Notes: As you all know, this story has been grievously stalled lately. Aubrie (author Yaminah Tashanazi) is not willing to let it continue happening. Therefore, we have decided to make this a collaboration. The following chapter was written by both of us, with the first and last segments being mainly of Aubrie's creation, with alterations and the other two scenes written by me. Expect this sort of thing to continue for the remainder of the fic. Thank you and enjoy!

EDIT: As per Yaminah's suggestion, I should state that Tazi is her character. No stealing!

As half the lights came back on, Yugi and Téa continued to stare at the organ. Everything looked untouched, as though the musical instrument had truly been playing on its own. Murmurs spread across the stage and they could hear Gerald yelling angrily somewhere in the audience seating. Atemu appeared beside Yugi to take his own study of the organ. The glow of the Puzzle dimmed while the other half of the lights flickered back to life. Everything upon the stage was bathed in the light so that nothing could be hidden.

"Well, this certainly goes under strange," Téa commented sarcastically. She then turned to look at the rest of the stage and its occupants. "Is everyone okay?" Yugi took a quick glace to the stage before going back to inspect the organ.

"Nothing looks out of place," he said to himself and somewhat to his other half. Atemu nodded in agreement as he lightly touched the keys. They gave under his touch and released soft, eerie sounds.

The former Pharaoh continued his investigation with the music book. The booklet was open to the first half of Angel of Music. He carefully picked it up and caught a small piece of paper as it slipped out from the beginning end of the book. At first, Atemu figured it was just a note the organist had made to herself for a difficult part, but then he turned it over.

"Yugi," Atemu said as he held the slip of paper to him. "You may wish to take a look at this." Yugi took it and looked to his partner curiously.

"What is it?" Yugi's eyes widened as Atemu pointed to the note.

Your destruction will be my pleasure! I suggest you take heed of my warnings.

Or don't, it doesn't matter to me in the least!

-T.G.

"Not another one!" he cried. His shoulders slumped with a heavy sigh. "This is just what we need. . . ." Obviously things were only going to get worse from here on out, the boy decided pessimistically. After all, that was the way things usually went, was it not? Never a moment's peace. It all got frustrating after a while. Even mild-tempered Yugi could reach a breaking point, and he felt that he was almost at it.

Atemu nodded absent mindedly. His index finger had caught the page from which the note had fallen. It was no surprise to find it to be the page of The Phantom of the Opera theme and opening. He frowned at it and closed the book. Whoever had done this had put quite a bit of effort to keep to the act, though the note was a bit different and something disturbingly new. It brought about new suspicions to say the least.

His eyes narrowed as his thoughts concentrated on the note and those that had come previous to it. Continuous plots and dangerous pranks could not continue like this as the date of the debut of the play drew nearer. While this incident did not appear to have conceived an injury, it certainly could have. Of course, he had not heard anyone's response to Téa's question, so there really could have been an accident. Frustration continued to boil. Who was this deranged joker! As if they did not have enough problems on a daily basis.

"Hey!" Atemu snapped to attention as Gerald's screaming rose to fill the auditorium. All chatting ceased on stage and all eyes went to the obviously angry man. "Where the devil is our Christine!" Everyone looked about, startled at the theatre owner's discovery. The talking rose louder than before as everyone asked each other similar questions.

"What!" Téa looked about frantically. "She wasn't too far away from me when the lights went out!" She looked across the stage and found the girl nowhere to be seen. Téa bit her lip as guilt washed over her. It seemed as though she should know something, having been practically right next to the other teen. How had the other young woman vanished so abruptly?

"Just how close to the real thing is this 'ghost' trying to get!" Yugi exclaimed suddenly, startling those around him.

Both Atemu and Téa turned to him. The former Pharaoh lifted an eyebrow while Téa blinked. The female teen's lips parted as she inhaled sharply in realization. Why had she not considered it before! "Wait. . . . Are you saying . . . ?"

Yugi nodded. "Yeah," he said. "What if the ghost took the girl playing Christine!"

Atemu frowned darkly. "It could be a strong possibility," he commented quietly. "But how could he have if he had been playing the organ? It seems he would have had to move fairly quickly." He crossed his arms, pondering over this.

"I know," Yugi agreed grimly. "But it still seems like too much to be a coincidence. Don't you think?" His darker half only nodded.

Téa looked around with her worried blue eyes. She headed for behind the curtains to see if Mokuba had seen anything when the lights had gone out. Gerald ran over to the side of the stage where Yugi and Atemu were standing.

"Are you saying this idiot is targeting the star of this show now!" he demanded.

Yugi nodded reluctantly. "It sure seems that way. No one seems to know where she went!" Of course, Yugi knew no real way to look about for her, having not seen the young actress out of costume.

Gerald banged his fist onto the well-polished stage."This production can't afford another injury!"

Yugi nodded, agreeing with the excitable man. This sort of thing could not be allowed. The entire theatre could be shut down if such disturbing things continued.

"Nor do we want any more injuries," Atemu added. He turned and went back to see if Téa had discovered anything. Pushing the heavy, velvety curtain aside, the spirit peered backstage. "Anything?"

Téa sighed and shook her head sadly. "No. . . . It really does seem as though no one saw what happened to her!" She wrung her hands in distress. "Oh Pharaoh . . . this is terrible!" If something had happened to the other girl, Téa knew that she would feel responsible, since she had not even recognized that "Christine" had suddenly not been standing right by her. She felt that she should have been able to see or even hear something to indicate what had happened, but everything was a blank. In all the confusion, she simply had not paid attention.

Atemu nodded. "And it seems to be growing more so. Tell me, what did she look like?" Like Yugi, the yami had no idea what the teenager looked like. And since he had been in the Puzzle, he had not noticed the actress standing by Téa before the lights had gone out.

Téa put her finger to her chin for a moment, as though trying to think of a description that would suffice for the search. "Well. . . ." She knew the other girl was slender and also had blue eyes. If she was still in costume, her hair would resemble Christine's—brown and tightly curled. But Téa had to admit that she was not certain what the actress looked like when she was not dressed for the play, especially since she, Téa, had only just recently joined the cast and had only seen the other girl in costume.

Nearby and watching them was the younger Kaiba brother. Mokuba slumped back in the chair and sighed, only half-listening to what Téa was telling Atemu. Seto is not going to be happy about this, he thought to himself. The boy gingerly sucked on his burned finger and fiddled with one of the non-functioning switches. He was actually rather surprised that he got away with one burn, with the way the lighting console had blown up. In fact, it was a surprise that no one had been hurt. Well, no one that he knew of anyway. . . .

He shuddered, remembering Alister's "accident" from the previous day. Someone could very well have gotten hurt and it was just that no one knew of it yet. Their Christine could end up being found somewhere hurt—or worse.

Serenity blinked in confusion at the new girl who was approaching. "Um, hi," she greeted. "Do you know Duke?" Specifically, she wondered if the younger girl had been Duke's former girlfriend. He had certainly greeted her as if he knew her well.

"We've met," came the smooth reply as the short young woman adjusted her glasses. "But if you're hoping to get in with Duke Devlin, I'm afraid you're gonna be out of luck. He's a real ladies' man!" She smirked as she took in Duke's momentarily frustrated expression. "I'm sure he's left behind lots of girls crying over him."

The raven-haired boy soon regained his composure and gave an answering smirk as he tossed his hair. "Oh? Well, I imagine even you couldn't resist my charms, Becky." He enjoyed watching her glare at him.

"Hmph," she retorted. "I'll have you know that there are much better guys existing in the world than you. Yugi Muto, for one." Her green eyes grew somewhat dreamy as an image of the vertically challenged boy came to her mind.

Serenity simply blinked in confusion. "You know Yugi, too?" she said, wondering exactly what was going on, and then remembering her manners. "I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Serenity Wheeler."

The younger girl blinked back. "Joey Wheeler's sister?" She smiled. "I'm Rebecca Hawkins. My grandfather is Professor Arthur Hawkins. I imagine you've heard of him?" She pushed her glasses up on her nose, studying Serenity with interest.

Serenity felt herself coloring. "Well . . . I think I've heard my friends talking about him sometimes," she admitted, not wanting to look like a complete fool in front of this newcomer. And she did think the name "Hawkins" sounded familiar in some way. Then she recalled it—Bakura had mentioned that someone named Arthur Hawkins was coming to Domino City to discuss his research with Bakura's father.

Duke leaned back in the booth. "So, I guess you came here to stalk Yugi?" he remarked, knowing that Rebecca would not take kindly to the question.

"Most certainly not!" Rebecca snapped, indeed annoyed. "Though, I'd be more than happy to see him." She looked at Duke. "And what are you doing? I guess you're flirting with yet another victim."

"Oh no," Serenity quickly interjected. "We're just having a friendly lunch. That's all."

Duke sighed to himself. Yeah, he thought, just a friendly lunch. . . .

Raphael looked over the information Paulette had faxed to him, frowning deeply. The names of Liu's previous owners were not familiar to him—Mr. and Mrs. John Ascot. The address they had once been at was vacated now, and not even their cell phones were in use. It all seemed very strange, as if they had simply run away for some reason.

"Any luck?" Alister had suddenly appeared, idly glancing at the papers Raphael was musing over. The house was quiet at the moment, as Valon had gone out to ride his motorcycle. The redhead crossed his lanky arms, then stiffened slightly as Liu rubbed against him. At last he bent down, petting the cat gently but still looking somewhat detached.

"No," Raphael growled, "just more questions." He looked over the tops of the papers, smiling slightly as he watched Alister stroking Liu's silky fur. Despite whatever reservations the redhead might be holding, that did not change the fact that he was a gentle person and that he would not deliberately hurt an animal without good reason. He was treating Liu with kindness, and she was enjoying it immensely.

"Are you going to try finding these people?" Alister blinked as Liu rolled onto her back, all four paws in the air. He knew that cats usually did that to show that they trusted their humans completely, and he was amazed that Liu had already decided that she trusted him that much. All he had done was briefly pet her.

"'Try' is the key word," Raphael answered, doubting that he was going to have much luck. He ran a hand through his hair, then looked down at Liu with amusement. "She must really find you trustworthy," he remarked. "These other people couldn't have treated her very well, but I guess she isn't ready to give up on humanity yet." He supposed he was not ready to, either. He had discovered that there were still good people in the world, Alister and Valon among them. And yet, Raphael found that when he thought of humanity as a whole, he would still feel a certain disgust. So many people allowed themselves to be ruled by selfishness and greed that the blonde had at last lost faith in almost all of them. Those kinds of people seemed to be the majority, and Raphael was certain that they would lead the human race to utter ruin.

Alister watched Liu for a moment before gently reaching out to see if she wanted a tummy rub. She half-closed her eyes in contentment, as that had apparently been what she had been hoping for. "Miruko would have loved this cat," Alister muttered, half to himself. Liu thumped her tail on the floor, a loud purr rumbling from somewhere in her throat.

As Raphael continued to watch, he found that he was beginning to understand. Alister truly did not dislike cats; they made him sad because of the brother he had lost.

As he continued to ponder, he was abruptly startled by the screeching of tires outside followed by a horrible thump that sounded as though it had come from right on their porch. Both he and Alister looked up. Liu rolled back into a sitting position, ears pricked.

"That didn't sound good," Alister frowned.

"No, it didn't," Raphael agreed, going to the door and opening it slowly. When he saw what had caused the loud crash, he gasped in horror and confusion and then immediately knelt down.

Valon was laying on the porch, looking as though he had been badly beaten!

The highly frustrated CEO slammed the fuse box shut. Having arrived at the theatre just as all the commotion had began, Seto had gone to see if any of the fuses had short-circuited. But it did not appear as though that had been the problem. At least, all of the fuses seemed to be in order. He could do nothing about any of them.

He looked up sourly and with perplexity even as the lights now flickered back on. What now? he wondered unhappily as he started down the newly lit hall. His footsteps echoed down the empty passageway. There were certainly a number of things that came to mind and none of them pleasant. Not that many pleasant things ever ran through the cynical mind in the first place.

Mokuba had better be alright. Otherwise, this 'ghost' will be suffering my wrath tenfold when I get a hold of him. Seto growled under his breath upon observing the clear corridor. Somewhere down there, probably in the theatre itself, he heard quite a commotion. That alone seemed like an obvious sign of trouble. Above him, the lights wavered questionably. The young business man gave them a cursory glance. Perhaps the problem had not been fixed after all.

Seto Kaiba felt the breath in his chest leave him as a force hit him straight on. It was only then that the soft padding sound from only moments before was acknowledged in his mind. His lanky form stumbled backwards a few steps, but refused to topple over. The silver briefcase that had been in the CEO's hand crashed to the floor in a loud clatter and nearly spilled its contents. Out of instinct, the young man grabbed at what had ran into him to keep it from taking him down completely. He heard a small yelp and let go upon regaining his balance.

Scowling, Seto stared down at the mass of brown, curly hair. Two small hands slowly reached up and took hold of the hair, revealing it to be a wig as blonde hair spilled out from underneath. A pair of wide, blue eyes met Seto's own as the wig was pulled from the girl's head. She had to be no younger than him. Never the less, Seto kept to the same expression of disapproval.

"Excuse you," he declared flatly. The teen flinched slightly and pushed some of the hair that had fallen out of a sloppy pony tail out of her face with one hand. Her other hand still held onto the brunette wig.

"The lights were out. . . . And I couldn't see where I was going . . ." she explained as she stumbled over her words. The teen began to try to edge around Seto, giving him a chance to observe her. It seemed as though she had been part of the performance and was still in costume. Never letting his eyes leave her, the young man bent down to pick up his briefcase.

"Yes, I know," Seto said. "You should try to keep a careful watch as to where you're going when it's dark." The girl bit her lip a bit, keeping an eye on him.

"So should you," she muttered. Her blue eyes shifted about up and down the hall. In spite of her unease, it seemed to Seto as though she was also somewhat annoyed with being lectured on her actions.

"I wasn't the one running," he countered, his expression irked. "Mind telling me what happened?" The girl looked back to him, almost in alarm. When he did not get an answer from her, he repeated his question.

"I . . . I have to go," the teen blurted out as she tried to get past Seto. The CEO stepped in her path.

"I would appreciate some answers." Despite his firm voice, the jumpy girl tried to push past him. It became apparent to Seto that she was not about to tell him anything, no matter how threatening he seemed to be.

"I really have to go!" she cried, prying Seto out of her path with surprising force. Taking an uncontrolled step back, Seto narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He tried to grab for her, but all he got was the scarf out of her hair as she hitched up her dress and took off down the hall. The businessman was about to go after her when another voice stopped him.

"Seto!" Seto whirled on the heel of his boot and looked in the direction he had heard his little brother. Mokuba gazed up at him in a bit of surprise, then looked down the hall where the girl had run off. He squinted, then let his body relax. Seto raised an eyebrow at the relieved sigh from the boy.

"Who was that?" he asked, half out of curiosity. If it was someone connected with the play, Mokuba might know, he hoped.

Mokuba shot him an incredulous look, forgetting that Seto would really have no idea as to the girl's identity. "Who was that!" the child repeated. "That was our Christine!"

Seto raised his eyebrow further. "Oh really. . . ." Interesting. . . .

Mokuba nodded enthusiastically. "It's just a relief she's okay," he added.

"So something did happen," Seto said before Mokuba could continue. He glanced down the hall, suspicions bubbling in his mind.

"Yeah, we thought the ghost had kidnapped her! When all the lights came back on she was gone without a trace." Seto listened, frowning as Mokuba continued to explain what happened. Catching sight of a red mark on the child's finger, Seto grabbed it, scrutinizing the injury. He was not pleased in the least, but relieved that it seemed like only a minor burn. All the while, Mokuba continued to talk, then trailed off as he saw Tristan and Joey came down the hall.

"Yo! Mokuba!" Joey called as he headed up to the brothers, Tristan in tow. "What's been going on? We came in and all the lights were turned off!"

"Yeah, it was kinda spooky, man!" Tristan added. Especially in light of everything else that's been going on. . . .

"The 'ghost' struck again," Mokuba chirped. "He knocked out all the lights and left another note!"

Seto frowned yet again. "Wait, what note?" This was something he had not heard about. Possibly it could be important. In a disaster such as this, every clue counted.

"Another note?" Joey demanded. "What'd it say?" Seto growled at the interruption. Mokuba just waved it away.

"Why don't we all just go back down to the stage," the boy suggested, already starting to head that way. "Everybody's in a panic down there looking for Tazi."

Tristan blinked. "Who?"

Mokuba sighed in exasperation. "The girl that plays Christine!" he cried. "We thought she'd been kidnapped or something!" he explained again.

Mokuba headed off in the direction he came and the two arrivals followed him. Seto lingered for a moment, rubbing his temples from all the excitement. His eyes ached a bit, a sign he had been working too long again, though he would never admit it. The others were talking down the hall, but he ignored them. Once again, he looked down the other end of the corridor, frowning darkly.

Tazi, huh? he thought to himself. You're quite a strange one, not to mention highly suspicious. This was a person he would certainly have to do some research on. Something about her just rubbed him strangely, almost in a wrong manner. It was too convenient for you to run off at the right moment. . . . Not to jump to any conclusions or anything of the sort, but still. . . . For the first time since he had grabbed it, Seto looked down at the scarf.