A/N: I like this chapter. There's not much action (especially if you consider that this is the beginning of the climax, and how much action is likely to be in the next chapter) and there's not much romance but it's a necessary step to the plot and I think it turned out fairly well. Thanks a million to everyone that took the time to review, I've gotten some of the nicest responses and it's all very encouraging. You guys are the greatest.

Disclaimer: Rest assured I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, BMW or any plastic explosives.

Chapter Seven: Furies

The door to the ramshackle apartment opened and Serenity slipped in. Quickly, she checked the answering machine for messages and yelled to let Joey know she was back. With a yawn she swung open the door to their fridge and grabbed a pear out of the fruit crisper and snatched the newspaper from the wastepaper bin at the end of the counter.

"Hey, you're finally back." Joey mumbled, wiping the sleep from his eyes as he made his way out of the bedroom. Groggily, he glanced at the clock. It was three in the afternoon.

"Yeah." Serenity said, smiling, and made her way past the counter and into their living room. Their four-room apartment consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen-living room, separated by a counter down the middle.

"So I take it that it went well?" Joey asked as he made his way to the bathroom.

Serenity sighed and collapsed onto the couch, flicking to the food channel. "Ah… he's such a jerk." She said dreamily.

Turning the knobs on their shower to start the water running, Joey peeked out from the bathroom. "You say that like you're in love with him." He stated interrogatively.

"Maybe I am." Serenity thought aloud.

"Oh, so it's like that." Joey groaned as he stepped into the shower.

Serenity shook her head dismissively as she took a bite of her pear. She still wasn't sure how it was. More than friends, she knew, but did that make her Kaiba's girlfriend? A dreamy smile crossed Serenity's face. She guessed so.

A knock at her door pulled her mind away from wondering how Mrs. Serenity Kaiba sounded, and she placed her pear on their makeshift milk-crate coffee table and made her way to the door. No one was there. Serenity scratched her head thoughtfully, and then leaned out into the hallway to get a better look.

Panic struck her as a hand darted out from against the wall and grabbed her by the throat. Pulling her into the hallway, it slammed the door behind her. It was a Ghoul, fully robed, brandishing a menacing looking dagger. "Hello there, sweetheart. An old acquaintance of yours is hoping you'll stop by for a visit."

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Yugi lay pensively on his bed, wondering about the events that had passed recently. He had been receiving threats from the Ghouls on a fairly regular basis, each seemingly a bit more menacing than the last, yet out of the three he understood the Ghouls were targeting, he was the only one that had escaped harm so far. He also understood from Mokuba that Kaiba had recently assaulted and dashed their working stronghold, but that the leader was still about.

They will take action against us. Yami spoke into Yugi's mind, They are trying to get us to drop our guard, think that they will be satisfied with threats, and then they are going to strike. We mustn't delude ourselves into thinking otherwise.

"Yeah, but there doesn't seem to be much we can do. I mean, what defence can we make against them. Go to the gym?" Yugi wondered.

If what we've heard from Mokuba is true, Kaiba is now in possession of the Millennium Rod, meaning that their leader will have lost much of his power. Nevertheless, we should be wary. My shadow powers can only protect us so much, and I'm reluctant to use them. Yami explained.

Yugi nodded slowly, "So, what, you want me to pack heat, or get a knife, or what?"

I don't know. Yami admitted, I just don't want you to be hurt.

A smile crossed Yugi's face. "I appreciate it, really I do."

Yugi glanced down at his grandfather, sweeping the sidewalk outside of the game shop. It had been a slow summer for Duel Monsters so far, although it was only now mid-July. Still, there hadn't been a tournament yet and it was affecting his grandfather's sales. Yugi missed the action of the game, and the clarity it seemed that tournaments always provided. If a new enemy was to arise, he wanted it to happen through a Duel Monsters tournament, so that he could fight his enemy with skills that he had, not skills that he lacked.

A falcon landed on his windowsill outside, startling Yugi from his thoughts. Yugi smiled at the creature, an urban hunter that made its way in a world that was not its own. It reminded him of Yami in many ways, who had become not only a friend but also a powerful ally despite being forced into a world he didn't know, robbed of his memory. Now a new threat had appeared. Well, Yugi and Yami would defeat it, together.

When the falcon flew away, Yugi glanced back to the sidewalk below. His grandfather was gone.

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Mokuba was in high spirits. His brother had finally 'put the moves' on Serenity, and the two of them were now unofficially an item. It seemed rather absurd to him that at eighteen this was Kaiba's first girlfriend. But he understood his brother's fear of people. They hadn't had the best experiences with them over their lifetime, and Kaiba's wariness was to be expected. After all, Mokuba was the only person Kaiba'd ever loved that was still alive. Except maybe Cecil, but he'd never admit to that.

He'd seen his brother pick up an old habit that he'd broken a long time ago. He smiled. It was a simple thing, really, but it seemed like Mokuba hadn't seen a genuine smile on his brother's face for ages. But he smiled around Serenity. Mokuba liked her too, so it became an even more fortuitous relationship.

Leaning back in his leather armchair, placed in the enormous library Kaiba had put in on the third floor, Mokuba gazed out the window into their garden. He'd read no more than three lines in the novel in his hands over the last hour. His mind was wrapped up in a dozen things he was thinking of. The garden really was beautiful. Kaiba said he liked it because of the smells. For Mokuba, it just felt like being back in the country again. He hadn't been back out there since they were put in the orphanage.

A slight rapping on the door as someone entered broke Mokuba's train of thought. Glancing up from his book, he saw Doctor Watanabe standing in the doorway. "What are you reading, Mokuba?" He asked amiably.

"Oh." Mokuba mumbled, tossing the book onto the table beside him, "Wuthering Heights. Seto recommended it."

Watanabe raised an eyebrow, and then smiled warmly, "May I show you something Mokuba. I promise you'll find it most fascinating."

Mokuba nodded, hopping out of the armchair. "Sure. I was bored to death trying to read that thing." He followed Watanabe, who lead him downstairs and into the garden.

Watanabe led through a series of twists and turns, leading the pair deeper into the massive tangle that composed the garden. It was marked with different coloured pillars, each of which held a special meaning to the gardeners, and served for navigation through the network of natural passages formed by some of the most ancient trees copses in the morass of vegetation. Gradually, they seemed to distance themselves from the house itself. Mokuba began to wonder if Watanabe truly knew where they were going. Mokuba's excursions into the garden seldom led him this deep and yet he had been lost more than once. "What are we going to see?"

"Oh no, I want it to be a surprise." Watanabe insisted, leading him around another twist and into a raised wooden platform sitting atop a thicket of small cypress trees. A smile crossed Watanabe's face and he declared, "Here at last."

"Cool." Mokuba replied, walking out into the clearing. "What am I looking for?"

"This." Watanabe sneered, and an instant later half a dozen Ghouls were in the clearing, sifting out from the trees. The largest of the gang grabbed Mokuba and turned to Watanabe.

"Okay, traitor, you fulfilled your part of the agreement. Master Vex wishes me to assure you that the Kaiba brothers will be dead within two days time. Then, you'll get what it is that you want."

Watanabe smiled widely, "Excellent. Give Vex my regards."

"Oh, no." The Ghoul said, a dark grin crossing his face, "You're to come with us. This is the final stage of our plan, and you are necessary to it."

Staggering back, Watanabe paled. "But… but why?"

"Relax, traitor." The Ghoul admonished, "Your death would not suit us. Now, come along."

"One moment." Watanabe replied, and tore the pendant from Mokuba's neck. "We don't need Seto Kaiba following us, as I understand it."

"He'll come when he's told." The Ghoul answered.

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"Kaiba!"

"What is it, Yugi?" Kaiba replied, looking irritably at the short duellist on his doorstep.

"Where is Mokuba?" Yugi asked, desperation clear in his voice.

"I don't know." Kaiba answered, short on patience, "He's around, I'm sure. I forbade him to leave the mansion without me. He'll be around here somewhere."

"Kaiba! You don't understand. Both my grandpa and Serenity were kidnapped. You have to make sure that Mokuba is okay, the Ghouls are almost definitely after him too!" Yugi insisted.

Kaiba looked over Yugi's shoulder to Joey. "That true?"

Joey nodded solemnly. "They got her."

"Come in, wait here." Kaiba ordered, storming up to his office to check the tracking device. A moment later he returned. "Mokuba is in the garden. I'm going to have the garden staff verify."

Kaiba picked up his cell phone and called the servant's house. Curtly, he instructed the garden staff to verify Mokuba's presence in the garden and report back as soon as possible.

"So," he said, glancing back to the pair in his foyer, "The Ghouls kidnapped someone from each of you? What do you know so far?"

"Nothing." Yugi answered flatly. "They've given us nothing."

Kaiba nodded slowly, "They will. This is about us three, not them, and they said themselves they wanted our blood-"

"No." Joey interrupted. "They just said they wanted blood. Maybe they're out to take our loved ones from us. To hurt us that way."

"Like they lost Marik, I suppose." Yugi finished.

Kaiba's cell rang and he snatched it from his pocket. His face paled as the gardener reported to him, and he turned back to the other two. "They have Mokuba too."

Yugi nodded gravely. "Someone from each of us."

Starting up the stairs, Kaiba barked, "Follow me," to the pair below. Obediently, they followed Kaiba to his office on the third floor. "I've met their leader," he explained as they stepped into Kaiba's favourite room in the colossal mansion, "Just taking those we care about from us isn't his style. For my part, I know he won't settle while I'm alive."

"What makes you say that?" Joey asked sincerely. For the time being, all hostilities were put aside. He knew they'd have to co-operate to make it out of this ordeal.

"I beat him," Kaiba replied, "And he can't stomach that."

Yugi sighed and sat down on one of the white couches in the middle of the room, in front of the desk and adjacent to the wall-mounted TV. He relaxed in the chair and ventured, "So, what do we do now?"

"We wait." Kaiba answered solemnly. "You each have a cell phone?" They each nodded, "Good. Then we wait here. They'll call."

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It would have been a funny scene if it weren't for the solemnity of the situation. Kaiba was sleeping quietly in his desk chair, feet up on his desk; head sprawled back against the plate glass window. Yugi was in a similarly unflattering position, feet up on Kaiba's coffee table and head back against the back of the couch, a slight bit of drool running down his cheek. Joey was curled up into a fetal position with his head resting on Yugi's lap. He snored abominably from time to time, and whenever he did Kaiba would wake up and throw something at him, then go back to sleep.

Kaiba sprung to life suddenly as the phone rang. Yelling to the others to wake up, he picked up the phone. "Kaiba."

"Mr. Kaiba," a smarmy voice on the other side of the line declared, "Are the Mr.'s Moto and Wheeler with you at the moment?"

"They're here." Kaiba answered and Yugi and Joey both jumped at their obvious mention. It was them on the other line, they knew it.

"Put them on speakerphone, if you please."

Nodding, Kaiba pressed the speakerphone button and hung up the receiver. "Just what is it that you want?" He asked harshly.

"Something from each of you. We've recently acquired some bargaining chips and we're angling to cash them. Mr. Moto?"

"What?" Yami answered, rising to his feet and closing the distance to the speaker.

"I think you know what we want from you. See to it that you bring your Millennium Puzzle to warehouse 414 at the docks at precisely five pm today. Any earlier and I don't think I'll be in the mood to bargain. Any later and it'll be too late. Understand?"

Yami bit his lip in anger and paused for a moment, before finally replying. "Understood."

"Good. Mr. Kaiba?"

"What?" Kaiba demanded bitterly.

"Ooh, temper temper, Mr. Kaiba. I understand from my close personal friend Doctor Watanabe that there is a safe in that spectacular mansion of yours. I also understand that said safe is where you and Mokuba keep your shares of Kaiba Corp. Well, I'm looking to get into the stock market, so I think in exchange for your brother you can give me your 45 of the company and your dear brother's 15 of the company. Do you think you swing that by the old KC shipping warehouse in Domino for me? Five o'clock, same as Yugi. Be punctual, but not early."

Kaiba looked as though he would explode. His face was turning red, he was clearly furious and he was shaking. Finally calming, he managed an, "I'll see what I can do."

"You do that. Mr. Wheeler?"

"Yeah?" Joey asked, trying hard to sound relaxed.

"I'm afraid you don't really have anything of value. I will, however, give you a, shall we say, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you'd like to come by warehouse 103, not too far from where you good friend Yugi will be, and trade yourself for your sister, well, that's a deal I'd find hard to refuse. You seem like the kind of guy that would claim that he'd die to protect his sister. I plan to find out if that's true. Care to swing by around five?"

Joey was stricken. He seemed to be choking on air for a moment, before finally nodded solemnly and muttering, "I'll be there."

"There's a nice boy. Let me see, it's nine am now, is it? That gives you three fully eight hours to get ready for our visit this afternoon. One more thing: come alone. G'bye now. Take care." He hung up.

Kaiba hung up on his end to be sure and then opened his laptop, typing furiously. As he did, he pulled out a cell phone and placed a call to the servant's house. "Derek? Check if Watanabe's there… He isn't. Fine, carry on."

"You can work at a time like this!" Joey yelled, standing and glaring at Kaiba fiercely.

Ignoring Joey completely, Kaiba finished typing and a map of Domino appeared on the wall-mounted TV, highlighting the three warehouses in question. The initial of each of them appeared over the warehouse they had to be at. Spread evenly, the middle warehouse, Joey's warehouse, was ten miles from each of the others.

"They're trying to split us up." Yugi said simply, "Together, there's a chance we can beat them. Apart, we can't."

"Speak for yourself," Kaiba replied, "I can take care of myself."

"Damnit, Kaiba, we need to work together if we're going to beat them…" Yugi began.

"Listen, Yugi," Kaiba snapped, "I feel bad that your grandfather got kidnapped, really I do, but my priority is Mokuba. After that, my priority is Serenity. Your damn grandfather can get in line because I have too much to worry about right now to think about how to help you save your damn grandfather."

A few moments passed in silence, before Joey finally suggested, "Should we call the police?"

"That's exactly what they're hoping you'll do." Kaiba answered, "During Battle City our best estimate was that there were around sixty Ghouls. So far, we've arrested fifteen. That makes fifteen Ghouls for each of us. Armed Ghouls, I'm willing to bet. Police protocol states that we'd get five officers each to raid the warehouses, and that'd just be that much more blood on the ground. Leave the officers out of this."

"Then what do you suggest, Kaiba?" Yugi demanded.

"Each to his own. Do what you can."

"Easy for you to say!" Joey shot, "All they want from you is your company. They want to take my life."

"You idiot." Kaiba spat, "Do you think they plan on leaving any of us alive? This is all just a ploy to get us where they want us. Besides, you're getting a good deal. It's like trading an Armoured Lizard for a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, if you ask me."

"Shut the f-"

"Joey! Kaiba!" Yugi interrupted, "Come on! We can at least plan something together. A plan of some sort. We've got eight hours to think. We can at least use them."

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Kaiba was ready. He prepared himself rigorously for this moment. Turning the keys in his BMW, he stepped out and into the cool dusk air. Adrenaline pumped through his veins. He felt aware of everything that moved. The very air around him was throbbing. They were trying to trap him. He would have none of that.

His steps echoed in his head as he strode from the back lot to the front door of the warehouse. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. His pulse seemed to be nearly out of control, and he muscles tensed every time a seagull called. He had to be ready. He had to save Mokuba. And once he'd done that, he'd save Serenity too. He'd lost too many people he cared about. He would not let that happen again. Tensing inwardly, he opened the door to the warehouse and stepped in.

This warehouse had been used to store armour plating for Kaiba Corp's tanks and ships, much of it was still here. Two large cranes stood on either side of the stacks of shipping crates, serviced by scaffolding that made a grid fifteen feet above the concrete floor. Five gunmen on the scaffold, Kaiba listed internally, five on the ground level. He glanced up toward the stack of shipping crates in the centre of the warehouse. Atop it were the remaining five gunmen and his brother tied to a chair, as well as a familiar face he had only half expected to see.

"Doctor Watanabe." He declared loudly, taking a few steps inside the door, "I've been looking all over for you."

"You'll understand if I don't race to hug you, Mr. Kaiba." Watanabe replied venomously.

"Your choice of companions seems to have deteriorated, I see. I have what you asked for." He stated, raising the briefcase in his right hand, "Give me what I came for."

"You're not stupid, Mr. Kaiba, and I never pegged you for naïve. You know your brother won't be returning to you." He stated matter-of-factly.

"Tell me, Watanabe, what's the one thing that if you misplace just a little of, you can lose all of?"

"What, Mr. Kaiba?"

"Trust." He stated simply, and suddenly his left hand flew forward and a blinding flash filled the room. Instantly gunfire erupted from all sides.

Darting left, Kaiba dropped his briefcase and leapt atop the supports of the scaffold, quickly vaulting himself to the rail and pulling himself over. The gunman he arose next to noticed the movement through tear-filled eyes and quickly turned his gun toward Kaiba. Slamming his elbow into the Ghoul's jaw, Kaiba sent the gunman over the edge of the scaffold and plummeting to the ground. Quickly, he darted down the scaffolding, drawing the attention of all the nearby gunmen who quickly turned their weapons on Kaiba.

Now fleeing from bullets, Kaiba kicked off of the rail and leapt from the scaffolding to the shipping crates. Watanabe was still stunned, and Kaiba darted past him and the gunmen, grabbing his brother –chair and all- and running past them down the shipping crates, a consistent stream of bullets nipping at his heels. His target neared, a few more seconds and he'd be there. Suddenly a bullet tore through the bound Mokuba's arm, spraying blood across Seto's face. The injury would prove minor, but Mokuba's pain was major and immediate. Tucking Mokuba, to his chest, Kaiba leapt forward, smashing through the large windows of the warehouse and plummeting fully twenty feet to the ground below.

He landed on his shoulder and rolled to ease the blow. Time was of the essence. Setting Mokuba down, he deftly drew a small remote with a single button from his trench coat. "Goodbye, Watanabe." He sneered and pressed the button.

Inside, the group was mobilizing, heading to the door to catch Kaiba before he escaped. Suddenly, light erupted from the briefcase Kaiba had dropped near the door. A moment later, it exploded. The first ten gunmen were incinerated instantly. The concussive shockwave knocked the rest of the Ghouls over and a moment later the flames engulfed them. From Kaiba's standpoint he watched as the front end of the warehouse collapsed, flames spewing from the shattered windows. A smirk crossed his face as the back end of the warehouse followed, collapsing into rubble scarcely a dozen feet from where Kaiba lay. That had been the last of the plastic explosives Gozaburo had kept in the 'munitions room' in the mansion. The deed had been done; it was what he had to do to protect his brother. Still, guilt riddled him as he cut his brother loose. He had killed.

"Get in the car, Mokuba." He ordered as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off. "I liked that briefcase," he added under his breath.

"Are we going home?" Mokuba asked as he sat in the front seat, trembling from the ordeal. Quickly Kaiba removed one of the straps from his trench coat and wrapped it around the wound in Mokuba's arm. The bullet had gone clean through, thankfully, and the wound would heal fairly quickly.

Kaiba glanced at his GPS navigation system. At his top speed he could make it to Joey's warehouse in just less than three minutes. Nervously, he glanced at his watch: 5:03. "Listen, Mokuba, unless I do something fast, Serenity's either going to lose her life, or her brother, or both. I can't let that happen. We're going to save her."

Mokuba nodded and a smirk crossed his face.

"Buckle up." Kaiba ordered, "I'm going to drive really fast."

A/N: Okay, so it's a bit of a cliffhanger but there's just too much going on to try and fit it all in one chapter, and even if there wasn't I don't want to. Next chapter I hope to lay to rest any worries about what happens to Joey, Yugi and most importantly Serenity. I know how you guys hate cliffhangers.