Her Sweetness: … You know. Something weird just happened. I was in the kitchen, getting cereal, right? And I got out the milk and the cereal box and started pouring it out onto the counter. I didn't get a bowl.

I think I'm concentrating too hard.

And my breakfast is taking one for the team.

A Tale of Two Idiots

Chapter 13:

It was about an hour later Pharaoh Yami received news that the former general had been taken of, just the way that he had instructed. He nodded and left his light alone in their bedroom and went down three flights of stairs accompanied by two of the Spike Patrol who were snaking on doughnuts behind their Pharaoh's back.

At the end of the fourth corridor, there was a large door, a dingy green and lined with small spikes around the border. With the pure whiteness of the walls surrounding it, the door looked out of place.

Yami cleared his voice and, immediately, the guards stuffed the doughnuts in their mouths and opened the doors. Inside, there was a very small room. About the size of a bathroom, but it was gray with only one barred window that showed the moonlight looking down into it. In the center of the gray and darkness was a body that hung from two shackles around it's wrists coming down from the high ceiling.

He smirked, "I see you've gotten comfortable."

"Ah…" A face looked up and a single moonbeam hit her face, "Pharaoh Yami! Please, let me out of here! I don't want to-"

"Heidi. Don't dig yourself even deeper than you already are."

"I'm sorry, but I have to say something, Pharaoh Yami! I-I know you must be upset with me, and you have every right. I was reckless when it came to the right thing to do regarding Marik and Malik's escape, but… Putting me in shackles? Your faithful servant? My Pharaoh, isn't this a tad bit drastic?"

Yami blinked and turned around, holding his hands behind his back, "Maybe… Just a little."

"…" She watched his movements with an intense eye as he turned back to her.

"This is the wrong thing to do in such a case. Just keeping you here will not insure any results when it comes to finding those boys and the rings."

"Ah, thank you, my Pharaoh!"

He glanced over his shoulder towards the two guards who were licking lollypops. "You, men. What do you think of Heidi as a general? Is she responsible on a normal basis?"

"Oh!" They fumbled to throw the candy away and looked at the girl hanging about two feet off the ground, who looked back at them, pitifully, "Ah, Pharaoh Yami, sir. We believe that General Heidi is a woman worthy of such a title. She has always been a fair and graceful servant of you as well as a wonderful friend and commander of the Spike Patrollers."

Heidi smiled, happily, though said nothing.

Yami nodded thoughtfully and turned back to Heidi, "It seems that you do have an obedient army. And I agree they care about you a great deal."

"Mmm-hmm!" They all nodded in agreement.

"So, here's what I'll do to ensure we all get what we want." He took a step closer to Heidi and made a motion to her hands, "Your army has ten days to find both Marik, Malik and the rings. For each day that one of those items go unfound, one of your fingers comes off. And on the tenth day, if I don't have all four… You wont have a use for any fingers."

Her eyes were wide and she gasped, trying to say something, "M-My…"

"Sir!" Both guards echoed, "A-Are you joking?"

"No."

"Pharaoh, please! D-Don't do this, I swear, I'll do better!" She soon found he voice when she saw the serious glint in his eye and a sadistic grin on his face. "P-Please…! I'll do anything! I'll relieve my duties as general and lower myself to be your bathing girl! One of them, at least! Or maybe I should be working in the okra fields! Whatever your wish, that is reality, but please-"

"Day one…" He looked up at the moon that was high in the sky, surely it was about midnight. Yami turned back to Heidi and smiled, "Has ended."

"Ah… NO!"

Yami turned around, nodding towards the guards and exiting. They cringed at what they knew they were expected to do, but advanced on Heidi as the door shut. When confronted with such a act of raw violence, most would break down and cry and scream for their mommies. But not ex-General Heidi. She took her slice and dice like a real man- I mean, woman.

The moon was high in the sky and the stars were shining brighter than they ever had. All the light provided by natural sources rained down on the sandy desert and thus provided light for the two boys that were traveling with much less enthusiasm than when they started out.

After Marik and Malik got the note from Mokuba, they decided to write back. But, of course, with Malik naked and Marik having nothing but his Happy Chicken suit on, they ran short on something to write with. Until Marik got an idea that is. He tore off a piece of his uniform to use as stationary and found that Malik plus a cactus needle would suffice for sufficient writing utensils.

Malik rubbed his left arm, sorely, "I don't see why you had to use me for that letter…"

"Come on. That didn't hurt. One little cactus needle in the arm and a few pints of blood to write with… and you went all to pieces." He rolled his eyes. "You really need to be a bit stronger than that, Malik. You really are a big baby."

"Oh, gee, that's super nice of you." Malik spat and shivered, "Ugh… Marik, I'm freezing!"

"I told you so."

He glared at his yami's back, "Aw, I don't care anymore! Marik, we've been out here for over a day and we haven't seen hide nor hair of Ryou or Bakura! I know Mokuba said they're with a secret organization against Yami and Yugi and that's great for them, but it's a secret organization! Secret meaning, they're not going to have a sign at the front door saying: SECRET ORGANIZATION! COME IN AND HAVE A COOKIE!"

"… Calm down."

"I can't! I'm in a desert, cold, hungry and oppressed…"

"And naked."

"Right."

"Look, Malik," Marik stopped walking and turned back to his hikari who was shivering like no tomorrow, "I'm aware that they wont be easy to find. But this is the desert, with nothing but sand, they should be pretty easy to spot. We'll just have to keep on our toes."

"Well, good luck. Cause I think one of my toes just fell off. Gosh, it's cold! Look at me, I've got more Goosebumps than I care to count!"

Marik nodded, studying his other half's body, "Uh-huh. Well, I'm counting…"

"Hey, stop that!"

"Ha ha ha! Oh, lighten up."

"Humph!" Malik turned the other way and stomped off in the direction they were previously going. Before Marik had a chance to tease his hikari some more, he stopped right next to him and tilted his head.

"… Do you hear that?" He asked, looking out towards the horizon.

"Um. No."

Marik rolled his eyes and forcefully pushed his hikari in front of him, "Well, listen harder!"

After a moment of whining that he couldn't hear anything and thinking that this was some joke, Malik finally stopped his complaining and heard something. It was like a whisper and then grew louder and louder. Almost like a swarm of locusts or something. Then Malik blinked, "I do hear something!"

"Congrats. What is it?"

"What am I, a desert expert? I don't know, maybe it's a-"

Their question was answered when, against the rising moon came a large sheet of brown and gold sand, whirling into the night. A huge gust of wind came closer and closer until more of the ground covering arose and formed an even louder, more violent cloud hovering towards the two boys who looked at each other and screamed.

"SANDSTORM!"

"Oh Ra, what are we going to do!" Malik shouted, gripping his hair in his fists and running around in circles.

"I don't know! You've been in the desert longer than I have, what do you do in case of sandstorms!"

"Uh… uh…"

The sand flew faster now and was almost over the Egyptians.

"Hurry it up, PLEASE!"

"I got it! Tuck and roll!"

"Grr… that's parachuting, you idiot!"

"Well, excuse me!"

"You wouldn't have to be excused if you weren't such a-"

"AAAHHH!"

Mokuba and co.,

Thanks for the info. We're trying to find those two, but the desert isn't as easy to walk around in as you might think. Everything looks the same. And that cult you mentioned? Haven't seen it, but we'll keep an eye out. But if they hate Yami and Yugi, we're joining. Glad you people aren't in our house, messing it up. Well, Malik's running out of blood, so…

Bye.

Mokuba stopped after he had read it aloud and turned back to his friends and brother who were all sitting in a row on the dusty floor. Mr. Dove had come back and landed on the boy's head and they all noticed a piece of black and green polka dotted cloth tied to him.

"Wow…" Joey blinked, stupefied, "T-They actually got our note?"

"Seems that way." Tristan nodded and rocked Otogi's sleeping head in his lap whilst looking up, "I glad, too. Maybe they'll find it."

"Maybe. But our chances are slim to none. I mean, they're in the middle of the Sahara. Where there are things out there that could stop them. There's even a chance they could be captured again." Seto turned away from the boys and continued what he'd been doing for the past day. Knitting.

Mokuba shook his head, "You can't think like that, big brother. We have to help Marik and Malik by being positive. If no one believes they're able to do this, then they won't."

"Yeah, Kaiba, show some team spirit!" Joey urged.

"Pheh."

The blonde thought for a moment and then an idea popped into his head. (A very rare event.) He stood up and raised his arms in the air, "Gimme a M!"

"Uh… M."

"Gimme an A!"

"A."

"Gimme a R!"

"R."

"Gimme a I!"

"I."

"Gimme a K!"

"K."

"Put it all together and what does it spell?"

"Failure."

Joey blinked, "Jeez wiz, Kaiba. For a CEO, you're terrible at spelling. Nah, it's 'Marik'."

"I KNOW WHAT IT IS, YOU FOOL!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING FOOL?"

"THE ONLY FOOL IN HERE!"

"Alright, just stop it!" Mokuba had to, once again, step in the middle and break it up. He told his brother and Joey to sit down on opposite sides of the cell. They did as they were told, though they complained and grumbled, and Mokuba took in a deep breath.

"'Kay, guys, here's the deal. We'll send Mr. Dove back to them as soon as we can find out something. But until then, we're going to have to be calm and collected. Remember what a great man once said! 'It is not failure that scares us. But the familiarity in it that does.'"

Joey blinked, "… I don't get it."

"Ugh!"

The sand covered everything. Over the hour it had spread to evenly, due to the gentle after breeze. Sandstorms always cause quite a racket and stir up a bit of trouble. Sometimes covering houses or people. But this time it was only two boys who had been involved in any way.

Over all the golden ground, only one thing stuck up from under it. That being a tan hand that was almost covered. It twitched to the left. Then right. Then started flopping around and soon it was grabbed by another hand.

Malik came popping out of the sand, spitting and coughing out all the sand that had been shoved into his mouth. He looked over through the sand that was shaken out of his hair, "M-Marik…?"

"Yeah." He answered simply, "You're lucky I made it, or you would've been as the Sandman."

He did a wiggle and got off most of the sand on his body, "Well… I guess it doesn't matter much. We're in the same position we were in however long ago."

"Ah. No, we're not. That was a pretty big sandstorm. What if it was so big that it got to wherever Ryou and Bakura are and covered them?"

"… Damn."

Marik was about to say something, but then he stopped. Tilting his head, he blinked, "You hear that?"

"Oh no…! Not another one!"

"No, it doesn't sound the same… it sounds like a…"

Suddenly, coming down a large hill from the west, a small, red jeep was in sight. It was coming pretty fast and the boys heard some whistling coming from it. As it came closer and closer and they realized it must be heading for them, Malik turned to Marik and whispered.

"M-Marik, that's probably one of Yami's people!"

"How do you know?"

"Who else would be out here in the middle of the day?"

Screeching to a halt, the jeep swerved in front of both Egyptians and a man in a blue and white stripped shirt waved at them, "Ey, there, buddies!"

"… C-Cody?"

"Ah, yup yup! Heys, c'mon get in! That was some kinda sandstorm that just happened, yep?"

Marik nodded, "Yeah."

Cody smiled again and then stopped, looking at Malik, "… Ah… any reason you goin out with your butt-nakedness all showin?"

Malik blinked and looked down. Immediately, he squealed and hid behind his yami, who groaned.

"C'mon, yous two! Spike Patrol will be here any minute to check it out." He motioned towards the backseats, "Come with me!"

Malik narrowed his eyes a bit and whispered in his other half's ear, "Let's run away. We can't go with him."

"Why not?"

"He's one of Yami's lackeys! He's assistant manager at Happy Chicken, for Ra's sake! We can't trust him."

"He's Cody."

"He's still on Yami's side."

Marik took in a deep breath and lifted the boy from the floor and threw him in the backseat. Malik scrabbled to get up, "Gah, Marik! What are you doing!"

"Drive." Marik jumped in the passenger's seat and nodded to the man who was taking a swig of wine.

"Righty-o!"

"Marik…!"

"And we're off!" He started the jeep again and the went off into the east.