A/N Hello, to anyone who is still reading this fic. Yes, I know it took very long to update, yes, I truly know that. But as I said in previous chapters, I'm getting bored of this story, and well, in all honesty, I kind of hate it now. Bleh, whatever, I just want to finish it and start on something completely new. What new thing exactly? Well, I can tell you that I will no longer be writing Yu-Gi-Oh! fics. Why? I kind of got bored of the show (not entirely, but it's not enough for me to continue writing Yu-Gi-oh! stories). So now once this story is done, I can finally start a new fic for my new obsession, which is . . . . Naruto! If you would like to know what it will be about, just say so (especially if you're an Itachi/Sakura fan), and I'll put the summary probably in the last chapter or in my bio. Anyway, I really hope you read and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Bloody hell! How many times to I have to say this, I do not own it!

Chapter 8 – Stage II: Capture

'Are you scared?'

"Who wouldn't be?"

'Don't be afraid. I will be there with you.'

"I don't even know who you are."

'In time you will know . . . Soon, actually.'

"What's going to happen?"

'That is for you to decide.'

Tea gave an irritated grunt. Right now she was in her dream world for some reason. All she remembered was the world becoming dark and the weather acting weird, then . . . darkness. After that, well, like it was said, she was back in her dream world. The place, however, had stayed white; no longer did darkness linger in this void. She was glad, at least, for that. But the voice that now occupied this place was just like the other voice; both never gave her straight answers. She couldn't help but feel irritated by that.

"You're just like HIM," Tea said, referring to the other voice that she so dreaded.

'What do you mean?'

"Both of you never give any straight answers. Why is it that you can't simply tell me who you are? Or what will happen? Why can't I know now? It's so frustrating trying to figure all this out!" Tea yelled, not meaning to. "I'm . . . I'm just worried. It's frightening not knowing what's going to happen, especially when my friends may be in danger. I need to know what's going on. I need to know!"

'In time you will know everything.'

Tea sighed at her response. She was tired of this but there was nothing she could do. No one could give her any answers to all her questions, no one but these voices which have refused countless times to give any straight answer. She sighed once more and asked, "Can you at least tell me if my friends will be alright?"

'That is for you to decide.'

Tea gritted her teeth, trying desperately not to scream. But she calmed a bit when she heard the gentle voice speak again.

'In time you will know everything. Everything will be your decision. For now, it is best that you awaken into reality once more, your friends and family are worried . . . but leave with this in mind: What are you willing to give for your friends and the world?'

Tea thought carefully at the voice's question, 'What would I give?' She knew that she would give anything to make sure that her friends would be safe. But before she could voice her answer, the gentle voice spoke once more.

'You have once proven that you would give anything. I know you will make the right choice. In time you will know what it is. In time you will know everything. Soon . . . Now wake up and follow your heart.'

Tea didn't say anything; she knew there was no point. Once they said to wake up, she would be back in reality, confused as ever. But this time, she didn't think she would be confused. In her heart, she already felt she knew what the voice was talking about. What was she willing to give? That was an easy question and for once she had an answer.

0000000000

Darkness had engulfed the world. That's how Tea saw it as she looked outside from her room. She figured that it was Bakura that brought her to their room and now she sat on the bed looking into a pit of darkness. There was no light from the moon and the stars were barely brilliant to cast any light to the world. She would change that, though, she vowed that.

Tea got out of the bed and walked silently to the balcony. She had woken up a few minutes ago and at first she was confused. What had happened when that shadow had engulfed her family and herself? All she could remember was a voice saying, 'Your light will conquer'. A phrase she had heard before and, somehow, was beginning to make some sense now.

"My light will conquer. . ? I wonder . . ." Tea thought carefully, but she was soon snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Yasuo cry out something.

"Mother! You're awake!" Yasuo had said to her then yelled the other way, "Dad, come quickly, mom's awake!"

Running could be heard not to far from where the mother and child were. It didn't take long for Bakura to come rushing into the room and upon entering it, he quickly went to his wife and with a smile, he embraced her.

"I'm so glad," was all he said. Tea was confused at his actions and wondered what could have caused him to worry so much. What had happened when that shadow engulfed them?

"Bakura . . ." she didn't know what to say, so she did the next best thing and hugged him back.

"It's good to see you awake, Tea. We were really worried," Seto said. He and the others had just come into the room, many of them with relived faces.

Tea back away a little from Bakura and looked at everyone carefully. She really wanted to know what was going on. Why were they acting as if they feared she wouldn't have woken up? "Um, guys, what exactly is going on? What happened?" she at last asked.

"We'll talk in the living room," Bakura told her as he held her hand and led her to the other room.

Once the group of friends were sitting comfortably in the living quarters, Bakura began to tell Tea everything. "We don't know what exactly happened, but from what I remember, some type of shadow had engulfed us."

"Yeah, and it was really freaky," Yasuo added. Bakura looked at him and just nodded.

"Yes, but putting that aside, once the shadow engulfed us, there was some type of light that appeared which, basically, destroyed the shadow. I really have no clue where it came from or what it really was, but once we were free from the darkness of the shadow, you fainted." Bakura finished.

"Not only that, but the same thing happened to us," Seto included further.

"And for some reason, we are now the only ones awake. The reason we were worried about you is because we feared the same fate that, we presume, the whole world has fallen into had befallen on you as well," Isis explained.

"What fate is that?" Anzu asked.

"We don't know the cause, but no one seems to be able to wake up. We tried everything to wake up Rashid, but nothing worked," Malik told her.

"Joey, Tristan, and I went out to see if the same thing was going on with other people and when we were out there, there were many people just lying on the streets. They weren't dead, just asleep, but just like Rashid we couldn't wake them up," Duke continued the conversation.

"So we can assume the world is the same. Everyone has succumbed into a deep slumber and who knows how we can get them to wake up again," Yugi said, feeling as everyone else was, worried. Tea eyes widen a bit, 'succumbed into a deep slumber? The scripture that Isis had read, everything that she read is coming true. Darkness has been cast throughout the world and everyone now has succumbed into a deep slumber. So the reason why we are all awake is because . . .'

"But why are we awake? Why is it that we are the only ones who are fine?" Serenity asked. Everyone looked to each other and couldn't come up with an answer. They were as confused as the questioner.

"I have a theory," Tea spoke up. Bakura and the others looked at her and didn't speak so she continued, "I think the answers are all in the scripture that Isis read to us. So far everything we heard has come to pass. My guess, if I am truly the one who was meant to defeat the threat, that all of us are awake is because you are all close to me. As the scripture said, 'only those close to HER will rise' which could possibly mean what I assume it means."

"So could it be possible that the scriptures were talking about you specifically, that you are this 'HER'?" Isis asked.

"I don't think I'm this 'HER' specifically, but . . . I can't explain what it is, I'm still trying to figure this out," Tea honestly told them.

"Don't worry about it, Tea, but now that you brought up the scripture, I recall that it said 'If the doors open before the next sunrise, the world will sleep forever more and darkness will rise' which I think we have to do something before the next sunrise or everything will stay the way it is," Seto said.

"But if the sun is covered by the moon, then there can't possibly be a sunrise. How will we know when time is up?" Joey asked without thinking, making Seto sigh irritably.

"The sun rises at six, dimwit, that's when time will be up," Seto answered, as Joey simply and quietly said 'oh yeah'.

"So we have until six am tomorrow to stop this threat," Tea confirmed, "but this will be difficult since we don't know what or who we're after."

"Wait a minute, what about Ren? Did he tell you anything, Anzu?" Bakura asked as he remembered the fool had jumped off the cliff.

"Ren? That's right, we have heard that he jumped to his death, is it true Tea?" Isis asked her.

"Yes, and before he did, he talked about how darkness was beautiful and his final words were 'The time has come, LIGHT. Darkness will rise'. But that's all he said, he didn't say anything else that might be helpful," Tea explained.

"So we're still clueless," Marik spoke. Everyone sighed at how true his words were.

"Well, sitting in here won't accomplish anything. I think we should go out there and search," Malik suggested.

"But we don't know what we're looking for or where to even begin looking," Mai countered.

"Whatever seems out of place or suspicious might lead us somewhere. But we need to split up to cover a lot of ground," Yami spoke up.

"No!" Tea shouted, not really meaning to. Everyone turned to stare at her, puzzled at her outburst, "I mean . . . that's not a good idea. Please, whatever we do, let's not separate. Trust me on this one, please."

"But it'll be harder to find whatever it is we're looking for," Serenity contradicted.

"I know, but . . . separating is just something we can't do. We need to stick together, please," Tea pleaded.

"We should listen to her," Bakura agreed with his wife, "We don't know what we'll face out there. It'll be safer this way."

"Then I suggest we leave now and stop wasting time. We only have twenty two hours to stop this threat," Seto informed them.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for," Marik growled out, as he got up and headed for the door. Everyone nodded, agreeing that conversation was over and now was the time to look for whatever it was they needed to look for. They swiftly followed Marik and were soon out the door.

0000000000

Two hours had gone by and they found nothing. There was nothing that could help them. They had gone to the ruined temple and palace, but no clue was there. They wandered around the city, finding nothing suspicious or out of place. They wandered aimlessly everywhere they could think of. But nothing at all was found.

After those two hours they decided to rest for a while. They needed to think carefully about their search and after talking for about an hour they had concluded that they needed to get out of the city and look around the dessert. Of course, that would be difficult. The dessert was a vast area that seemed to be the same all around. They could easily get lost and waste precious time.

"But what other choice do we have? There might be something out in the dessert. Maybe some type of fortress," Joey tried to persuade.

"Wouldn't anyone have noticed something like that?" Ryou countered, "I don't think whoever is doing all this would have a fortress where everyone could pass it by."

"That's true, but I agree with Joey that we should look in the dessert and while we look we might as well also head toward the next city," suggested Isis.

"But sister, the next city is about two hours away, you think we can spare that time?" Malik asked sceptically.

"There is no other choice," she responded.

"Well then, if that's the case, we better pack up everything we'll need for the ride," Tristan told them.

"Okay, then Serenity, Joey, Tristan, and I can do that," Yugi said, as the ones he named agreed.

"All we need now are vehicles," Seto informed, "I think three will be enough."

"Good, I can provide that," Isis told him, "So who'll drive?"

"I can be one driver," Duke volunteered.

"So can I," Seto volunteered as well.

"Me, too," Mai said. Isis nodded at the three, agreeing with their offer.

"Very well, we should go back to the house and prepare ourselves," Isis told them. Everyone nodded in agreement and soon began their journey back to the mansion. But something wasn't right and Tea seemed to notice when she looked over to Yami who hadn't moved at all.

'I hear something . . . a voice that . . . is so familiar,' Yami stood still as he thought. He hadn't been listening to his friends' conversation and didn't even realize that they were now on the move. As Tea observed him, she couldn't help but think he was in some type of trance.

"Yami?" she called out.

'Do not move, pharaoh.'

Yami listened. He simply stood there, not acknowledging Tea. In all truth, he didn't even hear her. All he heard was the voice.

"Yami!" Tea tried again. She walked slowly to him, hoping that if she shook him, it would do some good, but she abruptly stopped when she noticed something on the ground.

Yami was standing on some glowing, red circle that seemed to have been getting bigger. It was as if something was about to pop out of the ground.

"What the he . . ." she didn't have a chance to finish as the ground began to shake. She held her balance and gasped at what she saw. The ground underneath Yami was cracking and breaking. Something was going to pop up! Without thinking she ran toward Yami, there was no way he was going to get hurt, not if she could help it! "Yami!" she yelled as he pushed him roughly out of the way, but unfortunately for her, whatever was underground had at that exact moment come out of the ground and to her total horror, this thing had tentacles! It quickly wrapped its disgusting tentacles anywhere it could around Tea and had lifted her very high off the ground. It tightened its hold every time she struggled and she couldn't help but let out a scream at the deathly hold.

"Anzu!" Bakura yelled as he rushed quickly to her. The others were not too far behind.

"What the hell is that!" Tristan yelled, feeling the same as the others, disgusted by the creature.

"No way, that can't be . . ." Yugi cried out in disbelief.

"It is . . . it's a duel monster!" Seto confirmed.

"What!" yelled Serenity.

"It doesn't mater what it is! We have to save my mother!" Yasuo shouted, feeling scared for his mom.

"Well, if it's a duel monster, then maybe this will work," Joey quietly said as he took out his deck.

"Joey, what are you doing?" Serenity questioned her brother.

"Just trying something out, trust me, sis," Joey told her as he picked a card and shouted out, "I summon Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

To the total disbelief of everyone, including Joey himself, his Red Eyes had come to life.

"But how? He doesn't even have a Duel Disk," Seto mentioned.

"Who cares, as long as I know, this is a good thing. Now we can save Tea!" Joey triumphantly said and was soon going to tell his precious duel monster to attack when . . .

"Stop you fool!" Bakura yelled, making Joey stop immediately. "If you attack you might hurt her as well!"

"He's right, we have to find another way," Yami said as he had walked toward the group.

"Yami what happened to you?" Isis asked.

"I don't know," he simply responded.

"That doesn't matter right now!" Bakura angrily told them. He was furious that Tea was even in this situation. He had vowed that he would protect her yet he already began to break it. 'I can't let anything happen to her. I won't allow her to be harmed!' with that thought and not thinking any further he ran toward the monster and his wife.

"Bakura, wait!" Yami called out, fearing the worst.

Bakura would not listen to the past pharaoh; he was determined to save his wife no matter what. So he ran faster, hoping that he could find a way to release Tea from the monster's hold. But things never seem to go as one hopes . . .

As soon as Bakura reached the duel monster, he jump as high as he could hoping to grasp one of the ugly creature's tentacles and climb toward Tea, but as soon as he touched one, he felt a surge of electricity surge though him. He was flung back to the ground, roughly making contact with the ground.

"Bakura!" Tea yelled in worry and fright.

"Shit!" that's all Bakura could say as he tried to deal with the pain. Once it past, he stood up and looked up to Tea, trying hard to come up with some sort of plan.

"Dad!" Yasuo cried out as he ran to his father, "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," Bakura muttered. 'There has to be a way to save her . . . but how?' he thought helplessly.

"Bakura, forget about me! I don't want to see you or anyone else hurt! Please!" Tea pleaded as she struggled more, only having her restraints squeeze tighter and making her gasp in pain.

"Shit! What do I do?' Bakura couldn't seem to think of anything and he was soon distracted by a noise.

"What was that noise?" Yasuo spoke his thoughts.

"That creature . . ." Bakura's eyes widen at a realization. He knew this monster's abilities and attacks, remembering seeing it once before so what he realized was . . ., "That monster is charging! He's going to . . . no! Anzu!"

Anzu could feel something more terrible was about to happen. She felt the monster moving a bit, as it gave out a loud, horrible screech. She tried wiggling, moving as much as she could to see if she could set herself free, but still the monster would not loosen its grip.

"Anzu!" Bakura called out again, attempting to run to her aid again, but he was held back by Seto.

"You can't help her by rushing to your doom. You know what happens when you touch that creature!" Seto warned him.

"I don't care! I have to get her out of there!" Bakura told him. However it was too late.

With a final ear-splitting screech, the duel monster let out a surge of electricity though its tentacles and when it reached Tea, all that could be heard was her agonizing scream. Bakura and the others looked on in horror, feeling helpless.

It took a few seconds until the monster finally stopped its attack. Everything became so silent and still. Nothing seemed to be actually real to Bakura. He just couldn't believe it.

"Anzu," Bakura whispered as he fell to his knees.

Anzu's eyes were wide opened and no life glittered within them when the attack had ended and she soon found herself drifting off. Her eyes began to close and she could feel a trickle of blood flowing down her chin. As her head drooped down, she looked toward Bakura before she closed her eyes completely. The pain she was feeling was beginning to fade away, as was every other feeling. All she knew was darkness soon after.

"Mom . . ." Yasuo whispered as he tried to hold in his sobs.

Everyone was in shock, but soon snapped out of it when they felt the ground begin to shake once more. They knew it was the creature moving, and Bakura, hoping that it would release Tea soon, prepared himself to catch her. But to his and the others' dismay, the monster covered Tea completely with its appendage and swiftly brought her down toward the hole that it resided in.

"That damn monster!" Bakura yelled furiously as he once again ran toward it, but he was too late. The duel monster had hauled his wife into the hole and was no where to be seen. 'How could it be so fast?' he thought but soon dismissed the thought as he decided and prepared himself to jump down the hole. That, however was stopped, because the person who stopped him knew it was a stupid idea.

"Bakura, don't be stupid! You don't know how deep that hole is and what do you even plan to do once you catch up with the monster? You'll be only putting yourself in danger," Seto reasoned with him.

"I don't care, I have to save her! I have to get her back!" Bakura retorted.

"And we will, once we figure out where she was taken," Ryou assured as everyone nodded.

"But we have no clue where and how do we know Tea is still ali . . ." Joey stopped as he saw Marik glare evilly at him.

"She's alive," Bakura said mostly to himself, almost as if reassuring himself it was true. He would not believe she was gone, he refused to believe that!

"Then, we must search for her," Isis spoke after a few minutes of silence.

"Again, we have no clue where she is," Joey said once more.

"She was probably taken to the person who has caused all of this to happen, who we were looking for from the beginning," Yasuo spoke up, he looked determined as he continued to speak, "We should continue to do what we had planned before, it may be where mother is. We must try, we must get her back!"

"Yasuo," Bakura whispered, looking proudly at his son.

The group pondered for a few minutes about what the boy said, wondering if they should do what they had planned before or think of something else. They knew it would be best to head out to the next city, but if their travel to the next city proved fruitless, they also knew precious time would have been wasted and hopes to finding Tea would deplete.

Bakura didn't know if that was a chance he was willing to take. But what choice was there? 'There aren't many options. Everything just seems hopeless, but I can't give up, for Anzu's sake,' he thought as he looked up at the sky, 'Where could this threat be? Where could she have been taken?'

As if it was a gift from the heavens, he heard the answer to his questions. A soft, gentle whisper spoke of one word that he was all too familiar with. A word the he wished he thought of before and he wished he could kick himself for not thinking of it. The voice whispered in his head, 'Hikari.'

"Hikari . . ." Bakura repeated quietly, but loud enough for most of the others to hear.

Seto and Marik's eyes widen at what Bakura said. They understood what they he meant, and only hoped that he was right.

"What did you say, Bakura?" Yami asked.

"I know where she is," Bakura told them, "let's get those vehicles and get going."

"Bakura, are you sure?" Mai asked sceptically.

"I'm sure," Bakura answered, but in his mind he could only think, 'I hope.'

0000000000

His bloody crimson eyes stared attentively at the brown haired woman. The moment she was brought to him he had placed her against the wall, her ankles and wrists were bind by some dark, shadowy force. She had yet to awaken and he knew that she would not unless he did something.

He placed his hand to where her heart is and could feel it slowing down, realizing that his monster had harmed her worse than he had thought. He smirked as he continued to stay at her.

"Weak," he began to say, "like your mind. I will definitely be victorious this time, but you will be of no use to me if you die. After all, I need you . . . Light."

He closed his eyes as he gathered some dark energy into his hand and plunged it within her, healing her, bringing her out of the brink of death. When he had finished, he opened his eyes, removed his hand, and continued to stare at her. He grinned when he saw her stir.

Tea opened her eyes slowly, trying to figure out what was going on. When she had fully opened them, the first thing she saw was emerald eyes staring right back at her. Her eyes widen in total shock as she realized who it was. She just couldn't believe it was him, and due to her shock all she could mutter was, "You!"

0000000000

Bakura jumped out of the car before it even came to a complete stop. He had told the drivers where they had to go and as they hastily drove toward their destination, he could feel hope rising. He knew she was there, he just knew it. But they had to be careful. Who knew what they were up against?

"Bakura, you need to relax. We will get her back and save this world, just think before you act. We have no clue what we're up against and going straight in without a plan will only be disastrous," Seto tried to knock some sense into him.

"I don't care as long as I can save her. Besides, since we can use duel monsters and there are many of us who duel, we probably will stand a good chance against this threat," Bakura told him.

"Even so, it's best to be careful," Yami spoke up.

"Alright, then I guess we should just go inside and plan as we walk," Joey said.

"For once I agree with him," Marik said moving toward the entrance. No one bothered to disagree as they followed the Egyptian.

"So what exactly will we do?" Serenity asked, somewhat frightened as they neared the entrance.

"I guess if we use our best and powerful duel monsters we'll be okay," Joey told his sister and continued on saying, "and don't worry, Serenity, I'll protect you with my monsters."

"How touching, but unfortunately for you, you will not have a chance to summon any of your beasts!" A terrible voice echoed around them as they frantically searched where the voice was coming from.

"Who the hell are you?" Bakura yelled furiously, "and where is Anzu!"

The voice chuckled and spoke, "Do not worry, she is with me and I am sure you would like to see her. Then I shall bring you to her."

Before anyone could do anything, they were engulfed in some shadow orb that had transported them to, where they hoped, was Tea. Upon arriving after a few moments, they had soon found themselves fettered to the wall, just as Tea was; only that she was on the far opposite wall. They all struggled with their restraints and stopped once they heard the chuckle again.

"The more you struggle, the tighter the binds will get, so you best stop," he said amusingly, now standing before them. Everyone gasped and their eyes widen at the person they saw before them.

Bakura could only angrily yell, "You!"

A/N I'm done, at last. Now only two more chapters to go! Hurrah! Anyway, I like the ending….you all probably thought I was going to reveal the enemy, hahah, nope not yet, next chapter, I promise. Ah, yes, the nest chapter, I wonder how long that one will take me….. sigh I really don't know. We'll just have to see. Bye Bye.