The dark tunnel opened up to another dark corridor. As they crashed into the floor, Malik and Yami Yugi were relieved to find it much softer than the stones they had just come from. Seto Kaiba had already picked himself up off the ground, and was brushing some dew from his armor.

"This was not how I planned on spending my day, Yugi." He grumbled, as the pharaoh slowly stood up.

A faint light illuminated the cavern from above them. The area around them originally appeared to be a dull pink, but it was covered in unnatural black blotches. To his left were two tunnels, one on top of the other. Both of them were jet black.

"Where are we?" Malik gasped, as the black blotches started to move.

"I don't know." The pharaoh answered, his attention quickly drawn to the blotches, which were in reality, thousands of tiny black particles. "But I think we've found what's making him so sick…"

He pulled out his sword, preparing to defend himself. The blade shone like a revealing light.

"What are those things?"

"It looks like what we're after." Kaiba smiled, and drew his sword as well. He ran forward, slashing a few of the particles. When the light beam from his weapon touched them, they vanished instantly.

"That looks easy enough." Malik smiled, and darted towards the small black menaces. He hacked and slashed a good hundred of them before he stopped to breathe.

"Care to give us a little help, here?" Kaiba turned to Yami Yugi, who had been standing back, watching the fight.

"Kaiba, look carefully." He began. "The doctors are right. These germs aren't dividing or reproducing."

"Your point?" he asked, as he slashed again, sending another set of twelve back where they belonged.

"But yet they keep coming. The more you destroy, there always seems to be more to take their place."

Malik looked up. Even though he had killed at least a thousand of them, the area was just as black as it was before.

"You're right… This isn't working…" he finally admitted.

"These are just spores." Yami Yugi gasped. "There must be a source of the infection, somewhere, that is making them. If we could destroy that, then these things would likely all disappear."

"You're right." Malik agreed again. "We could stay here forever hacking at these things, and we wouldn't make any real progress."

"No, even with three of us, we wouldn't be able to hold them at bay. Not to make a difference to Ryou anyway."

He ducked, as a group of a hundred spores suddenly flew at his back. Malik jumped forward, and destroyed them easily.

"Then what are we standing around here for?" Kaiba muttered, slashing at another wave of incoming spores. "Let's keep moving."

Slashing as he ran, Kaiba made a break for the lower tunnel. As he got closer to the tunnels, the spores grew far more aggressive.

"Kaiba!" Yami Yugi shouted, immediately joining in the fight. His beam of light slashed through literally thousands of spores, as he put his heart and soul into every strike.

Malik too, took the other flank, trying to cut a path for them to escape.

"If we can just make it to that tunnel, we'll be safer…" Malik added, dodging a long line of spores. From what he could see, the inside of the tunnel wasn't as black as the cavern they were now in.

Kaiba nodded in agreement.

"We're almost there." Yami Yugi chanted, striking again.

He was about to breathe a sigh of relief, when suddenly, the ground beneath them started to shake.

The pharaoh fell over, unable to keep his balance. Kaiba pulled him up quickly, warding off another attack.

"What was that?" Malik gasped. "An earthquake?"

"I don't know." Yami Yugi answered, trying to get up.

The ground shook again, more ferociously then before, sending all three of them onto their rears. Malik barely got his sword back up in time to protect the other two from yet another attack.

"I don't like this." Kaiba growled.

Before any of them could get up, the ground shook again. And this time, it didn't stop. It only grew worse.

…

Meanwhile, back in the hospital room, Isis paced nervously. It had been a good half hour since the pharaoh and his friends had disappeared. Although she trusted the gods to keep them safe, she worried about their well-being, and about Ryou's.

The boy had already started coughing, despite the breathing tube in his throat. The sound it produced, a dry hacking combined with squeaking plastic, made Isis cringe. It was discomforting, to say the absolute least.

Tristan had lifted him up slightly, while Tea rubbed his back. They hoped that could soothe his pain a little. As he coughed, alarms on the monitors started blaring, his weary body fighting against the steady puffs of air.

"Ryou… please… try to relax…" Tea massaged his back harder. Tears streamed down the white haired boy's face as he tried to silence the coughing on his own. Each spasm in his chest was more painful than the last, and despite the endotracheal tube, he felt like he was completely gasping for breath.

Joey, who had run out of the room to get a nurse, quickly returned with one.

"She'll give him somethin' to make him sleep." Joey announced, bursting through the door. His voice grew softer as he muttered to himself. "God, Ryou… don't give up on us now. Yug's tyrin' to make you better in there."

Tea and Tristan lowered the coughing Ryou down onto the bed, as the nurse administered an injection of morphine. Not only would it suppress his coughing, but also relieve his pain.

"A nurse is here to help you. Just relax." Tristan whispered.

Tea rubbed his shoulder a little, not really knowing what to say.

"Come on, Ryou, you can pull through this." Joey whispered, grabbing Tristan's hand. He could feel it shaking just as much as his was. "I know you can. Yugi knows you can too."

He just hoped that was enough.