Author's Note: I'm revising the chapters that follow this one, so updating should go back to once or twice a week from now on. Thanks to everyone still reading -- and reviewing! Your comments inspire me to write more. Oh, and would anyone be interested in a sequel to this story?

Chapter 16

"Yugi! Yugi, where are you?!"

The familiar, compelling voice broke into the foggy cocoon surrounding Yugi's consciousness. He roused briefly, eyelids fluttering, before sinking back into the gray clouds that obscured all thought.

"Yugi!"

He drifted, trapped in a cool lethargy that numbed both body and mind. He sank deeper into the murk.

A resounding crash jerked his mind back toward awareness. Warm hands grasped his arms, shattering the icy rime that frosted his limbs, and left him limp in a pair of supportive arms.

"Damn it, Yugi, wake up!" that resonant voice demanded, and Yugi realized who held him. Yami! If he could have moved of his own volition, Yugi would've sagged in relief.

"Isis, I found him!" Yami lifted Yugi so that he was more-or-less upright, supported against Yami's chest. "We need some kind of emetic, something to help him get rid of the drug."

"I will find something."

"Hurry!"

All this shifting around was making his gray world spin most distressingly. Yugi groaned, and managed to crack an eyelid far enough to see Yami's worried face peering down at him. "Yugi, love, I need you to wake up now. Please, Yugi. For me."

Yugi forced the other eye open.

"That's it. Open those beautiful eyes for me," Yami coaxed. "Come on, Yugi, I know you can do it. You're strong, you can fight this off."

The next thing Yugi knew, he was on his feet, clinging to Yami as they shuffled an unsteady circuit around the bed. Yami murmured encouragement every shaky step of the way, catching Yugi when he stumbled.

"Isis! Where the hell are y--? Oh. Did you find --?"

Another figure moved about on the edge of Yugi's vision, but he couldn't bring it into focus, and he was too tired to care. A moment later, a cup was thrust under his nose. "Drink this."

It smelled awful. Yugi wrinkled his nose and shook his head. He was parched, but he didn't want whatever belonged to that smell in his mouth. The rim of the cup was pushed insistently against his lips.

"Drink it, Yugi," Yami commanded, his tone brooking no disobedience. "It will help you feel better."

Trusting, Yugi parted his lips. Bitter liquid trickled across his tongue and spilled down his chin. It tasted twice as bad as it smelled. Feeling betrayed, he tried to turn his head away, but Yami held him and forced the cup to his lips again. "Please, Yugi. Trust me!"

Yugi opened his mouth and gulped the foul liquid down.

"That's right, that's good," Yami crooned. "Drink it all."

The liquid shriveled his taste buds and burned like fire going down his throat. Yugi coughed, then sucked in a startled breath as his stomach rebelled. In a desperate voice, he choked, "I'm gonna be sick!"

"That's the general idea--" Yami half-carried, half-dragged him into the bathroom, and held him while he rid himself of what felt like everything he'd ever ingested in his entire life. Yugi groaned.

Yami rubbed Yugi's back, steadying him until he'd finished emptying his stomach, then bathed his face and neck with a cool cloth. Finally, as Yugi hung limply in Yami's grasp, he found the energy to mutter, "What the hell was that stuff, anyway?"

"Rubis d'Egypte," Yami said, with a hint of laughter in his voice.

Yugi blinked at him. Wha--?

Seeing his confusion, Yami added, "Egyptian wine. A rosé, to be exact."

"I am never touching that stuff again as long as I live."

Yami leaned down and kissed him on the nose. He was smiling. "At least you're alive."

Right now, the jury was still out on whether that was a good thing. "'m thirsty, Yami," Yugi mumbled, leaning against the other's strong shoulder. "C'n I have some water?"

"Of course."

Someone was sent to fetch bottled water from the kitchen. Yugi drained an entire bottle before his throat eased. It helped clear his head, too, and he jerked upright as that last moment in Yami's cabin, right before he lost consciousness, came slamming back into his memory like a planet-killing meteor.

"Pegasus is the cult member!" He gripped Yami's shirt and hauled himself up so they were eye to eye. "He took the necklace from your room." Yugi slid back down as his muscles turned to water again. "Oh, god. They don't need Grandpa for the exchange. They'll kill him."

"We'll find him. I promise." Yami brushed the ghost of a kiss across Yugi's brow. "It will be all right."

"How is he?" asked a quiet voice from the doorway.

Yugi squinted at the silhouette of a woman framed against the light from the bedroom. After a few seconds, he identified her as Isis Ishtar. Despite Yami's protests, Yugi pushed his way to his feet and tottered a few steps on his own before Yami wrapped a protective arm around his waist.

"Easy, aibou. Let me help."

Temporarily distracted from his goal, Yugi squinted up at Yami. "How much Japanese do you know, anyway?"

"Only a little." Yami smiled. "Sugoroku taught me."

Reminded of his grandpa, Yugi started moving again. He frowned at Isis, still hovering in the doorway. "Where's Pegasus? Is he under arrest?"

"The others are searching the grounds for him. We believe the secret passageway he used to escape may end some distance from the house." She nodded to Yami. "The police are here."

"Good," Yami growled. He supported Yugi as the shorter man made his stubborn way toward the distant door. "Yugi, you should lie back down--"

"I don't have time for that! We have to get to my grandpa before something terrible happens to him." Yugi struggled briefly against Yami's hold. "If you aren't going to help me, let me go!"

"Dammit, of courseI'm going to help you!" Yami steadied him before he could fall. "Yugi Mutou, you are the most pig-headed man I've ever met, including me, and that's saying something. But I did not just save your life so you could turn around and get yourself killed!"

"You're not going anywhere without me!"

"Promise me that for the rest of my life, and I'll do anything you want."

Yugi gaped at him. Had Yami just proposed to him? He gave himself a mental shake. He didn't have time for this right now. "Later... We definitely have to talk...but, not now. Later."

"All right." Yami sighed. "Come on, Superman. Let's get you downstairs."

When they reached the foyer, Isis trailing behind them, Rex and Weevil were being led away in handcuffs. Yugi was shocked. "They're members of the cult?"

Yami snorted. "Rex is a small-time fence who stumbled across the Millennium Ring. Their only involvement was passing it along to Pegasus."

"That means the cult probably has at least four of the seven Items." Yugi closed his eyes and offered up a prayer to anyone who might be listening for his grandfather's safety.

"Five," Yami said. "I think Pegasus has the Millennium Eye."

"How do you know that?"

"I saw it." Yami grimaced. "In his left eye socket."

That was the kind of fanatical dedication they were up against. The kind that would make a man destroy his own eye in order to house one of the Millennium Items. Yugi shivered. "Ew. And… Ow."

"No kidding." Yami sighed again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "I think we'd better just assume they have allthe Items now. We don't have any idea how many they may have started with, or if they found the Puzzle, but if they have Sugoroku-- "

"Yeah."

Mahaad, leading Mana by the hand, interrupted them. "Yugi, my friend! I am so glad you are all right."

Mana burst into fresh tears. "Oh, I was so afraid for you!"

"But..." Confused, Yugi looked at Yami. After all, Mana had brought him the drugged tea. Now she was one of the good guys again? How did that happen?

"Long story. The short version is: she helped us find you." Yami shot a questioning glance at Mahaad. "Any word on Pegasus?"

"Not yet. The search continues, however..."

The conversation faded. Around him, the world took on an eerie transparence, and everything was suddenly black and white. It was a phenomenon Yugi recognized. He'd seen it two years ago when Mokuba had been kidnapped. Then, he'd been granted a vision of the warehouse where the men from Seto's board of directors were holding Mokuba. Now...

"He's on the river!" Yugi gasped, as color flooded back into reality.

"What? How do you know that?"

"Sometimes, I can ...see things. Sense things. It's how I knew Grandpa was in danger in the first place." Yugi's eyes pleaded with Yami to believe him. "I just 'saw' Pegasus getting into a boat on the river."

Yami stared at him for a heartbeat, then looked around at the others. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get the bastard!"

For the second time in less than ten minutes, Yugi found himself gaping at Yami. "You... you believe me?"

"Of course I do. You're my aibou."

Speechless, Yugi let Yami grab his hand and pull him along as they sprinted out the door. Over his shoulder, Yami yelled to Isis, "Get us some back-up!"

Pegasus was indeed attempting to escape via the river. When they reached the dock, they could just make out a white sail disappearing into the distance. The motor launch was long gone, but Mahaad found a man willing to take them all in his felucca. They piled aboard and set sail immediately. There was no hope of catching Pegasus' craft, but if they could keep it in sight, they at least had a chance of following him to his destination. Surely he would have to put ashore at some point.

"There!" Mahaad pointed to a flash of white in the darkness ahead of them. "I can see his sail luffing. He has put to shore."

It seemed to take forever for their boat to reach the same dock. Mahaad jumped ashore, his long legs making the leap easily, then reached back to lift Mana across. Yami followed. For someone of his height, he seemed all leg sometimes, and it served him well now. Yugi studied the expanse of water between the dock and the boat with a wary eye. The curse of the vertically-challenged Mutous strikes again.

Yami solved the problem by reaching down, grabbing Yugi's arm, and lifting him onto the dock. Not only was Yami agile, he was strong. Yugi decided that helping each other was what partners -- aibou-- did, so there was no need to feel embarrassed. And, looking at Yami, he could tell the other man wouldn't even have understood what Yugi might have to feel embarrassed about. Yami really did see them as equals. Yugi's heart swelled. If they didn't have a cultist to catch, he would've have shown Yami just how much that meant to him.

Mana waved her arm excitedly. "There he goes!"

They caught a glimpse of Pegasus running toward a cluster of buildings, but by the time they reached the same intersection, he was out of sight. Yami cursed and, to Yugi's surprise, Mahaad joined him. The two of them had quite an impressive vocabulary, in both English and Arabic. Yami even threw in a few words in Japanese that made Yugi blush.

Mana glared them to silence, then disappeared into one of the buildings, little more than a shack with several cars parked in the stretch of sun-baked earth that served as a front yard.

"Can we trust her?" Yugi couldn't help being suspicious. She had been partially responsible for his kidnapping, after all.

"Yes." The confidence in Mahaad's reply was as much of a surprise as his cursing had been. "She helped us find Pegasus' house -- and you. She was misled, but she will not let us down again."

A moment later, Mana returned with a set of car keys dangling from her fingers. "I know the drivers here from earlier tours. I got us a car, but we must hurry. Mr. Crawford took one of the cars and headed into the desert."

"If he gets too far ahead of us, we will never find him," Mahaad agreed. He took the keys over her aborted protest. "I have more experience with tailing cars than you do."

Soon, they were in an ancient, big-as-a-beached-whale LTD that resembled a collection of rust spots held together with wishful thinking more than it did an actual car, and racing east into the African night.

"There's nothing between here and the Red Sea," Yami noted. "Unless he heads for Berenice -- he could charter a small plane out of the country there."

"We will soon find out--"

Taillights flashed ahead of them. Mahaad slowed, cutting their headlights and keeping the other car just within the range of sight. Luckily, he seemed to have excellent night vision.

After another few minutes, Yami muttered, "He's heading into the Sudan."

"What does that mean?" Yugi was frustrated and confused. He was good at math, and a genius at games, but geography had never been his forte.

Yami spared him a quick glance and a tiny smile. "He's not going to Berenice."

Well, that was a relief. But Yugi still had no idea where Pegasus wasgoing. He reached for Yami's hand. The look he got this time held equal parts surprise and delight. Yami gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. "There's nothing out here but desert. Unless... Mahaad, is there an oasis out here anywhere?"

"None that I am aware of. We can only follow -- and wait."

Eventually, they left the paved road behind. The car crunched its way at a much slower pace over the rough desert track, tires occasionally slipping in loose sand. They bounced along the uneven terrain, hanging onto the seats or door handles to brace themselves. The ride was rough, the car's shock absorbers having apparently been extinct since shortly after its manufacture sometime in the early Paleolithic.

Where was Pegasus going? Did he know they were right behind him?

Yugi hunched tensely on the edge of the back seat, his gaze glued to the windows, but there was nothing to see except the taillights of the other car. Beside him, Yami was a solid, reassuring presence.

When a rise obscured Pegasus' car from view, Mahaad hit the accelerator and sent their car surging forward. With relief, they saw the sedan's taillights again as they crested the hill and swept down into the dip on the other side. Across the small valley, another hill rose skyward. Pegasus was already near the top. By the time they cleared the second rise, the other car was nowhere in sight.

Mahaad cursed and floored it. The car shot forward, the sudden momentum throwing Yugi into Yami's side. Yami wrapped an arm around him and held on tight. They all craned to see out the windows, trying to spot the other vehicle.

"We can't give up!"

Yami gave him a short, reassuring squeeze. "We won't."

They continued on, more slowly now, every eye searching the darkness. Yugi got a flash of ...he wasn't sure what... and shouted, "Stop here!"

Mahaad slammed on the brakes. The car fishtailed in the sand before coming to a rocking halt. Everyone turned to look at Yugi. He shrugged helplessly. "I thought I sensed something, but it's gone now."

"If only I had listened to my instincts about Mr. Crawford sooner," Mana mourned. "But he had been so kind to me, so helpful. The job he gave me helped pay for my brothers' education..." She sighed. "I guess I'm not the good judge of character I thought I was."

"You will know better next time." Mahaad offered her a soft smile. She leaned toward him like a flower turning its face to the sun.

Yami and Yugi exchanged glances, and silently agreed to give them some privacy. They got out of the car, Yami grabbing one of the stained and creased maps littering the rear floorboard. While Yugi held the flashlight, Yami spread the map on the trunk of the car. He traced a line on the map with his index finger.

"This is the way we came." Yami shook his head. "We really are in the middle of nowhere."

Muttering to himself, Yami continued to study the map. Yugi walked a few steps away from the car, drawn by a curious formation he could see in the near distance. He turned back to Yami. "Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

"That." Yugi pointed at the shape in the distance. It was hard to see in the darkness, but the odd outline against the sky had triggered something in his memory. He pondered it as Yami walked over to join him.

"It's just a rock formation," Yami said, after a moment's squinting. "It's an unusual shape, but it's natural--"

"Wait!" Yugi bounced once with the excitement of solving a puzzle that had stumped him for too long. "I remember now -- there was something in Grandpa's notes about the Nameless Pharaoh journeying to the afterlife on a 'ship of the desert'. At first, I thought it meant a camel, but that didn't make sense, because camels weren't introduced into Egypt until the Persian conquest, which was a long time after the Nameless Pharaoh's reign, so--"

"Breathe, Yugi."

Realizing he was babbling, Yugi forced himself to slow down and take a deep breath. Then he continued, "Anyway, obviously the text didn't mean the Pharaoh was traveling on a camel. But I think I see what it did mean. Look closely at those rocks. What do they look like from this angle?"

They both spent a few seconds gazing at the rock formation -- which, as Yugi had spotted, vaguely resembled the curved and backward-arching prow of an ancient ship.

Yami turned a look filled with admiration on Yugi. "A ship of the desert! And, if that's the Pharaoh's 'ship', then his tomb could be hidden underneath those rocks. Good work, love."

Yugi flushed, though he couldn't help his grin at the praise -- and the endearment. "I didn't really do anything."

"Don't sell yourself short. I read Sugoroku's notes, as well, and I saw that same reference. But I didn't put it together with that rock formation. I wouldn't have found the tomb, Yugi, but you did. I'm proud of you… and I'll see that you get credit for the discovery."

"I just want to find my grandpa. I don't care about the credit."

Yami wrapped an arm around Yugi's shoulders and gave him a quick hug. "I care. Now, come on. Let's go tell the others. Your 'ship of the desert' is farther away than it appears. We'll have to take the car."\

They hurried back to the vehicle and informed the others what they had found. Keeping the headlights off, they drove toward the burial mound in the distance. Yugi didn't need the stab of awareness in his heart to tell him they'd found what they were looking for. Yami disabled the overhead light, then they all crept quietly from the car.

Voices drifted to them from across the still desert -- loud, careless voices, raised in good-natured argument.

Yami grabbed Yugi and pulled him down onto the sand. In a hushed voice, he said, "For once, pleasedo as I ask and stay put while Mahaad and I check to see how many sentries there are."

Yugi stared into his earnest brown eyes for a heartbeat, then leaned in and kissed him. Yami gaped at him. The grin that broke across his face was so bright, Yugi was amazed it didn't alert the sentries to their presence.

Mahaad and Yami crouched low and disappeared into the darkness. Left behind, Yugi kneeled beside Mana in the sand, and tried not to hold his breath. Because everything was so still, the soft click behind him made him jerk his head around in shock.

He didn't know much about guns, but he recognized the assault rifles aimed at them.

At a gesture from one of the gunmen, he got to his feet, offering Mana his hand when she faltered. He angled his body to put himself between her and the men threatening them.

"Ah, Mr. Mutou," intoned an all-too-familiar voice from the shadows. "Welcome to your final resting place."