Chapter Two
The Shadow Realm was all at once a horrible and frightening place. The darkness was all around them, pulsating, watching, feeling. . . . Mokuba had the sense that it was actually alive, relishing the arrivals of a favorite cruel being and a newcomer. If Hell was real, could it be any worse than this? Or maybe this was Hell. He couldn't see or sense any other people, but they must be here—various victims who had been sent here through the ages and had no way to return home. . . .
Terror gripped the boy's heart, but he pushed it down. He could not show it, not around the one who had brought him. Instead he struggled, forcing his way out of his abductor's grip. "What did you bring me here for?!" he cried. "What do you even want with me, you big creep?!"
An amused sneer, the teeth gleaming even whiter against the blackness of the world around them. "Oh, and here I thought you would enjoy spending some quality time with me," he mocked.
Mokuba scowled. "You're not Marik," he spat. "I don't want anything to do with you!"
Yami Marik only grinned more. "Then perhaps you would like to have that conversation with Lector. He's here, you know."
"Where?!" Mokuba shot back with a frown.
"I think I'll let you find him," Yami Marik smiled. "You should be able to. Walk around and listen for his voice. Those five are always arguing, trying to think of a way out of this mess so they can go take their revenge on everyone they hate. It's quite amusing."
"They're all sick," Mokuba spat. "And so are you!"
Yami Marik stuck out his tongue. "I know." Then he was gone, fading into the living darkness.
Mokuba was all at once left to himself. "Good riddance," he grumbled. But in actuality, now he was even more afraid. It was bad enough trying to traverse a place like this with a hated enemy. How would he ever do it on his own?
The shadows moved closer to him, touching his arm with wispy, spindly fingers. Mokuba screamed, batting at them with his other hand. "Go away, go away!"
The shadows rocked back, then slowly closed in around him, trying to wrap him in an almost snake-like embrace. Terrified, Mokuba broke into a run, desperate to break through it and flee to safety. But where was there any safety here? Even as he did indeed break free of the darkness, he could feel it coming after him, touching the ends of his hair, his back. . . .
"Get me out of here!" he cried, shutting his eyes tightly as he ran.
Of course, Yami Marik did not come back. He was probably watching everything, not wanting to miss a moment of the misery, but he wasn't about to interfere and stop it.
Finally Mokuba slowed and then stopped, drawing a shaking breath. Running was getting him nowhere. The scenery never changed. The darkness was always there, surrounding him, closing in on him. Maybe his distress was even making it worse. But if he held still and listened, there were faint voices all around him. Maybe Lector's was one of them.
By now Mokuba was angry at himself for thinking so much about Lector's betrayal. If he hadn't been, maybe Yami Marik wouldn't have taken him away. Seto would have no idea what had happened to him. He would be worried sick! And now Mokuba was trapped, without any way back. Yami Marik would never return him. And if there was any loophole out of here, Lector would be sure to use it to get himself and the rest of the Big Five back to the real world to continue their revenge plot. Maybe they would even take Mokuba with them to further use him against Seto.
On the other hand . . .
Mokuba frowned. The Big Five were all spirits here. None of them could take hold of him. Maybe he had a certain advantage over them to that effect.
As long as he was stuck here, he would like to find Lector and talk to him. On the way, he would try to hear what the other voices were saying. Maybe he would find some clue on how to escape and get home.
Please help me, he prayed in his heart.
And although the darkness still remained, Mokuba found that now he didn't feel all alone.
xxxx
Yami Bakura came for dinner within seconds of Bakura setting it on the table. He loved to read, but he loved food even more. Unlike his usual manner of ripping into the meal like a wild animal, however, he actually cut off a piece of meat normally and looked at Bakura in concern. "Why did you ask about the Shadow Realm?" he demanded.
Bakura looked down. "I shouldn't have, Yami. I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me, really. All of a sudden it just popped into my head that we always have encounters with that horrible place and I don't even remember what it's like."
"Why would you want to remember?" Yami Bakura retorted.
Bakura sighed. "I suppose because it's something that happened to me. Somehow it feels so . . . uncomfortable and eerie to think that there's something that happened to me that I just don't remember."
"You didn't want to remember the mess with the White Death." Yami Bakura kept eating, picking up the pace a bit, but still not going completely feral.
"I certainly didn't, because I had deliberately blocked it out. But after a while I wasn't sure what was worse: knowing or not knowing." Bakura was eating perfectly politely, of course.
Yami Bakura grunted.
"Yami . . ." Suddenly Bakura looked and sounded afraid. "Why don't I remember? Did I deliberately block that out too?!"
Silence. "No."
"Then why on Earth . . ." Bakura trailed off, his hand trembling as he held the fork. Shakily, he placed the food in his mouth.
Yami Bakura didn't offer an answer. He put his entire attention to the food.
"Oh Yami, please tell me," Bakura begged. ". . . Unless it's too terrible a memory for you. . . ." He frowned. He should have realized. Yami Bakura's behavior clearly showed he wanted none of the topic. He would only act like that if what had happened was absolutely haunting and horrible.
"It is," Yami Bakura grunted.
"Then I will respect that," Bakura said softly.
Yami Bakura looked up at him, his eyes a mixture of surprise, relief, and feeling touched. "Thank you, Bakura," he said quietly.
Bakura smiled, but at the same time he felt a sharp stabbing in his heart. Aloof behavior and a thank you? Not to mention actually eating like a civilized person? Whatever was he concealing?
"I do wish you could eat like this more often, especially if we're in public," he implored.
Yami Bakura shrugged. "I know." He was all business. He paused, then added, "I will try."
If Bakura wasn't so worried, he would have been overjoyed.
"Yami, I'm so sorry I ever brought this up," he said finally. "I had no idea it would dredge up such a painful memory for you."
"Of course not," Yami Bakura grunted. "How would you?"
That logic didn't make Bakura feel better.
They finished dinner before the phone rang. Yami Bakura glowered at it. His manners had certainly improved, but he still didn't particularly like answering the phone. Bakura picked up the receiver instead. "Hello?"
"Hi, Bakura." It was Téa, and she sounded worried.
"Oh," Bakura exclaimed. "Is something wrong?"
"Mokuba's missing!" Téa told him. "Kaiba has no idea where he is! We're all going out to help look and we hoped you guys could help too."
"Of course," Bakura assured her. "We'll be right there." He hung up, fretting over the disturbing news. "Oh my. . . . Whatever could have happened?!"
"About what?" Yami Bakura retorted.
Bakura looked to him. "Mokuba is missing! We must help look for him!"
Yami Bakura frowned. "He certainly has plenty of reason to go missing. He may be sulking somewhere, mulling over everything that has happened in the past weeks."
"Or someone may have taken him," Bakura said. "People are always after Kaiba." He hurriedly took the dishes to the sink. "We should leave right now!"
"Before rinsing?" Yami Bakura eyed the plates. "They'll get stuck on."
Sighing, Bakura quickly rinsed and set the plates in the dishwasher. "Now, please, Yami! Let's go!" he implored.
Yami Bakura grabbed the van keys off the rack and headed for the garage. "Very well."
xxxx
Marik and Tristan were the first to arrive at the Kaiba Manor. Seto was tense, having been all over the property in search of the missing boy. The servants were still looking, but from Seto's expression, he didn't hold out much hope. He didn't believe Mokuba was on the grounds.
"Has there been any news at all?" Marik asked in concern.
"Well, I can tell you that it looks like he stopped his homework abruptly," Seto said. "The worksheet was only half-finished and the pen was thrown to the desk."
"How do you know it was thrown?" Tristan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"There's a splotch of ink on the paper right near the tip of the pen, as though it hit the page on end before falling over," Seto said.
Marik frowned. "If he stopped that abruptly, he must have been very upset."
"Or someone really did interrupt him," Seto said. "Only how did they get in?! There's no evidence of a break-in or anyone tampering with the security system!" He clenched a fist, his hand shaking.
Silence fell as they all mulled over the problem. Then, quietly, Marik said, "The only way I know of is if they didn't need to break in or tamper with the security system."
The other boys stared at him.
"You mean an inside job?!" Tristan exclaimed.
"Maybe," Marik said. "Or a magical being."
Seto's expression contorted in frustration. "Why does it always have to be magic?!"
Marik sighed. "It doesn't have to be," he said. "Maybe it is an inside job."
"I've known all of my staff for years," Seto said. "They wouldn't still be here if I didn't trust them implicitly!"
"Even that creepy Hobson guy?" Tristan spoke up. "He gave me the chills when I met him."
"He obeys whoever's got the money," Seto said. "I have no reason to believe he'll turn against me." He frowned. "But obviously I'll have to run checks on every one of my servants' whereabouts in the last hour." He looked to Marik. "And I won't rule out the possibility of magic, no matter how distasteful it is to me. Who might want to take Mokuba that has magic?"
"I don't know," Marik admittedly helplessly. "Unless . . ." He swallowed hard.
"Who?!" Seto demanded, an edge creeping into his voice.
"The demon I created," Marik practically whispered.
Tristan rocked back. "Oh no! He really might!"
Seto just stared at Marik. From his expression, he was both swiftly coming to believe the idea and finding it overwhelmingly horrible. "But where?!" he burst out. "Where would he take Mokuba?!"
"I don't know!" Marik cried. "I don't even know why he would take Mokuba, except to cause chaos and mayhem!"
"Hey, for him, that would be plenty of reason right there," Tristan said.
Marik ran a hand through his hair. "Mokuba has been upset about a lot of things lately, but he wouldn't tell me what they were and he didn't want to tell Kaiba about them."
"I know," Seto said darkly. "For one thing, he may still be upset about Lector. . . ." He trailed off. "What if that thing would take Mokuba to talk to Lector?!"
Marik stared at him in horror. "To the Shadow Realm?!"
"To wherever Lector is," Seto said through clenched teeth. He still didn't like having to acknowledge the existence of that plane.
"Mokuba would never go with him willingly, no matter how much he wanted to talk to Lector," Marik frowned. "But he would certainly abduct Mokuba if it would help him achieve his goals."
"Then we've gotta go to the Shadow Realm and get him out!" Tristan cried.
"We don't even know if that's where he is!" Seto shot back. "We should keep looking in this dimension first!"
The ringing of the doorbell distracted him long enough to go over and answer it, not bothering to wait for Velma or Hobson. Yugi, Atem, Joey, Téa, and Solomon were standing there, all looking worried.
"Hi, Kaiba," Yugi greeted. "Any news yet?"
"You're answering your own doors now?" Joey blinked.
Seto just held the door open farther and didn't acknowledge Joey's comment. "We're trying to brainstorm now," he said. "There's a possibility that Mokuba was abducted by . . ." He grimaced. "By that creature Yami Marik."
Everyone gasped.
"Why would Yami Marik take him?!" Téa exclaimed.
"Just to cause anguish and misery," Seto said. "The question is, where would he take him?"
"That could be anywhere," Atem said grimly.
"Oh? Well, what if they went to that Shadow Realm place or wherever it was that you and the thief sent the Big Five?" Seto retorted. "Mokuba has been upset lately, and some of it may be because he's still remembering that Lector helped raise us and he's wondering if Lector ever really cared. Not that it really matters if Lector did. But maybe he couldn't stop thinking about it regardless and that thing decided to take advantage of it!"
The newcomers all stared at him in horror.
"Mokuba, in the Shadow Realm?" Téa's eyes were wide.
"Oh no," Atem said in alarm. "That's no place for a child!"
"It's no place for anyone!" Joey exclaimed. "If he's in there, we've gotta go and get him out!"
"But what if he's here instead?" Seto shot back. "We shouldn't all go running off to the Shadow Realm thinking we'll find him there!"
"Then maybe we should split up," Yugi suggested. "Some of us will go to the Shadow Realm and some of us will look for Mokuba here!"
Bakura and Yami Bakura were just approaching the still-open door as this was said. "Then we'll look here," Yami Bakura declared.
Bakura looked to him with a start, and yet after the experience at dinner, he really wasn't surprised. "Yami . . ." But then he smiled in agreement. "Alright."
Seto, however, frowned. "You probably know more about the Shadow Realm than any of the rest of us, including the Pharaoh," he pointed out. "And yet you won't go there?"
"No," Yami Bakura growled. "I will not."
Atem gave him a curious look, but didn't push it. "It's alright, Kaiba," he said. "I know my way around the Shadow Realm very well. I can take anyone who wishes to go. However . . ." He looked from Seto to each of the others. "It is a very dangerous plane, as we all surely know. We must stay together and not allow the darkness to get hold of us. If it can get a foothold, it will. The Shadow Realm feeds on the darkness in each person's heart, much as Dartz's Leviathan did. If you allow it to feed for too long, you will be assimilated into the darkness. That is what eventually happens to anyone trapped there."
Joey stared at him, disturbed. "So . . . they become the darkness itself?"
"Yes." Atem gave a grim nod.
Joey frowned. "Mai would probably like to help, but I'm sure she wouldn't wanna go there. I wouldn't want her to, either. I'd like to, though."
"We might all end up there eventually," Atem said. "If Mokuba can't be found in any logical place in Domino City, and if a ransom note is not received, the Shadow Realm might be the best place to look."
"How will we even decide who goes where?" Téa worried.
"Oh, I can make that very easy."
Everyone jumped a mile. Yami Marik had suddenly appeared in their mist with a sneer, his arms folded.
"So it was you!" Marik cried in outrage. "Why?!"
Seto took a step forward. "You'd better bring my brother back," he snarled. "What did Mokuba ever do to you?!"
"Why, nothing, of course," Yami Marik laughed. "But I won't be bringing him back. If you want him, you'll just have to go and get him."
"Is he in the Shadow Realm?!" Atem demanded.
"Yes, he is!" Yami Marik's expression twisted in a grotesque manner. "Maybe he's found Lector, maybe not. Maybe you shouldn't have sent him there, Pharaoh!"
"He had to do something to lock the Big Five away!" Yugi cried indignantly.
Yami Bakura was hanging back, a fist clenched, a haunted look in his eyes. "If they're going to the Shadow Realm, we'll still have to hold back and wait for them here," he told Bakura. "We cannot follow."
Bakura looked to him with a start. "But we have to help find Mokuba!" he exclaimed. "Yami, I know something horrible must have happened in the past, but we'll just have to pray it doesn't happen again. We can't leave that poor boy in such a ghastly place!"
"There are more than enough people to look for him," Yami Bakura insisted. "We are not going!"
Yami Marik looked over, his eyes bloodshot in his anticipation for more chaos and misery. "What's the matter, Thief? You've been to the Shadow Realm before, and fairly recently too! I took us all there the time I extracted Bakura's soul and fired it at you!"
Everyone stared at him in thunderstruck shock.
"You did what?!" Téa shrieked.
Yami Bakura gave him a dark look filled with fire boiling just under the surface. "That is not the same as wandering aimlessly through the realm, and we both know it," he said coldly. "Don't push me."
Yami Marik just stepped closer to him in sick delight. "I know," he whispered, "and I know what's really troubling you. I saw it all when I performed the mind probe on you during those glorious days filled with nothing but torturing you."
Yami Bakura shoved him away. "Be silent!" he snarled.
"Yami!" Bakura exclaimed in worry.
"Nevermind any of this!" Seto yelled over all of them. "Mokuba is in there and I'm going to get him out. You can come with me or not. I'll rescue him all on my own if I have to!"
"You won't have to," Atem said firmly. "We're going." Most of the others nodded in agreement.
Bakura looked to Yami Bakura with pleading yet firm eyes. "I want to help too, Yami. I know whatever you're worried about must involve me and why I can't remember, but surely I'll be alright if we all stay together. I don't want to crawl into a hole and hide to protect myself when my friends need me!"
Yami Bakura looked at him, then away, growling under his breath.
"Hey, what is this?" Tristan interjected. "You risked everything to help Mokuba before! What makes this any different than that fire?!"
Yami Bakura looked back to him with a start. "I risked myself, not Bakura. That makes it different!"
"Let's go," Seto implored. "If they want to argue, they can stay behind. I am not leaving my brother in this mess for one minute longer than I have to!"
Atem nodded. "We need to save him as quickly as possible. But Bakura wanted to help as well. They can come later, if they agree on it." The Infinity Puzzled started to glow.
Yami Marik couldn't be more delighted. "Now you'll all be at the mercy of the very darkness itself!" he cackled.
Yami Bakura grabbed Bakura's arm. "We are not going with them," he insisted.
"Yami!" Bakura gripped his friend's arms. "I know I promised I wouldn't ask, but now that we know Mokuba is there, I think I must. What happened in the past? What is it I don't remember?"
Yami Bakura looked at him for a long moment. ". . . You were almost completely swallowed up by despair," he admitted at last. "The darkness started to claim you."
Bakura gasped. "Oh my. But . . . I'm alright now, Yami. . . . Somehow you must have helped me. . . ."
"Somehow," Yami Bakura agreed.
"So, how, exactly?" Tristan frowned.
Yami Bakura looked away. "That isn't important. What's important is that it might not work again!" He turned to Bakura, his eyes almost frantic. "You don't remember. You don't know what it was like watching you slowly become part of the darkness. I won't see that happen to you again. I won't!"
Bakura stood for a moment, considering that. Then, finally, he reached and embraced his friend. "It's different now, Yami," he said softly. "Back then, we weren't close. I must have felt so alone. But now I have you and all of the others as well. I won't give in to despair again. I couldn't!" He looked up at the man. "Everything will be alright. I promise! Please, I want to help find Mokuba!"
Yami Bakura hesitated for another long moment. He didn't like it, but it was true that things were different now. And he wanted to show that he trusted Bakura and respected his wishes.
"Fine," he snapped at last. "But if anything starts going wrong, I'm taking you out of there!"
Bakura smiled. "Thank you, Yami."
With that finally settled, Atem allowed the Puzzle to complete its task. The pleasant room faded to the blackness of the Shadow Realm.
Seto immediately took off running. "Mokuba!"
"Kaiba, wait for us!" Atem cried.
Everyone else gave chase.
