Here we go again, and thus plots thickens, planes crash, people die and Yami Bakura scares the living daylights out of Duke. Heh. What other havoc might I wreak, I wonder… Standard disclaimers apply.

Chapter Nine.

Highway Shoulder, En-Route to Vienna International Airport. 12:31

They're not killing him.

That is the first surprise Yami gets when Yugi pulls away from him and begins to walk towards the creatures. They don't attack. Not at first anyway. They wait, patient, watching Yugi as he limps towards them but not one of them moves a single, rotting muscle.

The second surprise is that Yami doesn't feel the need to follow anymore He had attempted to, at first, but he knows the creatures are a great deal faster than he is and Yugi's not the only one who got bruised up in that car accident. So pain and shock stop Yami in his tracks just before Yugi reaches out a hand towards the face of the nearest creature –it's the largest one, it's once human limbs twisted back to front, like an amphibians. Its hair lank and white and wormlike, one eye black and the other socket hollow. Its fingers are long and witchlike and thorn-sharp, and as Yugi takes a last step forwards, one of these rotten hands reaches out and slashes hard across his face.

Yami reacts, as much on impulse as anything else. Before he knows it he's racing forwards, the creatures are scattering backwards and he's reaching out to grab Yugi and pull him away…

Until a heavy tug on their mind-link stops him in his tracks: Yugi, warning him to back off. 'Yami, wait! It's okay, I-I know what I'm doing.'

'Yugi, no…'

'No I… It's alright, Yami trust me. Please, just trust me. Step away, you're frightening them.'

'I'm frightening… them?' Yami feels himself blinking in bewildered horror, but all the same, he does as Yugi asks him to, gritting his teeth against Yugi's pain and forcing himself not to rush in and end it by ripping that monster apart with his own shadows. The creature has a hold of Yugi's arm with the same hand it just used to slice open his face, clinging on tightly, refusing to let go.

'Th-there… there see? H-he's stepped back, now. He won't hurt you, so… so, you… you can stop hurting me, too.'

The creature doesn't stop. Instead, it bites, but Yugi keeps his arm outstretched and still. Yami sees it rip through the cloth of Yugi's cotton sleeve and starts to swear that if he sees blood he's going to tear that thing apart. He doesn't understand why the others haven't moved. He doesn't know what they're waiting for.

'Maybe they're just testing his limits... letting this one do all of the work…Could they still be that intelligent?'

The look on Yugi's face suggests they'll be testing those limits for a long while yet. Yugi is terrified. Terrified, and possibly a little disgusted. Yami can feel it, pulsing through every fibre of his being just as it pulses through Yugi himself.

It's just one of the many consequences of having your minds linked directly together –you get to feel your Other's pain. Yami's been feeling Yugi's pain for going on two days now and it's difficult for him to tell where Yugi's anxieties stop and his own begin, or if the heaving sensation in his stomach is his own growing disgust or Yugi's, but both of them push that fear and sickness away anyway, and focus on the creatures before them. Yugi even manages to smile.

'O… okay. I know. It's scary, isn't it? No wonder you're attacking us. You're just like moths in candlelight, aren't you? You can't stop coming towards whatever human warmth you can find but… but when you get to it, you either have to rip it apart or else it rips up you. That's… a really human thing, you know.'

Yugi takes a deep breath. His eyes are watering and Yami can feel his own watering too. Behind them the hot engine of the jeep continues to tick and that makes him realise how quiet everything is, all of a sudden. The other five freaks are hardly moving at all. The only sound is the soft scraping of teeth and claws and Yugi's voice, talking to them gently.

'I think… I think I'm scared, too. Of all this. Of all of you. But that's alright, you see. It's okay to be scared, sometimes. It's okay if you're all scared right now.'

Whatever Yugi is trying to convince them of, (his forgiveness? His compassion, maybe…) it doesn't seem to be working very well. Yami feels another stab of pain as the creatures grip nearly dislocates Yugi's shoulder, but Yugi just sucks up the pain and keeps talking as if they're still listening. 'I've… been scared for a long while. I know a lot about this darkness and I know sometimes it's not all bad. You know that too, of course, because… because you're human. Maybe we've even met before, but I only got here recently so I wouldn't really be too sure.'

Of course. They're human, all of them. He'd been so angry that for a moment he'd forgotten. Yami feels chilled by his own coldness.

That doesn't stop his anger, though. It doesn't stop him fighting to hold the shadows back. The creature keeps non human jaws and claws gripped tightly around Yugi's flesh and bone. There's blood now, bright red and staining his shirt but Yugi still doesn't move. Not an inch. And the creature's grip is half hearted now; its teeth are loosening, as if it's actually…

'…Calming down. See, Yami? Just like I thought…'

Yami can hardly believe that, but it looks like its still happening whether he believes it is or not.

'So… do you see him?' Yugi whispers and for a moment Yami thinks it's him Yugi is talking to. Except it isn't. Yugi is talking to the monster which is currently ripping at his arm. 'The… the man behind me. He's very important. Do you… do you know his name?'

Nothing. The monsters shift uneasily and Yami shudders as he sees three of them move forwards in Yugi's direction, lips drawn back over their teeth. Either Yugi doesn't notice them or he simply isn't that concerned.

'His name is Atem,' Yugi says, evenly.

Halfway down the highway, the dead street lights begin to flicker and burn. The headlamps of the jeep sputter and the engine shrieks a dying shriek. The earth seems to spasm just a little under the power of the Pharaoh's name spoken so loudly and in such clear reference to him.

And under that same power, the creature gripping Yugi's arm stops biting. It loosens its grip and pulls away, lurching back from Yugi like a frightened animal. Yugi immediately moves to grip his arm and hiss in agony and, at the same time, he blurts out the pharaoh's name again. 'Y-you heard me! His… his name is Atem and, and you can't ignore that, can you? No more than I can! Atem!'

And suddenly, Yami understands what it is that Yugi is trying to do.

And Yami knows what to do as well.

Kaiba International Airport Secure Interview Room 1:41 am.

Ishizu has absolutely no idea how her brother managed to hide the Millennium Rod on his person all the way from the airport security gates to the interrogation room, but somehow, he has done just that. A logical part of her brain vaguely notes that this is probably the thing that was setting off all of the alarms when they tried to get through earlier, but at the moment, that isn't her primary concern.

'Oh… Gods. Marik, please tell me you didn't…'

'Okay, I didn't,' Marik places the Millennium Rod back in his belt with one swift movement. The guard is still standing where he had been ten seconds ago, the radio frozen on the way to his mouth, his eyes wide in paralysed alarm. Marik waves a hand in front of his eyes, experimentally. The guard doesn't even twitch. 'Don't look so worried, big sister, it's nothing permanent. He won't remember any of this afterwards and we're not causing any harm.'

Ishizu takes a moment to gather her nerves, but feels her voice dropping to an angry whisper, nonetheless. 'That… that is a millennium item, Marik. You have not touched that artefact for years why on earth-'

'Well I thought today it might come in handy, what with the world ending and all. Besides. You're the one who said it was urgent that we get to Europe, right? I'm getting us to Europe.'

'Marik…' Ishizu bites her tongue. 'If they find out what you've just done.'

'Then we'll all be in a whole world of trouble, big sister. But we're going to be in a whole world of trouble anyway –literally, if what you suspect will happen actually occurs. Anyway, they're not going to find out,' Marik says. 'Now, shall we rescue our big brother and continue with our mission?'

Ishizu lets out a stale, long-held breath in what turns out to be an irritated groan. 'I cannot honestly believe we're doing this…'

'Says the woman who rigged a tournament in order to bring together three great entities of power in the form of cards and help rescue her brother from the clutches of his own evil,' Marik's grin when he says that is just a little bit disturbing. Ishizu knows he does it to irritate her. He rounds the table to where the guard is standing and removes the room keys from his belt. 'Now, let's hurry, sister. We don't want to miss our flight.'

'Sometimes I do wonder,' Ishizu murmurs; as she follows him out of the room, casting a quick glance at the still-paralysed security guard behind her as she does so.

Runway of Vienna International Airport. 12:34

As soon as the plane is so close that Téa can see right in through the windows, she realises what's the matter.

'Bakura, there! The left wheel!'

'I know,' Bakura says. Téa can see his hands clenching into fists, still feeling the tremble of whatever it was he just did to scare away the monsters. 'It must have never ejected properly. Something is blocking it.'

'Blocking it? Like what?' She gasps, but Bakura doesn't seem to have an answer. Téa sees Mai's mouth opening –presumably to ask how a plane is supposed to land with only two wheels– but by now, the plane is all but touching the runway, still continuing to screech at hundreds of miles per hour, and her question dies away on her lips. She hears Joey yelling from where he's still stood in the runway, the torch dropping out of his hands:

'Uh, guys time to move!'

And boy, do they move. She sees Joey stopping to grab Kaiba by the shoulder and drag him away whether he wants to move or not. The industrial torch clatters to the ground and somehow, Téa still hears its impact, despite the much louder screeches coming from the aircraft.

And then the plane tilts. The left wing collides with the runway and buckles. The remaining two wheels sputter and give way and the plane falls belly down into the ground. It's a silly thought, but Téa is somehow reminded of a failed three-point turn, with the dancer crumpling to one side. She's seen it happening onstage often enough, and remembers perfectly how the dancer looks as her ligaments are torn by the fall.

This is so much worse than a failed pirouette.

The lack of wheels however, doesn't seem to stop the jet. It keeps going, with no signs of slowing, the killed engines whirring as it scrapes the floor and continues to screech onwards, bringing half the tarmac with it, like it's ripping through paper.

Besides her, Téa hears Mai swearing and feel Bakura's hand snatch out to grip her wrist.

'Come on, let the breaks work! For gods sakes, let them work'

The plane's left wing is skidding, now, ripping across the concrete runway with all the noise of a Curse of Dragon, screaming as it's torn apart. Téa has absolutely no idea why that metaphor sprung to mind, but it did, and anyway – it's an apt description. It's still so many metres away from her and yet the noise is still so loud.

'It… it's slowed down, hasn't it?' Mai gasps.

'Yeah but… It's not stopping.'

'No,' Bakura is gasping. 'No, it's not.'

And the next thing Téa knows, they're all on the ground. Most of them face down and clinging to the runway as it's all that any of them can do. The whole ground is shaking. Téa quickly covers her face with both hands and feels Bakura's arm over her shoulders, too. What that will protect her from she really doesn't know, but it's a nice gesture all the same.

She had thought the noise couldn't possibly get any louder, but as the plane crashes into the side of the airport building, concrete smashing and engines screaming, she realises that she thought wrong. The shaking seems to go on forever, like the whole world has been thrown out of joint. And then, eventually, things at last begin to fall still.

Something patters in her hair. She doesn't find out what until she can find the courage to lift her head up. Small shimmering crystals fall from her hair –broken glass, all over the runway.

Téa feels her blood run cold. And then she looks up and sees the tail end of the Kaiba Corporation Jet smashed into the building besides her, unbreakable windows shattered all around it, catching light from a nearby industrial torch that somebody has dropped on the floor. The front end crumpled like an old tin can.

When the noise and rumbling finally begins to die away into silence, Seto Kaiba is the only one still standing, his eyes fixed in horror on the shattered cockpit.

Seto Kaiba is a logical man, but the logic has always been coupled with emotion. Perhaps not the same emotions as those ridiculous friends of Muto seem to think are important, but emotions nonetheless.

Pride is an emotion. So is dignity and determination and courage. These things aren't just instincts – he has plenty of those.

Games were, after all, just a reflection of life itself. The important thing was protecting your pieces, no matter what. Seto Kaiba has plenty feeling too. He just knows better than to go around screaming like that idiot Wheeler, or profess compassion to anyone he meets regardless of whether or not they deserve it like Yuugi. Those kind of attitudes will kill you quickly in the business world, even in a company that specialised so heavily in gaming and duel monsters.

So Seto Kaiba never allowed his feelings to control him. Motivate him – yes. But never control him.

They're not controlling him now, as he drops the industrial torch to the ground and begins to run in the direction of the shattered jet. They're not commanding him. He's controlling them. He's using them, to the best of his ability. Letting his anger force his movement and letting his determination force his judgement.

It is not –not– reckless terror which is making him charge in the direction of the Kaiba Corp Jet's shattered cockpit. It is not fear making him scramble up the battered walls of the building, opening veins on the broken glass and skidding against the shattered concrete. It is not panic making him cling to the stone of the second floor of the airport building where the cockpit's doorway has finally come to a halt and pound on the metal cockpit door.

And he's sure as fuck not listening to Gardner yelling at him about how it's too dangerous and how he should stay back out of the way.

He takes a glance at the cockpit but he already knows the pilots are dead. And… god damn it, he's going to fire the designers who put this jet together and told him it could withstand crashes at over a hundred miles per hour (irrational – he knows it wasn't really that fast).

It's none of those fearful or panicking emotions that are controlling Seto Kaiba right now, because Seto Kaiba never panics and never ever loses his cool. It's just pure, red blooded determination. Mokuba's name is pounding in his head, a constant, drumming, quickening beat, and Seto Kaiba is not going to let his little brother die because these freaks and Yuugi decided to play heroes.

'Mokuba!'

The door he's pounding on is buckled inwards and the metal's hot beneath his hands. Too hot. It's unlikely to open just from his pounding at it but he doesn't need it open right now. He just needs an answer from the inside. He just needs to know that his brother's okay. It's not fear making him yell Mokuba's name over and over –it's just pure certainty. He needs Mokuba to hear him. He needs to know…

The voice from inside seems very quiet, even though he knows it must really be yelling as loud as it can to be heard through the reinforced metal door.

'…Seto?'

Mokuba.

Kaiba Corporation Jet 3-4-4. (What remains of). 12:35

There's a soft, warm thudding sound from somewhere in the aircraft but he can't make out where it is or what it's coming from.

He figures he must've been knocked out, at some point (or… okay then, maybe it was just passing out, but no way in hell is he going to tell anyone else that) because one moment all the noise and ripping metal had been shrieking in his ears and the next, everything went quiet. Now he's awake again and things are still quiet. The engines have died. The aircraft is still.

So that means the thumping sound was coming from him. It was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. A few moments and a few deep breaths confirm this.

'Um, M-Marcus.'

It takes a few seconds before he gets an answer. 'Yes, sir?'

'We're um… we're not dead.'

'…I… No sir, apparently we're not.'

Mokuba struggles to undo his belt. Its pitch black in here and he can feel the metal surfaces creaking beneath them. If TV is really anything to go by, then there's a good chance this plane is still not the safest place to be. 'We… we should get out of here, now. Get the pilots to…'

'Sir…'

Mokuba doesn't like Marcus's tone. He blinks hard, trying to focus and tries to find the cockpit door. And then he sees that it isn't there anymore. It's hard to make out anything in the pitch black, but he can see the shattered outline of the windows and the wrecked remains of what used to be the cockpit door.

'…So… go check on them, Marcus.'

'I already have, sir.'

Mokuba swallows. It's the closest he can get to a cognitive reaction. He can feel his eyes blurring up with tears but doesn't actually let them fall.

It's his fault. It's all his fault. 'Shit…'

'So… what are your orders now, sir?'

'I… orders?'

Mokuba looks up at Marcus like he can't believe he just asked that question,. How could he? Mokuba's some fifteen year old kid who just dropped them into hell-on-earth with freaks and monsters and all of that. His orders got a father killed and two lives destroyed, and…

'Yes. We need to find Master Kaiba, correct? You're probably the most likely to work out his location before anyone else is killed. It's your call, sir.'

…And yet Marcus is still looking at him, still taking orders and not seeming all that angry at all. Mokuba doesn't quite know why but it makes him feel a little more hopeful. 'I'm not sure at the moment, to be honest. But… if it was my brother guiding us down. He should be out there.' he stops, pauses and looks down at the floor. 'Ai and Madoka… you remember. He said they were his kids. We'll… when we get back…' His sentence trails away.

Marcus doesn't say anything but that's alright. Mokuba needs the silence, for a moment. He just needs a while, to be able to sit and think.

And that's what gives him the chance to hear the banging, loud and rhythmic on what he presumes is the door

'Mokuba? Mokuba, are you in there! Mokuba!'

…Seto.

Intercity Highway heading out of Domino City. 07:50 am

Duke Devlin hates traffic jams.

It's taking a little longer to get to Serenity's aunt's apartment than they had anticipated. He's sure she'll appreciate it when he gets there, of course. What kind of girl can doubt you care about her when you six through three hours of cramped rush-hour traffic? But that doesn't chance the simple fact that Devlin hates traffic.

Most commuters use the subways but Duke knows better than to bet on the roads being clear. He knew the route that will take him to Serenity would be this way long before he set out. He did it anyway. Hey, Serenity needed him and there weren't many things he was prepared to get up at that hour in the morning for which weren't related to money, business or the occasional challenge from some smug little wannabe Dungeon Dicer.

As it happens, though, he's been sitting in this very gridlock for going on three quarters of an hour, now, and he's barely moved out of the turn off. It's really starting to grind on his nerves. what's the point of having a convertible with two hundred and fifty horse power if you can't even get onto the highway?

Still after about half an hour, he resigns himself to the fact that they weren't going anywhere. He turns on the radio, searches out a station which was reporting international news and sits back to listen while he waits for the goddamn roads to move.

He sure as hell doesn't expect to see a white hair, sneering head, attached to a body which is now sitting in the seat of the convertible. Right next to Duke, as if he'd always been there. His arms and legs folded in a position which can only be described as arrogantly smug

'Holy shi—!'

Duke hits the breaks. Hard. Given that the queue is barely moving as it is, that shouldn't really be that noticeable –but apparently it is, because the drivers of the cars behind him start beeping their horns for all they're worth.

The visitor, for his part, leans casually backwards to glance out of the window at the aggravated driver's in the queue behind, and sighs irritably. 'Oh, honestly, the cursed fools seem to think this queue would actually be going somewhere if you hadn't broken like that.' he looks back at Duke and leers. 'So. Devlin. Having a bad morning? I certainly know I am.'

He takes the first Shadow Passage (channels of magical energy that existed all throughout the human worlds and were discreetly connected to the shadow realm) he can find (a strand of occultist energy drifting in from the north of the city – one of many, many Passages which Yami-Yugi has yet to locate and which Yami-Bakura is going to use to the best of his abilities) in order to catch up with Devlin's vehicle. Only a fool or a commuter would think to use the roads at this hour but then where friends of Muto's are concerned, the definition "fool" can never be too far off.

Hopping between here and Vienna, however, even given the massive influx of Shadow Energy he's been feeling from that particular area of the globe in the last twenty four hours, is perhaps one step too far for his powers. Hence, he opts for hitch hiking with the only member of the little side crew who still happens to be in Domino City. Though only just. He appears to be going somewhere. Yami-Bakura tagged along for the ride.

He only materialized inside of the vehicle by manipulating his internal shadow magic, for Ra's sakes, the idiot doesn't have to have such a paroxysmal freak-out about it.

'You… you shouldn't be in here I mean… what the hell? Why— Yami Bakura… where… Ryou he… what… where… how the fuck?'

'Now then, there's no need to be so impolite. Can't I drop by and visit my dear one-time-host's friends, now and then? I assumed you wouldn't mind one, small passenger.'

Devlin's expression is actually almost impressively flabbergasted. 'Like hell! I'm on an important trip here, you can't just… materialise in peoples vehicles like that! How did you get in here without opening the door?'

'It's called Shadow Manipulation, my not-so-dear human,' Yami Bakura's responds boredly. 'I merely carried myself in here via a darkened passageway. Took me a while to trace your exact signature.' He held up the Millennium ring from where it hung against his shirt. 'You're not exactly what I'd call a massive blip in the supernatural radar. But I got you in the end. Clever little trick, isn't it? Or at least it must seem so to you.'

'Oh,' Duke's voice is as dry as a bone. 'Swell. So what the hell do you want? In case you hadn't realised I'm on an important journey right now.'

'Yes, and going about it very quickly if I might say so,' he feels himself sneering and wonders exactly what on human earth Devlin is using to fragrance this flamboyant vehicle of his. Whatever it is, it smells like a sarcophagi-preparer's herb cabinet. And is that really a dice, hanging from the overhead rear view mirror? How predictable. 'You know I have a shadow passenger route which would get us to your destination far quicker than these ridiculous mortal methods of—'

'Uh— No. No freaking way, you're not touching me with any of that darn dark magic stuff, Yami Bakura now… now get out of my car!'

'Do be patient, Devlin, all in good time. As it happens I have a very good reason for wasting my time on you. You see I happen to have a slight problem.'

Devlin snorts. 'Yeah, well so do I. It's about five ten has badly styled white hair and is sitting in my passenger se—'

'Do shut up and let me finish mortal, lets not forget the shadows got me in here and they can dump you wherever I ask them to, also.' Devlin stops talking. Good. 'Now, concerning my situation. In case you hadn't already realised I happen to be missing my Other Half. I am missing him because he thought it would be clever to take a little excursion to a death-zone without me.'

Devlin leans back in his seat, frowning. 'Bakura's in Vienna, yeah? With Yuugi and the others. I figured they might be.'

'You figured correctly. I've already proven to Ryou once that going to such a place without me is really quite stupid behaviour but he would be an idiot and insist on helping out those friends of his.'

Yeah, fine, what's your point? I've got a girl who needs me here and I'm not in the mood for—

'If I've told you to be patient once, I've told you a thousand times, 'Devlin,' Yami Bakura snaps, and –just for a second, he extends a shadow field from his own body and around Devlin's throat, grabbing him in a kind of shadow choke-hold. The boy lurches back into his seat and gasps before Yami Bakura lets the darkness go again and releases him. 'Now. Shut up. Don't make me suffocate you.'

Devlin falls forwards again against the wheel, fighting to catch his breath. 'God… damn you, you… are you… fucking insane?'

'Possibly. But right now my limited patience is of more of a concern to you than my sanity, little human boy. Don't make me hurt you just to get your attention. Back to the point of my little host…'

He leans back in his seat. The sarcophagi smell isn't actually that bad, once you get used to it. He supposes that it grows on you, just like any other smell of death. 'I've reached out to him once already. Had to help the weakling out of a minor jam, you might say. But I'm not used to extending my powers halfway round the globe, Devlin. And I doubt they would extend that far again as anything more than a form of communication. That's no good to me.'

'And what do you want me to do about it?' Devlin mutters croakily. He really is a very impatient personality even after being choke-held by shadows. Lucky for him Bakura needs him alive and had vowed against killing anything (human, at least) for the next decade or so, just to keep his host happy.

'Simple. You're the big powerful games designer, right? Maybe you're not a Kaiba Corporation goon, but I'm pretty sure you have connections. I need you to use those connections to get me to any place within a hundred miles of central Vienna. From there I can access my own shadow abilities and go the rest of the way myself.'

Devlin sits quietly for a moment letting this fact sink in. the vehicles around them continue to peep and toot incessantly. If they keep it up, Yami-Bakura swears he's going to start calling shadows to the freeway.

'Oh-kay… And I suppose you have a really good reason for me to do that for you, huh?'

'Yes. Because I'll let the shadows suffocate you again if you don't.'

Devlin pauses for a long moment, then a smile begins to creep irritatingly across his face. If he was annoying while flustered he's even more so while calm. 'Wow, what a choice. Oh, sure. And Ryou's gonna be really, really happy if you do that, isn't he?'

Bakura twitches a bit before he can suppress it. 'Who says he has to know about it, Devlin? And anyhow, this one little favour will get me out of your hair again, won't it. it can be very beneficial for you,' he said, carefully. 'To be owed a small debt by a spirit of the darkness itself… Very beneficial indeed.'

'It might be, huh?' Devlin actually seems intrigued by that. 'Sorry though, I'm just not convinced by your reasons here. Why would you want to go into a "death zone" as you call it? I hear Vienna's a real mess. They can't even get a camera crew within fifty miles of the city.'

'Because Ryou is out there,' Yami Bakura says, bluntly. 'That's all you need to know. He might be a fool but he's still the other half of my soul and if he gets himself killed out there then its curtains for me too.'

'Sounds like you really are in a jam,' Duke smiles that sickening irritating smile. Yami Bakura is starting to wish he went elsewhere for assistance, not that there was anywhere he really could have gone. 'Okay, then. Whatever. If you're really so urgent to get there, I suppose I could organize a few things… but I've got a condition.'

He should've known. 'And what might that be, Duke Devlin?'

'I'm coming with you. To Vienna.'

It takes a good couple of seconds for his surprise to fade into amusement. Yami Bakura gazes out of the front window at the traffic ahead and smiles. 'I should have known. Now you want to play hero as well, huh?'

'Yeah well. Like you I have my reasons. So that's my deal, either I come with you or you're not going anywhere, Yami Bakura.'

'Seems like a fair compromise,' Yami Bakura says, after a long pause. It's not his concern, after all, whether or not the Devlin boy adds himself to the potential body count currently rising in Austria.

'One other thing. I've got to go see Serenity first… she's Joey's sister,' Devlin clarifies. 'And I promised I'd go round to meet her and tell her not to worry about her brother.'

Yami Bakura suppresses an impatient scowl.' Fine, whatever, but let's speed it up, shall we?'

'How can we? We'll be stuck in this queue for a good few hours yet, the jams won't start to clear until rush hours over.'

Yami-Bakura snorts. 'That, my dear mortal, is a problem which can be easily solved.'

And then he fixes his gaze on the road before him, and manipulates. Feeling his shadow owners extend across the dashboard and creep into the engines of the car inn front, then the truck in front of that and the next car afterwards. He draws the shadows in and pushes them out and revels at the look of vague panic that settles across Devlin's face as his car quite literally vanishes from the highway.

Runway of Vienna International Airport. 12:36

When Seto and Mokuba had first come to the Kaiba household, ten years old and the future of the corporation, he had sneaked out of his wing once and gone to visit his little brother. It had been a stupid thing to do, though he didn't know this at the time. he didn't know he'd be punished for it and even if he had Seto probably wouldn't have cared much anyway. He would've still gone. To see his little brother. To find him in the massive maze of rooms and corridors that was their new home.

When he got to Mokuba's room, he found his brother's door had been locked and had had to tap carefully on the outside to wake him up and get him to come near the door. And that was how they'd stayed for a while, talking to each other sleepily through the wooden door.

This is what Seto Kaiba is reminded of, as he hears his little brother's voice on the other side of the battered cockpit door. Of their hands pressed against either side of the door as they talked right through it.

'S…Seto? That's you right? You're out there?'

'Hey there, kiddo.' He finds his voice is softer than usual. Easily as soft as it was that day ten years ago outside of Mokuba's locked bedroom door where both of them were whispering so as not to wake up the servants.

'I know it… I know you'd be here, Seto I… is Yuugi with you? Are the others there?'

'I've got that Wheeler dork yelling up at me and the rest of their little ragtag bunch along for the ride if that's what you're asking. Are you alright?'

Mokuba's response is familiar, too. It sounds just like a five year olds, scared and angry. '…My head hurts. Seto I think… I think I've done something really bad…'

'No. it's alright. I should've told you I'd be out here. it was logical that you might come.'

'Well, that's my job right? Following you around and all…'

'Is anyone with you?'

'Yeah… Marcus is here, but the pilots are…' his voice trails off. 'Seto?'

'I'm here, Mokuba. And… and yeah, I know about the pilots. I can tell from here. It's a pretty bad bust up in the cockpit. Most of the front end is shattered.'

'Seto…' Mokuba says again. He sounds more desperate this time and Seto can almost imagine he's ten years old again. Frightened, confused and needing his big brother.

The silence hangs between there for a moment. Seto remembers being ten again himself, and being dragged yelling away from his brother's door and forced right back into his own locked room. He remembers the extra three hours of punishment.

But nobody will pull him away from Mokuba. No. Not now. Not ever again.

'It's alright, Mokuba. Stay put. I'll get you out of there.'

'O…Okay. Sure. I can go with that,'

It's one of those brotherly moments Joey just hates.

Mostly because he just can't seem to hate Kaiba the way he usually does when you stick him in a room with Mokuba and put one or both of them through hell on earth. They're just so tight and together, it makes him think about Serenity and when he thinks of her…

…God, Serenity.

She's the last thing he should be thinking about right now, of course, because she's nice and safe and okay on the other side of the planet. But he thinks about her anyway because if she knows about all this, he knows she's bound to be worried about him (and Serenity got the brains of the family, so she's probably already worked it out).

He hates having to make her worry and now he's thinking that maybe he has been. Maybe she's been calling him over and over. And unlike some people, she didn't have a jet to get her out here.

Maybe that was a good thing.

He takes a step back and another deep breath turning around to give the others thumb's-up for Mokuba's apparent safety….

'Joey—!'

…And then he notices Téa's eyes widening and whatever she's about to yell, he never hears it, because by the time it's emerged from her mouth he's face down on the tarmac again with a heavy, powerful, tearing weight pushing down on him from overhead.

'Oh, shi—!'

It comes at him out of nowhere, and it's not until it's already on top of him and trying to rip out his throat that Joey realises what drew it to him –the light of the torch Kaiba dropped is still shining directly on him. He's like a beacon for whatever freaks are left over after… after what the hell Bakura just did.

And Téa is screaming and Mai is yelling for him and Kaiba's looking down on them in sudden shock and Joey can feel Tristan trying to drag the thing away and ending up behind knocked across the runway. He'd forgotten how strong these things can be. And this one doesn't even have eyes anymore so he has no fucking clue how it even saw the light in the first place. Claws are trying to slash into his stomach and he's hardly managing to duck away from them—

Then he hears someone yelling. 'Stop!'

And to Joey's total surprise, it does. The spindle-like fingers pull away from his chest, the creature suddenly rips away with a half-whimpering sound, leaving Joey bleeding and shaking as he staggers to his feet, Mai's arms on his shoulders.

He knows that voice. He knows who it is. He just can't believe what it just did.

'…Yugi?'

TBC...