"Double murder!?"

"That's what I said," Atem gasped. "Come, quickly!"

As Yugi rose to his feet, Seto gave one last glance at the laptop and slouched back into his seat with his arms crossed, in stark contrast to the highly amused look on his face. "Two more, huh? How much did you bribe Roland into becoming a serial killer for this?"

"I swear I didn't do anything like that!" Yugi said, genuinely offended. "I wouldn't even know what to use as a bribe in the first place!"

"Well clearly I wasn't the only target tonight."

Atem sagged against the doorframe. "Well Kaiba, I thought that was kind of obvious once we found Mokuba stabbed to death in the kitchen!"

"A plot against us sounds far more plausible than a murder spree against your cheerleader club," said Seto, reaching for the pizza box. "Unless someone got really tired of the overused speeches; and in that case, my sympathies go to your murderer."

Another set of footsteps thundered down the hallway and Joey careened around the doorway, skidding to a halt. Atem, however, did not move out of the way fast enough to give him room to enter the office and they both crashed to the floor.

Seto rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that Yugi only barely picked up, and he turned back to his rival, snickering.

"What was that, Kaiba?"

Seto paused; his pizza slice halfway to his mouth. "I said, 'damn, Wheeler's still alive."

"You knew that though - you were watching on the cameras the entire time!"

Seto shrugged and took his bite. "I can still dream that there'd be another death between then and now."

"How many of my friends are you hoping die today!?"

Seto merely stared at him as if he had grown a second head. "All of them. If I had to go down, I sure as hell am making sure I take the rest of the Nerd Herd with me. And then I can haunt my home in peace."

A tanned arm raised up from the floor, index finger pointed high in the air, and Atem spoke up, still stuck under Joey's weight. "Actually, as the place of several murders, we'd all be haunting your mansion together. What a way to finally hang out with all of our friends at once!"

Any satisfaction Seto had at the killer picking off all of the group suddenly vanished, and his features shifted immediately to one of horror, as if Atem arrived to say not that Roland managed to pick off two of his friends, but Mokuba – and for real that time.

Horror quickly transformed again to disgust. "Get the hell out of my office and avenge each other already."

"Well aren't you a ray o' sunshine," Joey muttered.

"It's my haunted house and I plan on sharing it."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Joey stumbled to his feet and held out a hand for Atem. "I was wonderin' what took you so long. I thought you were grabbing Yug' and coming right back, not chumming it up!"

Atem sighed, "Well that was the goal at any rate."

"Well if you're still alive then Téa must be too," said Yugi mildly. "So that really narrows down the next victims."

"Unless Wheeler is the murderer after all," said Seto.

"You know what, Kaiba? If I were the killer, you really think I'd off you with your own duel disk?"

"How am I supposed to know what goes through the mind of a killer?"

"Oookay," Yugi sighed and held his hands up between the two of them in a peace-keeping gesture. "Let's not commit any more crimes today…."

"Yug' I swear it wasn't me!"

"I know, I know, but we have to find out what happened. Where are the bodies?"

"Upstairs," said Joey, jerking his thumb up towards the ceiling. "Duke n' Tristan kicked the bucket! The girls think that Roland might still be upstairs since he didn't pass me or Téa afterwards. We're gonna search the house all over again because that guy must know all the sneaky hiding places around here."

"So does Mokuba," said Seto, "Isn't he helping you? Wasn't that the whole point of him tagging along?"

"He said he wasn't gonna help us rat out Roland," said Joey, "He was gonna watch, but that's it. We gotta solve this without ghostly intervention."

"I see. Well then go off and find Roland then, if you can," said Seto and waved them out of the office. "And don't bleed out on my carpet when you die."

"I was wondering when you were going to make your way back up here," said Téa angrily. She and Serenity stayed perched on the floor just at the top of the staircase, one facing the grand foyer below, and the other angled towards the second-floor hallway; each one with a line of sight to the main corridors on the first floor or the upper hallway, just in case Roland decided to make a second appearance. Although, by now, it was more like the third appearance? Fourth?

Fourth, she said to herself. Technically, Duke and Tristan died together.

"Serenity and I waited forever," she continued, "and we were starting to think that you just decided to go off and gorge on pizza instead of going to find Atem!"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Joey said and pointed back to where Atem stood, two steps behind him. "It wasn't my fault that he was just shootin' the breeze with Yug' and Kaiba!"

Atem huffed. "Oh please, you showed up ten seconds after I did."

Joey paused, blinked, and tilted his head curiously. "That can't be right…we waited a good couple of minutes before I went off to get you. What the heck were you doing in all that time?"

He then gasped and did a sharp pivot at the top of the steps to stand next to Téa. "Unless you really are the murderer and you were off hidin' the evidence!"

"No!" Atem cried, "Stop trying to pin this on me! I am the last person here alive who would kill Kaiba!"

"Then what were you doing all this time?" Serenity asked.

"Well," Atem said lamely, "I was looking for Yugi…and…I…."

Whatever he meant to say after that came out so quiet that if they weren't watching his lips move, he could have just not said anything at all.

"…and you what?" asked Serenity.

Atem huffed.

"You can tell us," said Serenity, "it's okay."

Atem turned away from them, beet red. "I…I got lost."

"You got lost!?" Mokuba cackled from the somewhere down the upstairs hallway, and Atem scowled. At least Téa and Serenity reacted much kinder to him. He climbed the last few steps and peered around the corner but couldn't see him. "C'mon Atem, the house isn't that big."

Atem crossed his arms and gave a haughty little pout. "Maybe for you who lives here all the time but some of us are not good with directions! And I didn't have the luxury of getting to search the ground floor!"

"DUDE!" Tristan's voice carried down the hallway, likely from the far other end where the lights were still dim. "YOU GREW UP IN A PALACE!"

"AND I NEVER SAID I DIDN'T GET LOST IN IT!"

"Oi, Trist!" Joey shouted. "You're dead so shush!"

"Well maybe someone should get us those ghost badges so we can go haunting like Mokuba!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming, jeeez," Yugi laughed, "I'm sorry that I wanted to check in and make sure that Kaiba was having a good time too."

"He's a corpse, he can't have a good time or a bad time anymore," said Joey.

"What does that make Tristan and Duke?" Serenity asked.

"A pair of stiffs," said Joey. "Time don't mean anythin' to them anymore either."

The upstairs hallway turned out to be larger than Yugi expected it to be, and he suspected that was in part due to all of the closed doors lining the hall. All completely identical, save for the set of double-doors halfway to the end. And in the middle of the floor sat Mokuba, face illuminated by the light of his cellphone. He faced ahead towards the stairs, ignoring Duke and Tristan behind him as if the two sprawled on the floor with the bloody kitchen knife between them were a usual occurrence in the house.

It certainly was tonight, at any rate.

"Hello and happy haunts," Mokuba said casually. The moment Yugi stopped beside him he pocketed the phone and swiveled around to face Duke and Tristan. "Was wondering when the investigation brigade was coming."

"Oh come on we were not that late!" Atem huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why is everyone ganging up on me tonight?"

"Hey it's not my fault," Mokuba said mildly, "time is not quite the same when you're a ghost."

Atem chuckled. "And I suppose you're suddenly the expert on such things?"

Mokuba snickered. "I'm a Kaiba. I'm an expert on a lot of things."

"Oh yeah?" Joey said skeptically, "Like what?"

"Being underestimated."

Yugi cleared his throat in a somewhat subtle attempt to bring everyone back to the matter at hand. He crouched down beside Duke to examine the scene. The knife appeared identical in fashion to the one left at Mokuba's murder. They must have come out of the same set. How many others were there? If he walked into the kitchen at this exact moment, would he find an empty knife block on the counter? Just how many had one of his friends' names on them?

"Another kitchen knife," Atem mused, "someone must be out for blood!"

"And our friends," said Téa, "Was Kaiba not enough? What's the motive at this point?"

"It's obvious to me," said Joey, "that Kaiba's spook is just trying to get rid of all of us so we can't go blabbin' that he killed both his bosses. At this rate he ain't gonna stop until we're all dead."

"Joey I don't want to die!" Serenity squeaked.

"You won't, sis. Not while I'm around. We're gonna catch Roland and bring him to justice!"

"We have to find him first," said Téa. "And we've already tried splitting up, remember?"

Joey smacked his fist against his open palm. "Look, Téa, this is war!"

"I agree," said Yugi. He stood back up with the kitchen knife in his hand. "I'm rather curious to the differences in the murders. Kaiba's was so personal – he had such a connection to his duel disk. But the use of simple kitchen knives for everyone else seems like an afterthought, like they were all unplanned and now he's just winging it."

Serenity shuddered. "Oh, I don't know, Yugi. Don't you have to get close to stab someone with a knife? That has to be a pretty personal attack too."

"I see," said Atem, and he raised his hand in the air., "Kaiba's death - the multiple beatings with his duel disk - was a crime of passion! The true crime of the evening! I bet he was the only one meant to die. But! Perhaps Mokuba saw a clue in Kaiba's office or somewhere else in the house that would have pointed to the killer and that's why he had to die too!"

Joey nudged Tristan's leg with his shoe. "Uh huh. And what about these two losers?"

"Maybe one of them found Roland up here and he killed him. And in order to keep the other one from running to get help he had to take out both of them."

"Then we really need to stick together as a group and really try and go over what we know again," said Serenity. "Maybe we need to find out what Mokuba may have seen at the original scene of the crime - and before Roland strikes again!"

Yugi glanced down at his clipboard. "Clues would be a good starting point - so far the only thing you all have discovered are a lot of pointy murder weapons. Surely the killer has left something behind for you to discover…"

Joey turned on his heel and started back down the hallway towards the stairs. "Then let's go!"

Yugi watched him lead Serenity and Téa back towards the stairs and then crouched down next to Duke and Tristan. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two more of the smiling ghost pins. "Okay you two. Time to haunt."

"Oh thank you," Duke said, and he propped himself up onto his elbows. "I was starting to worry that you were going to forget and just leave us here to stare at the ceiling all night."

"Me?" Yugi mock gasped and innocently pointed towards his chest. "Never!"

"So we can wander around like everyone else can now, right?" asked Tristan.

"You can, but you can't say anything you might have learned about the killer," said Yugi, "Technically, you're dead so any secrets you've discovered have died with you."

He paused. "Did you find out the killer?"

Duke and Tristan stared at each other for several beats before Tristan shrugged his shoulders and climbed to his feet. "Dunno, dude. It sure was dark up here. Kaiba ought to invest in some better light bulbs."

"Kaiba and Mokuba are dead," said Duke, "so they're not going to be investing in anything."

"Fair enough." Tristan slung an arm around Duke's shoulder. "So, my man, what's say we celebrate our newfound freedom by skimming a slice or two off Joey's pizza?"

"Heh, why not?" Duke shoved his hands in his pockets and started for the steps. "You know – I was thinking – and I can say this cuz the others already left – but what if they had the killer all wrong?"

Yugi turned towards him curiously. "Oh? You don't think Roland's the killer?"

"I don't know," said Duke. "Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. Maybe he killed Kaiba. But Mokuba too? I mean, I know this is a game and all, but really what motive would someone have to off Mokuba? He's just a kid!"

"Maybe it was like they said before – maybe he saw something that gave the killer away, and the killer knew it so they had to."

"Right, a clue," said Duke. "And so far the only clue we have is the first murder weapon. I find it hard to believe that there's nothing else to find."

"Man, I don't know what to believe," said Tristan. "And I don't know who to trust."

"We don't have to trust anyone anymore," said Duke. "We're just as dead as Kaiba and Mokuba. But at least ghost pizza still tastes good."

"So what do we know?" Joey asked around a mouthful of pepperoni.

"That whoever killed Kaiba had enough time to stash his duel disk on the pool table without being noticed," said Téa.

"And poor Mokuba – he was only in the kitchen for a minute before he was killed," said Serenity. "We were all in the dining room when it happened too."

"That's true," said Atem. "You did roll call while the power was off."

"So Roland must've done it, and snuck back to where he was hiding before the lights came on," said Téa. "It makes sense. He's been the only one not with us when the lights keep going out, and he's had plenty of time to commit the murders and get back to wherever the breakers are to turn them back on without being seen."

"Not to mention," said Mokuba, "no one else among us would know where the circuit breakers are to even shut them off in the first place."

"Oho," said Yugi, "So our killer has a co-conspirator!"

Atem wrinkled his nose and stared at his soda. If Roland had help, then any of his friends could be in on it. And aside from ill feelings towards Kaiba, there was no proof or clue to narrow down their suspect pool. And what's to say that Roland didn't have any other mansion staff turning the lights on and off? Just because they haven't seen anyone else in the house didn't mean they didn't exist. Surely Kaiba had to have some patrolling security guards wandering around.

This was getting very complicated.

"I just had a thought," Joey said suddenly.

"Did it hurt?" asked Tristan.

Joey glared at him. "Har har. But really. Hey, Yug'…"

"Yes, Joey?"

"What if, for example…Duke killed Kaiba…."

"I already don't like where this is going," said Duke.

"Shaddup. What if Duke killed Kaiba, but Ninja Man killed Duke?"

The dining room fell silent, and only nervous looks passed around the table.

Yugi stared down at the table, looking through it as he tapped the edge of his clipboard against his nose. That was something he hadn't considered. What if the game went so far off the rails that it didn't make sense anymore? The idea wasn't to complicate the adventure, but it was something he hadn't considered. But what could he say without giving up any crucial information or spoiling the killer's identity?

"Yugi?" Serenity asked. "Are you okay?"

Yugi stayed quiet for a few moments. "This started as a murder mystery, and it is. We had to discover who killed Kaiba."

"Did you plan for the murder spree though?" asked Téa nervously.

"He must have," said Mokuba, "Cuz of all the little ghost buttons!"

Yugi couldn't help but agree to that part. He did make plenty of ghost buttons, enough for all of his friends. But that didn't mean he planned for mass carnage during the sleepover. They were meant to be fun little gifts afterwards.

"There are two sides to a game," He continued carefully, "We as a collective group must identify and stop the killer. That is how we win. If we all die, well, then it will be obvious to who the murderer is and they'll win.

"If, for example, I killed Kaiba, then you would have to identify me," said Yugi, "But if in the investigation an accomplice is discovered, they must be stopped as well or there's no telling what dastardly crimes they may commit!"

"But if we find Roland, we can force a confession out of him," said Tristan. "Or…well…you guys can."

"Then we gotta search the floors as a unit," said Joey, "cuz if we split up again, someone else is gonna end up dead. We're safer in numbers. And we ought to start lookin' upstairs where Duke and Trist' kicked the bucket."

"Why there?" asked Téa, "Unless he's going to be waiting up there with all the kitchen knives, I don't think he'd stick around. He didn't when Mokuba was killed either."

"We gotta figure out what Tristan 'n Duke were doing when they got shanked," said Joey, "So we gotta investigate the upper floors."

Atem drummed his fingers against the table. The only thing he saw upstairs, for the brief minute he got to examine where Duke and Tristan died, was the bloody knife on the floor. It looked nearly identical to the one that took out Mokuba in the kitchen so it clearly must have come from the same set.

If he walked into the kitchen and found the knife block that they came out of, how many more empty slots would he find? One? Two? Or perhaps the entire block would be missing in order to mask the number of crimes still yet to be played out tonight.

But didn't Roland know, as Kaiba put it, multiple ways of killing someone without a weapon? Did he really have to use a kitchen knife for a murder weapon? Especially when he carried a firearm all the time? Not that he expected the man to go around shooting his friends, but if Kaiba went so far out of his way to bloody himself up for dramatic effect, surely they could throw some fake bullets around the dropped bodies too.

The fact that Roland hadn't appeared at all since bringing in their dinner didn't sit well either. They already split up to search from top to bottom once. How did no one find him yet? Kaiba even checked that he was someplace searchable. So none of the locked doors upstairs. Not outside.

The others were still talking, something about nosing through rooms upstairs, but Atem tuned them out. He had to think. There had to be clues upstairs, surely, but a nagging little voice whispered in his ear that it just wasn't the right place to start.

"Hey," Yugi said, and sat down next to him at the table. "You okay, Atem?"

Atem smiled grimly at him. "I'm just trying to think. This can't be as simple as it seems. I don't see why Roland would go through the bother of a kitchen knife when he has firearms to use at his disposal."

"Who knows what goes through the mind of a killer," said Joey. He quickly looked around at the group before adding, "I can say that, cuz I don't know. Cuz I didn't do it!"

"Yeah, Joey," said Téa, "we know."

"Why wouldn't he?" asked Serenity. "How easy would it be for him to just take the knives from the kitchen and make off with them? It was probably nothing for him to sneak in and out of there while we were in the study with Kaiba!"

"It's just that Kaiba's death was so personal. Killed by his own duel disk. And if Roland then wanted to take revenge again on Mokuba, why just use a knife?"

Mokuba crossed his arms. "Whatcha trying to say, Atem? A knife isn't good enough to do me in?"

"Well there was so much flair gone into Kaiba's. It almost seems like the other deaths were hasty attempts to cover his tracks. Kaiba didn't die under the cloak of darkness, but Mokuba, Duke, and Tristan all did. The killer had to be sure that the victims wouldn't accidentally reveal the secret."

"Yeah, but Kaiba wasn't struck from behind or anything. He knows who his murderer is, I'm sure," said Tristan.

"Yeah, but we all know Kaiba ain't gonna blab," said Joey.

"Precisely," said Atem. He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and took a hard look at his friends. "I don't think Roland is the killer. It's one of us. Someone snuck into the kitchen when the lights went out and killed Mokuba. And then did the same to Tristan and Duke. Maybe one of them saw something in Kaiba's study that tipped them off. Or maybe it was all part of their plan, as Yugi said, to win by being the last one standing and we all have to find him or her before we're all picked off one by one."

"Then who kept turning off the lights?" asked Téa, "Because someone had to."

"That's where Roland will be, waiting for the killer to want to strike again," said Atem. "So if Duke and Tristan were killed upstairs, there are probably no more clues to be found there. We need to find the circuit breaker, and for that, I believe the best place to start is going to be in the basement."

"Wait a minute, time out!" Serenity cried, "That means…if it's one of us…the killer has to be…"

She gasped and looked at Joey and Téa, horrified. "One of you two!"

"It wasn't me!" Joey said, before Téa could even think to say anything. "I know you all think I killed Kaiba, but I swear it wasn't me!"

"Joey of all of us left, you are the likely suspect!" said Atem.

"What reason would I have to kill Mokuba!?"

"But if it wasn't Joey, then it had to be Téa," said Serenity, "because you two were on this floor, and there wouldn't have been enough time for me or Atem to run up two flights of stairs and kill Tristan and Duke and then make it all the way back before the lights came back on. They weren't off for that long."

Téa glanced Joey up and down and then took a large side-step away from him. "I'm not the killer," she said, "I just wish there was a way to prove it. Because we were not in the same room when the lights went out."

"So where were you?" asked Atem.

"I was in the library," said Téa. "I don't know where Joey was."

"I know where Joey was," Mokuba snickered.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be giving anything away," said Duke. "We're out of the game!"

Mokuba shrugged. "It's not rocket science. And I'm not saying this he did or didn't kill anyone, but…."

He pointed towards the center of the table, where the pepperoni pizza box lid was flipped open, and a considerable chuck of the pie had gone missing. "I think someone decided to snack instead of investigate."

Joey's face flushed. "HEY! How do you know Roland didn't steal my food!?"

Mokuba snickered. "Roland hates pepperoni. And your fingers are all messy."

Joey glanced down to his hands resting on his hips and swore something unintelligible under his breath. He darted forward and grabbed two napkins off the table in a desperate attempt to clean his fingers and the orange spots that got left behind on his clothes. "Aw man, I liked this tshirt too!"

Atem narrowed his eyes and peered out through the wide doorway of the dining room leading back into the main foyer. "The staircase is right there," he said. "This is a prime location to be able to hear Duke and Tristan upstairs, and be able to slip up and down without too much difficulty."

"ATEM I SWEAR I DIDN'T DO IT!"

Mokuba leaned over to Atem and lowered his voice. "Sure looks like he did, huh? He would be the right one to take Seto out with a duel disk…and it was probably in a fight about one too."

Atem nodded. "I just need to find evidence to stick him with it. I don't believe Roland committed these crimes, but he must have helped."

"Better hurry, or you won't have to worry about avenging me and my brother," Mokuba hissed with just a trace of bitterness. "You're almost out of friends."

Atem frowned and stared at the open pizza box. A butter knife lay inside, propped against the edge of the box with the blade sitting in a spot of grease. Saucy fingerprints coated the handle. This was a used knife, not one just decorated with fake blood on its blade and left on the ground as a prop.

Wait a second!

Atem glance back towards the hall, and before anyone could say anything, bolted up the steps and down the upstairs hallway to where Tristan and Duke were found.

"Atem, what's wrong?" Téa called after him, and before long there were footsteps thundering up the stairs in his wake.

He reached down and picked up the knife. Despite the clean handle, he held it with care from the top of the bladed half, and showed it off to the others. Finally, now they were getting somewhere, even if this admission cleared his initial suspect. "Evidence."

"Evidence of what?" said Joey, "That it offed Duke and Trist'? Cuz we knew that already."

"Your innocence!" said Atem, "Joey, I know we accused you in the past, and I am sorry…but if you were eating in the dining room when the lights went out, as you claimed, then you could not have killed Duke and Tristan."

"What makes you say that?" asked Serenity.

Joey raised his eyebrow down at her. "What, you don't believe Atem that I didn't do it?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" she squeaked. "I'm just hopeful that he's right! You're the last person I want to think killed Kaiba and Mokuba."

He jerked his thumb towards Tristan and Duke. "But not these two?"

Tea patted his shoulder. "Joey, even without this game, with those two you would be the first I'd suspect."

She beckoned him closer and whispered something into his ear. Atem watched him frown and then, once it seemed to dawn on him what her words meant, laughed. "Yea, you got a point there. But I definitely didn't kill anyone here."

"I know," said Atem. "Your fingers had pizza sauce all over them. But look here. This knife is clean. It wouldn't have been able to survive unscathed if Joey handled it with his hands in their current condition,"

Joey pumped a fist into the air. "I told you!"

Atem led them back down to the dining room and set the bloody knife at the other end of the table. "I think it is all the more imperative we find Roland. It might clear up the mysteries of the other two murders, and perhaps prevent another."

"…you should have all believed me when I said it wasn't me," said Joey, "obviously, thanks to Atem's keen detective work, I couldn't have killed Duke and Trist', two o' my best pals, and really if you think about it, I couldn't have killed poor Mokuba either! Because when the lights were out I was doin' roll call right here with all of you!"

"That's right," said Téa, "but all of us were here for roll call. The only explanation is that Roland got to Mokuba, even if one of us killed Kaiba."

Yugi beckoned everyone closer and tapped the side of his deerstalker cap with his pen. "What if…like Joey thought…there's more than one murderer? But…here's a twist."

He wore a devious grin and waited for them all to lean in before throwing his arms around Mokuba and Tristan's shoulders. "What if…each murder...was committed by someone different?"

"Oh geez!" Téa threw her arms up into the air and stalked off towards the far end of the dining room. "I can't deal with all of you. I'm heading for the basement. Mokuba, where is it?"

"Hall at the other end of the kitchen."

Joey pulled Serenity to the side, once almost everyone else made for the stairs and went out of earshot. "I got a funky feelin' about Téa," he whispered. "Be on your guard, 'kay?"

Serenity nodded, wide-eyed. "I'll be careful."

They passed by Atem, who stayed in the kitchen, standing in front of the kitchen island, seemingly staring off at something on the far end of the counter.

"Yo, Atem, you comin'?"

"Oh, right. Sorry," said Atem, and he hurried past Joey and to the steps to follow the others down, and caught up with Mokuba at the bottom of the steps.

"Was wondering where you went," Mokuba muttered. "So Joey didn't do it. Damn."

"He didn't get Duke and Tristan at any rate," said Atem, "and we know he didn't get you since he was talking through the power outage in the dining room the entire time. So if he didn't commit those murders, somehow I doubt he killed Kaiba. So I'm back to square one."

"I really thought it was Joey," said Mokuba.

"I know. I don't know who it is now," said Atem.

"Unless," Mokuba mused, "he wasn't eating pizza, and got his hands all messy after he returned from killing Duke and Tristan."

Atem nodded slowly. That could be possible, he mused. Téa claimed to be in another part of the ground floor when the lights went off. There wouldn't be anyone to corroborate Joey's story. And how hard would it be to use his favorite pastime as an alibi? Sure no one could prove it…but being Joey? And a roomful of food? Where else would he have been, if not the dining room?

"Hey, Atem!" Joey called, "You were snoopin' around down here. What's where?"

"We didn't get to search very much because the lights went out not long after we got down here," said Serenity. She pointed over towards the nearest open door. "There's a gym in there."

"I only poked my head through that door," said Atem, and he moved to stand before one on the other end of the hall. "It didn't seem right to pry, but it looked like a workroom. I saw parts of a duel disk on the desk."

Joey's eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together greedily. "Oh, really? Like a new one?"

Téa reached out and grabbed his arm before he could make a move to run inside. "Focus. Somehow I doubt the new tech gets made here at his house anyway."

"But a new duel disk!" Joey waved his arms wildly. "And you didn't think to take a good peek at it?"

Yugi stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Guys, Kaiba originally didn't want us down here. Like the upstairs, we need to respect his concession and not take advantage."

"Okay, okay." Joey crossed his arms and pushed out his lower lip in a ridiculously childish pout.

"I wouldn't have messed with it," he muttered, "just taken a peek or two…or six."

Having heard him, Téa shook her head, rolled her eyes, and did a slow turn on the spot in the hallway. The mansion was vast, yet the basement didn't seem very large at all. The gym was of a decent size but that was the closest room to the stairs going back up. The workroom and the two other unexplored doors were nearer to the end of the house. So what happened to the rest of the foundation?

"Mokuba, this may seem weird, but are there…two basements?"

"There are offices and living quarters for staff that lived here when our stepfather was alive," said Mokuba. "It's under the center of the house but you have to access it from outside. And the other side has a panic shelter and Seto's backup security system so there's no point in exploring that. If you needed to look for Roland down here, you want to be on this side of the house."

"Well no time like the present!" said Joey. "And if I'm not allowed to rummage through Kaiba's secret lab then I say we choose this door!"

He pushed forward and confidently threw the door open. The lights were out in the room and he fumbled his hand along the edge of the wall, hunting for a light switch. He could make out the edge of what might a desk from the hall lights, but not much else.

"Move, Joey, you're blocking the door!" said Téa.

"What's your hurry, we can't see nuthin anyways," Joey mumbled, and swept his arm up and down the wall until fingers finally stumbled over the switch panel. "Got it!"

Serenity peered around him. "Oh, it's an office!"

Several long cabinets lined one wall, with twin oversized tv screens mounted above them, each broadcasting a grid of camera feeds. There was a door against the far wall, which, judging by the small windows at the very top of the room on the same wall, led outside.

A desk stood in the center of the office, holding sentry to a control panel box in the back corner.

But they weren't alone. Hiding behind the two computer monitors, a black-suited figure slumped over his keyboard, with a knife protruding from his back.

Serenity raised a hand to her mouth to stifle her gasp. Duke and Tristan merely looked at each other. Téa leaned against the doorframe in disbelief, and Yugi's eyes doubled in size as he took in the bloody scene.

Atem, still in the hallway, shifted back and forth on each foot, trying to peer around all of his friends huddled in the doorway and blocking his vision. "You guys, I can't see! What is it?"

"Another murder," Joey said flatly.

"Five altogether," said Téa.

Atem slowly eyed the entire group. One of the four of them still alive was a murderer. "This is getting serious."