope you put a time limit on this outing. I'd hate to be at this forever."

Yami let go of the other's hand and placed the palm on Seto's cheek. Yami, who was standing one step above Seto, was, for once, eye to eye with the taller man. "I don't ever want to leave you." Seto looked on in wonder as a single tear traced down Yami's face before the other reclaimed his hand and faced the front again. "For that reason, I search for hope."

Seto's finger's convulsed in the other's grip. Was it really so bad to hope. Maybe he would. Maybe he could risk hoping for a good outcome to all this chaos. Consciously, he tightened his grip on Yami's hand. Again, a long time passed and Seto could swear they were leaving the earth's atmosphere but he felt no heat, no pain, and no pressure. Instead, he found himself increasingly surrounded by the stars. Black velvet, eternal night enveloped him in its majesty. He felt himself become disoriented. He was actual becoming used to the temporary disengagement of the senses that occurred on a regular basis for spirits if his own experiences were anything to go by.

This time when his eyes came into focus, he found himself in a palace unlike any he had ever seen. The floor was the night sky, black embedded with twinkling diamonds. To his left and right, pillars soured, each composed of swirls or stardust. They reminded him of the designs caught in the small rubber balls children periodically bought and destroyed. Leaning his head all the way back, he saw an arched ceiling covered in living murals and golden rain, meteor's dancing across the arch and different constellations moving to chase them around the ceiling. At the end of the hall was a bright light, one to brilliant to look at directly.

"Where are we?" a reverent sound passed Seto's lips.

"Shhhh. Kneel. We are in the presence of my father." Yami knelt and dragged Seto down using his current death grip on his hand as leverage. Luckily, the other was captivated enough by his surroundings that he complied without thought.

" Father, I respectfully request…"

"I know what you want." Seto froze. He thought his dragon's voice was booming. This one easily put the angry roar of a volcano to shame. Fortunately, the being did not sound angry. Seto went to look towards the light only to have his head shoved down by Yami.

Urgently Yami whispered, "Please."

Slanting a glare at the young man, he nonetheless complied and kept his head down. The next thing he knew, the air was filled with booming laughter. A meteor fell out of the ceiling and impacted one of the pillars, throwing sparks. Seto watched as it pressed against the surface, slowly moving through it until it could fly neatly into the night sky. "I see your dragon has not changed."

Seto bristled at being called anyone else's anything but again he kept his silence.

"I hear you again desire a body, son. Do you desire to leave us so badly?"

Respectful and humble Yami was a sight that Seto never thought he would see but here he was in full glory, "No, father. Of course not. I would never want to leave you. Rather, I want to go to him."

Again with the laughter, "I should not have made my sons politicians. I have little time." Becoming serious, the voice asked, "You now know the rules Yami. What is it that you have which you will give up? What material do you want me to use to make your new body?"

"Great and Honorable father, I was hoping that you could suggest something to me. Is there something that you would have of me?"

The light seemed to expand across the floor until it encompassed the two kneeling figures. "You have already served me well my son. There is nothing more I need of you. If you cannot think of anything, then I cannot help you."

"Now wait a minute." Seto surged to his feet, carefully avoiding eye contact with whatever was at the end of the hallway, "You just said he served you well. What's wrong with you?"

Seto fell harshly to the ground as Yami swept his feet out from under him. Frantically, Yami jumped his lover and covered his mouth with his hand, "Father forgive him. He doesn't know to who he speaks."

Again the laughter filled the air but this time it was darker, "He knows son, and he simply refuses to accept. For you, I will excuse him. That does not mean that I can help you. I am sorry my child. His responsibilities will be over in one mortal lifetime. I can promise to bring him to you once his time is over. That is all."

Seto struggled and Yami mourned. There was no way.

"Husband?" Yami and Seto looked at Isis. "There is one thing he could offer if you would allow." Seto stared incredulously at the woman who had led him into a trap a short while ago. Why was she helping now? He didn't trust her. Suddenly he felt a whisper across the top of his mind, "A bitch will do anything to help her child." Seto's eyes widened at the surreptitious smile the woman slid his way. She had heard that comment?

"Are his memories of his time spent with me not of great value?"

"Mother!" Yami yelled and rolled off Seto to rush to her side, "What are you saying?"

"You know what I am saying love. You asked me if there was a way and now I am showing it to you. Do not deny me this right. This will be the last gift I will be able to give you for a long while I think." Isis caressed her son's cheek. "You must also relinquish something of value to you for the body to attach to your soul. You'll have to forget that time as well."

Seto watched the war on his lovers face. Yami was being put in the horrible position of having to choose between his lover and his mother. Seto starred at the pain in the other's face and body and he couldn't take it. Life was not worth this cost. The voice was correct. They would be joined again someday. Seto wiped annoyed at a tickle on his face smearing moisture in his arms wake. Great, now the sky was leaking. "I can't allow you do that."

Isis looked over at the tall young man her son had always loved; his back was straight and his posture regal despite the tears streaking his face. Actually, it was very easy to see why her son loved this boy. She leaned down to kiss her son's cheek. "Do not sorrow my love. This simply means we will have a new beginning the next time you come to this world. Promise me that you will give up that small time we had together."

Yami nodded slowly, "I promise…and I promise that the next time we met, we will have even better times."

His mother laughed through the tears drowning her voice. Quietly she whispered to him, "How could it not be better? Next time I will have two sons to hassle instead of just one." She walked away from her son and stopped in front of Seto, the superior expression held by noblesse for centuries stamped on her face, "Boy, you are in no position to allow or not allow anything." She watched his ire rise with some amusement. She was grateful to him for lightening her heavy heart. Patting his cheek, she said gently, "Practice now listening to your mother, for next time that I see you, you will be one of my sons." Without further ado she walked into the light.

Yami's cheeks were streaked with tears as he ran into Seto's stunned arms. How could one be happy and sad at the same time? Suddenly a voice cut through his sorrow.

"Your and you're mother's sacrifice is noble, but it is not enough. Your time together was too short. I am sorry my son. Is there nothing else you can offer?"

"What?" Yami whispered in a choked voice. "You have to be kidding me."

Seto's eyes blazed in fury as he shouted towards the light. "Can't you see the pain you've caused him? How can you do this to your own son? How can the memories of his mother not be considered valuable enough? Maybe you should be banished to the Shadow Realm you monster."

Without any warning, the heat in the room became excruciating. Seto and Yami screamed in agony as they felt their skin coming to a boil only for coolness to return to their surroundings moments later. "That is your only warning cocky one. If there is nothing else…"

The voice paused as childlike whispers floated through the room. One after another, each with a solemn prayer and a sweet offering invaded the room's space and interrupted its stillness.

"Dear Miss Birdy Angel, please help Mr. Yams and Sets. If you do I'll give you Mr. Buttons…"

"God lady, take my favorite comb and help the nice people who set us free.."

"Dreamy person, I don't have much since I'm not very important but I do remember a nurse that used to sing me to sleep. You can have that memory if you help our helpers."

"I remember my sissies face before she was all burnt up. You can have that since you says I can see her gain somewhere cause she is waitin for me."

Soon, children's prayers filled the room, each more poignant than the last, each freely offering valued possessions or thoughts in an effort to help their saviors.

"What's going on?" Seto was getting tired of asking that question but he was truly lost in this kind of world.

Yami looked up at him in stunned amazement. It's the children Seto…the children Hydra trapped. My mother must have visited them in their dreams. She must have told them to pray for us, to offer willingly what they would to help us."

"You have got to be kidding." Seto continued to cling to his love as the voices bombarded his senses. So many young children were giving freely, without coercion of any kind and they were doing it for him, someone they had never met before. Did this kind of thing really happen?

"The floor vibrated with the next proclamation, "It is more than enough. I will see you when your time comes again. Until then, live well."

The floor disappeared again, a bad habit of floors around these damn places, and Seto was falling, Yami still clasped tightly in his arms. He blacked out.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Seto blinked, waking slowly. He was in desperate need of coffee, but god, he didn't want to move to get it himself. Slowly he rolled to the side to look at his alarm clock only to see a mop of white hair spread across his comforter. What the fuck? Bakura was sitting by his bed, head resting on its surface, soft snores escaping his lips. Confused, Seto noticed numerous IV stands occupying the space usually occupied by his nightstand, loose needles were lying next to him. Slowly he turned to look at the rest of the room only to note that he had another bed partner. The events of the last, however long it had been, flooded his mind. Anxiously, he shot up in bed and shook the figure next to him, whispering, "Yami…Yami wake up."

Groggily, Yami opened his eyes, "Wha…"

In an excited whisper, "Yami, you have your own body now, right! You're really alive." Seto watched as sharpness and intelligence returned to Yami's gaze. He allowed himself to savoir the others appearance as the man basically felt up his own body.

"Yes. Yes I do!" Yami proclaimed to Seto's shushing. Bakura stirred but fell back asleep.

Yami threw himself into the others arms, effectively knocking Seto onto his back, Yami's torso covering the taller figure like a blanket. Seto marveled at how painless his own body felt. It seemed that this latest little bit of magic…yes magic, in his life had done more than just grant his lover a body.

"I will never leave you my dragon. Never again will I make that mistake. I love you so much."

Seto felt himself start to restrain his own joy when he heard voices in his head, telling him to trust blindly, to take the leap. For once, he took his own advise and reached for happiness, "I love you too Yami."