Author's Notes: It seems I have once again been inspired to work on this story. Once upon a time, I could update a story every day until it was done. Since I can't seem to manage that anymore, would everybody be okay with a couple times a week? I'm trying, really I am…

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Give and Take

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To be honest, Bakura had never planned on letting Ryou out of the card that he had trapped his soul within. It seemed like a perfectly good idea for getting rid of the softhearted boy, so that Bakura could maintain total control over Ryou's form. And he didn't really like having to ask for Ryou's help, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made in order to get what you wanted.

"So let me make sure I understand this," Ryou murmured in Bakura's mind, seeing through his eyes as Bakura observed his little group of companions. "Yugi has the spirit of an ancient king living inside his mind. You and this Pharaoh Yami aren't on particularly good terms, due to a little problem with you trying to destroy him and steal his Millennium Puzzle."

"Something like that," Bakura said.

"And then there's this Seto Nishimura whose soul you originally stole in order to use it as leverage over Yami," Ryou continued. "And now you want to make Seto fall in love with you for… some reason I don't understand yet… only it's not going so well. So you let me out of the card in order to help you? If you don't mind my saying so, this isn't a situation I ever expected to find myself in."

"So are you going to help or aren't you?" Bakura demanded.

"That depends," Ryou said slowly. "Are you going to put me back into that card when I'm done?"

"No, of course not."

"Or into any OTHER objects, either?"

Dang. Ryou was getting better at this negotiation stuff. A pity, it would have been interesting to see how Ryou felt about being banished into a toilet seat. "Alright, alright. I won't trap you in a card, or any other objects, either. Any other conditions?"

"Is it too much to ask to have my body back every once in a while?"

"Yes."

Ryou sighed. "Guess that was too much to hope for. Alright then, promise not to feed me to any duel monsters either, and you've got yourself a deal."

"You mortals are far too concerned with your self preservation sometimes."

"You were thinking about it, weren't you! First chance you got, you were going to give me to a Man-Eater Bug or something equally as noxious. Admit it!"

"Alright, fine. Yes, I was thinking about it. Having your help had better be worth it, Ryou. I'm sure if I had to, I could find some very interesting loopholes in this contract," Bakura said.

"Okay, well. The first thing you have to do is-"

"Tomb Robber." Yami's voice interrupted Bakura's silent conversation.

Bakura blinked at Yami, a little surprised the Pharaoh was talking to him at all. Since Bakura had joined the little group, Yami had been making it a point to ignore him. What could the Pharaoh want from him now? "If you've come to beg for me to release Seto's soul, then save your breath, Pharaoh. The answer is still no."

"You know, he doesn't look very good," Ryou murmured quietly in Bakura's mind. "Kind of sick, really. What did you do to him?"

"Hey, wasn't me," Bakura answered Ryou silently. "It's nice handiwork though, isn't it?"

Ryou's huff of exasperation was his only reply.

"That's not what I'm here to ask, though I still wish you would reconsider your answer," Yami said. "No, I…" He took a deep breath, as if it were some great hardship to ask this of Bakura. "…I need your help."

Bakura's sudden laughter startled some of the others as they set up their camping ground in the little clearing. Several paused to watch the little exchange, while trying not to make it obvious that they were doing so.

"My help?" Bakura laughed. "I sure hope you choked a little on that pride of yours when you swallowed it. What do you need my help with?"

Yami folded his arms and glared at Bakura, considering whether he was even going to bother asking for Bakura's help now. Still, as the Dark Magician had said, he didn't have much of a choice. "You may not have noticed this, Tomb Robber, but… I'm dying."

The amused look never faltered on Bakura's face. "You may not have noticed this, Pharaoh, but you and I are already dead. It's a little late to start worrying about your mortality or lack thereof."

"If my death 5,000 years ago was all there was to it, I would not be concerned," Yami said. "What is going on now is far worse than what happened back then. Pegasus, holder of the Millennium Eye, has taken a rather large piece of Yugi's soul as well as my own. If they are not returned, we shall not die so much as cease to exist completely. It will be as if we never were. No spirits, no afterlife, nothing. We'll just be… gone."

Bakura shrugged. "Hey, even better. Saves me a lot of trouble, really."

Yami's eyes narrowed. "I knew you wouldn't help." He turned to walk away.

Bakura shook his head, still chuckling over the Pharaoh's dilemma, and turned to go the opposite way. Seto stood there, having obviously been listening to the conversation. His expression was that of loathing as he looked at Bakura.

"You ought to help Yami out," Ryou commented suddenly in Bakura's mind.

"What?" Bakura demanded. "Why? You know I hate him, why should I give a damn whether he's going to spiritually disintegrate or not?"

"Because Yami is Seto's friend," Ryou said. "And if you help Seto's friends, then Seto will know you're really not all bad. And he will be very grateful, too."

Bakura muttered something foul in Egyptian, then turned back toward Yami. "Hey Pharaoh! What do I have to do?"

Yami froze, a little startled by Bakura's question. He turned back to him, looking puzzled. "You're going to help me?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in," Bakura muttered. "I just figure the Millennium Puzzle will be a little useless if you're not around. So what do I have to do?"

"I need the power of the Millennium Ring to sustain me," Yami said slowly. "And I'll need a lot of it. I can't promise there will be much left for you to work with… Enough to sustain you of course, but probably not much more than that. So there wouldn't be any more calling up Shadow Realm, or trapping more people's souls into cards."

Bakura grit his teeth. "And this would be only temporary, wouldn't it?"

"Until I get my soul back," Yami said. "Or found other holders of Millennium Items to donate their energy."

"Do I really have to do this?" Bakura silently demanded of Ryou. "The Pharaoh is asking for much more than I'm willing to give."

"You don't have to," Ryou said reasonably. "But if Yami dies, Seto won't only blame Pegasus, he'll blame you too. And it's really hard for people to love someone that killed their friends…"

"Alright, fine," Bakura said aloud. "So Pharaoh, you have any idea how to do this energy transfer thing?"

Yami looked at him blankly.

Bakura groaned. "I'm guessing that's a 'no.' Damn. I guess there's no use wishing we had a High Priest around…"

"You'll need to stand in moonlight," Seto interrupted suddenly.

Both Bakura and Yami turned to look at him. Seto had a very curious expression on his face, a little inspired and a little bewildered.

"What?" Bakura finally managed to ask.

Seto shrugged helplessly. "It works better in moonlight," he said. "You have to stand in moonlight with your hands out to the other person and palms pressed together…" He rubbed his forehead, looking confused. "There's a chant too, but I don't understand most of it…"

"How do you know that?" Yami asked.

"I don't know," Seto said, almost upset. "It's like… I can see how it's supposed to work, but I don't know 'why' I know… Maybe I read it in a book or something once."

"Yeahh… maybe…" Bakura said slowly. "Well, if we need moonlight for this, let's go find some. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can pretend it never happened."

"Works for me…" Yami muttered, leading the way into the woods. He remembered there was a cliff side somewhere nearby, and if the moon was out by now, it should be a likely enough spot.

It was bad enough he's had to ask the Tomb Robber for help. What was worse was he didn't know why the Tomb Robber had agreed. Bakura had already made it clear that he would love to watch Yami disappear out of existence… so why had he suddenly decided he was going to help out? The Millennium Puzzle couldn't be the only reason he'd agreed…

More confusing than that was Seto's sudden knowledge of how to perform the obscure ceremony. Hansha hadn't said anything about how Bakura was supposed to transfer the powers of the Millennium Ring to him. Yami had simply assumed the omission was because Bakura would already know how to do it. Clearly, the Tomb Robber did not. Had Hansha not said anything because he knew 'Seto' would know it? Why would Seto know it? He hadn't known anything of the Millennium Items before he met Yami…

"Hey Pharaoh, wake up," Bakura's voice interrupted his thoughts. "We're here."

The forest had dwindled, and the cliff's edge was bare save for a few shrubs growing in small clumps. The moon was newly risen, hovering just above the horizon, gleaming almost golden in the darkness. It provided just enough light to see each other by.

"Alright, so how do we do this again?" Bakura asked, looking over at Seto.

Seto frowned thoughtfully. "Okay. You have to extend your hands out toward Yami and press your palms against his." As Yami and Bakura did as they were told, Seto found a branch and started scratching a circle in the dirt around the two of them. That completed, Seto tossed the branch away and surveyed his handiwork. "Okay, let's see… The chant went something like…"

Seto paused, then began the chant in a soft, singsong sort of voice. Both Yami and Bakura were somewhat startled to hear Seto speaking Ancient Egyptian, not only speaking it but pronouncing it fluently. The circle in the dirt began to glow the golden color of the moon, and both the Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Ring soon began to glow as well. As Seto's voice gained strength in the chant, the glowing light grew as well.

Bakura could feel the powers of the Millennium Ring draining away from the Item, and the Ring's glowing light dimmed slowly as the Puzzle's light brightened. It was almost painful for Bakura to give away what he held so precious to him, and for a moment he was confused as to just why he was doing this. He certainly wasn't doing this for Yami, but he was doing this for Seto. Since when could one mere mortal make him do anything he didn't want to?

Bakura was still wondering about that when Seto ended the chant, and both Millennium Items went dark. Even in the darkness, Yami's condition seemed greatly improved. Bakura was feeling a little dizzy from it.

"I guess we'd better be getting back," Yami finally said. "The others have probably finished setting up camp." He watched Bakura for a long moment, before inclining his head slightly in respect. "Thank you."

Bakura waved it away. "Whatever." He took a few steps back toward the woods, then stumbled slightly with dizzy lightheadedness.

Seto caught him before he could fall and helped him right himself. Bakura blinked at him in surprise, but Seto wouldn't meet his gaze.

"We should get going," Seto finally said. "Mokuba's probably worried about us." He let Bakura go, but stayed close as they walked in case Bakura should trip again.

"See?" Ryou said to Bakura proudly. "I told you so."