A/N: Short but necessary. I meant to write Helios's part too but homework and my awesome roommates' sing-a-long fest thoroughly distracted me. XD

Chapter summary: In which we learn life goes on back on the world Kaiba and the gang left behind.

Those Left Behind

"J'onn? J'onn!"

The Martian came to slowly, the pain in his head still simmering. He groaned and opened his eyes. Wonder Woman was kneeling above him with, her lovely face scrunched in concern.

"Diana?" he muttered in confusion.

The Amazon sighed and at back in relief. "You had me worried there," she said. "I got a call from Raphael," she jerked her head to the bulky biker sitting nearby, "saying you'd collapsed and Green Lantern disappeared. Care to explain what happened?"

The Martian sat up slowly, pressing a hand gently to his temple. His mind was healing quickly but the after effects of the burn were still present. "It was unintentional but regrettable," he said calmly.

"What was?"

His yellow eyes met her blue as he contemplated his answer. "The deeper into Court they went," he began, "the more painful the experience."

"Painful?" Amelda asked, standing behind Diana and watching the scene with interest. "I've been to Court and it's not painful."

"It burns my mind," J'onn explained patiently. "Kaiba once said he thought it was the combination of raw power and incompatibility that causes it."

"That makes sense," Raphael murmured. "You're not human so the Shadows probably naturally reject you. Not to mention," he added wryly, "Kaiba's mind is not the sanest or calmest there is."

"I should hope not," Amelda snarked.

"But what happened to Lantern?" Wonder Woman pressed.

J'onn bowed his head. "I am ashamed to say the burn became too intense forcing me to retreat. The timing was the problem. Arrow felt my mind slip just as they were about to go to the other reality and tried to catch me, thinking I was being left behind." He raised his eyes. "He grabbed Lantern's mind by accident thus taking him instead of me."

"But Arrow is just a Shadow user," Diana said. "He's not a telepath."

"No," J'onn agreed. "But Lantern was touching me, helping me when the burn became too painful. He was trying to pull me out."

Diana nodded slowly. "So his mind was vulnerable."

J'onn yellow eyes dropped. "It was an accident."

Amelda sighed gustily. "You gave a nasty scare, you know," he said. "Screaming bloody murder and all. Raph had to grab your communicator and call the whatchamacallit to get your friend here in a hurry."

"Watchtower," Diana said.

"That's it," Amelda chimed. "That thing."

"You have my gratitude," J'onn said to to Raphael.

The biker smiled and waved away the Martian's words. "Don't worry about it. Friends help each other out."

"Speaking of friends," Diana said soberly, "I have news of the bombing. The security tapes are still being recovered and checked for heat damage but I several eye witnesses describe the person we believe may be behind the attack."

"The man on the white motorcycle?" J'onn asked.

"White motorcycle?" Amelda parroted.

Diana was already shaking her head. "I don't know what Lantern was able to tell you but we found the bomb to be archaic in style."

"He said that," Raphael agreed. "He also said it meant the bomber would've had to personally light the fuse."

The Amazon nodded. "Correct. The witnesses describe a young man, well built with short blonde hair stand near the side of the balcony. He called Mokuba over to help him with something when another man people describe as Kaiba, but whom I'm fairly sure was actually Seth, went out as well. According to witnesses, that's when everyone heard the gunshot, Seth vanished, and the bomb exploded."

J'onn shook his head ruefully. "It is similar but the manI saw had long blonde hair, not short."

Diana grimaced. "I thought you said that, but I wanted to be sure. No one knew who the man was and he was not on the guest list."

"So in other words, we're stuck until the videos are up and working," Amelda griped. "Fantastic."

"Diana, what is wrong?" J'onn asked, seeing the unspoken worry in the woman's eyes.

She sighed and gave in. "The description of the possible bomber is very close to Ares. I am considering showing them an artist's rendition of Ares to be sure, but..." She shrugged.

"You think it could be him."

"Ares? Like the Greek god of war Ares?" Amelda asked, brows furrowed in disbelief. He rolled his eyes. "Well now I've seen everything."

"I thought your gods did not like engaging another pantheon on battle," J'onn said.

Diana's eyes gleamed. "They don't. But this wouldn't be the first time he's gone against Zeus's wishes."

"Other pantheon?" Raphael asked. "What other pantheon?"

Diana and J'onn looked to the two Shadow users in the room in confused surprise. "The Egyptian pantheon," the Amazon said.

Amelda cackled. "Ares trying to arm wrestle Obelisk. Now that I'd like to see."

"No," the Amazon, lifting an eyebrow. "Kaiba and the Shadow Court."

"Kaiba?" Raphael repeated. "He's not a god, just the Regent."

"On the contrary," J'onn said calmly, "he is Set, the Egyptian god of storms and chaos."

...

"The fuck?!"

"How many is that?" Marik asked, eyeing the people slowly making their way back to their tents.

"Five now," the Thief said, studying the scenery closely from his crouched position.

He focused his red eyes back to the tents set up near and around the dig site. Most of the workers had turned in for the night but the occasional person was seen hobbling between the cloth encampments with a flashlight looking for the latrines. They were waiting for the all-clear sign from Ryou before sneaking into the place.

"One more and the tent should be empty," the spirit muttered. "Damn foreigners and their drinks."

"You're one to talk, Bakura," Marik chided, nudging the Thief's shoulder with his knee. "Speaking of, I'm impressed Ryou managed to get into this."

"His absentee father's an archeologist so it wasn't too hard," Bakura said. "It does make it difficult though now that the fucktard of a man's decided to join this 'expedition,'" he said using air quotes to demonstrate his disdain for the aforementioned man's words.

"When's he supposed to get here? Do you know?"

Bakura shook his head in frustration. "Ryou doesn't know either. He tried talking to Carter Hall again but the man insists the 'Curse of the Unknown Tomb' as he calls it is nothing but ridiculous nonsense."

"You think he would know better after the whole Shadow Thief debacle," Marik grumbled.

"That implies thinking," Bakura agreed. "Which the man does but not along the lines we'd prefer. I think he does believe in the curse but sees it as a challenge to be met and defeated."

"Admirable but frustrating. Also pointless." Marik shifted to a more comfortable spot, pulling his dark robes closer around him, warding off the sand and desert wind. "Already two people have been sent away."

"The mechanical traps are working nicely but the spells have weakened significantly," Bakura said. "If I was still in the tomb robbing business, I would rate this one a seven on a scale of one to ten."

"Ten being?"

"The most difficult to get into," Bakura clarified. "But every day the rating goes down. The mechanical traps are working but not as well as I would expect. The spells are really what's taking affect."

"The first man was caught in a cave in, though," Marik said. "That wasn't part of the traps."

"No, but it's slowed them down." Bakura stiffened when he caught sight of the signal, a shadow figure of Anubis cast against the inner tent wall in the lantern light. He grinned. "You first or shall I?"

"Ladies first," Marik teased.

"Then by all means," Bakura said, extending his hand.

Marik glared, grabbed the Thief's arm, and yanked him along. Together they Traveled to the area just outside Ryou's tent. "Ryou," Marik hissed.

The light went out and the twosome Traveled inside, materializing in front of the Scribe. Marik quickly checked to be sure the zipper was pulled completely down before settling on the sleeping bag spread out across the tent floor. He lifted his eyes, quickly adjusting to the darkness inside the tent and grinned.

The moonlight was weak through the tent fabric but it was enough to see the way Bakura had firmly attached himself to his yadonoushi. Of course, the sounds would have given away what they were up to even if Marik had been completely blind. He crossed his arms and sat back to watch. It was a tasty display.

"You know," you whispered in Japanese, "if all you do is kiss him, I might just have to take you both."

"I'd like to see you try, Priest," Bakura growled.

"As if I would let you," Ryou said breathlessly, tilting his head back to let the dark spirit mouth his throat. "Besides, if you will give me," he gasped as teeth dug into his neck, "a chance to breathe-"

"Now where's the fun in that?"

"You'd be interested to know they may be getting close to the...mmm...door," Ryou sighed.

Bakura stopped his ministrations and eyed Ryou. "You're sure?"

Ryou nodded, catching his breath. "As sure as I can be," he said. "No one here actually knows the exact location of the tomb, just that it's in this vicinity."

"And I suppose Mr. Hall is heading up the search himself," Marik groaned. "Fantastic."

"There's some good news," Ryou said, taking a seat next to the robed Priest and leaning into his warmth. Marik lifted an arm and the seam of his robe so Ryou could snuggle. "The spells are working. At least one member of the group has been experiencing hallucinations and bad nightmares."

"Good," Marik said pleasantly. "I have my clan doing their best to cast their own spells and such, mostly for misdirection and confusion but..." He shrugged and began petting Ryou's hair. "We'll see how far that goes."

"Do we know how Kaiba's handling everything?" Ryou asked.

"That bastard's probably fine," Bakura said. "Although I am curious. How is he handling Mokuba going missing?"

"Not well," Marik said grimly. "Ishizu said he nearly fell apart. You felt it. For a minute there, the balance was...less than stable." Ryou and Bakura nodded. "There's another thing no one found important enough to mention. Apparently, Helios also vamished with Mokuba."

"Well well," Bakura grinned, plopping down in Ryou's lap so he stared up at his two companions from below. "What a fascinating turn of events this is."

"Indeed," Marik muttered. "I plan on making an official appearance tomorrow with the support of the museum, of course. Our exhibit has shown interest in the archeologists' 'finds,'" he said wryly. "I'm officially here to make sure everything hurries along smoothly. Unofficially, I'm here to cause mayhem. Ooh, I can't wait."

Bakura scoffed. "Typical."

Marik pinched the Thief's cheek hard ignoring the pained squawk from the offended party. "I hear your father's joining the dig," the Priest said to Ryou. "Any reason why?"

Ryou shrugged helplessly. "Afraid not. I'm guessing he heard about the dig then that I was here and decided to come himself." He sighed gustily. "Last I heard he was working for some museum in England."

Bakura hummed thoughtfully. "Then we may have competition." He glanced at Marik, his red eyes flashing. "Think you can handle it?"

"Of course," the Priest said in mock offense. "I can just throw you at them."

"I'm liable to hurt him."

"I wouldn't necessarily mind if you did," Ryou said surprising the other two. "Just don't make it too permanent. I am freeloading off him, you know."

Bakura cackled only for Marik to slap his hand over the idiot's mouth. "Shut up, dumbass! Do you want to get us caught?"

Bakura licked Marik's hand, clamping it in place when the Priest tried to jerk it away at the feel of the slobber. He bit down hard on the fleshy palm before finally allowing the Egyptian to pull his hand back.

"Disgusting," Marik mumbled, shaking his hand out with a disturbed expression.

"That's not what you said last night," Bakura purred.

"How do you know what I said or didn't say last night?" Marik snapped. "You weren't there."

"But you are now."

"What's that got to do with it?" Marik asked suspiciously.

"Care to find out?" Bakura asked, rolling onto his stomach and kicking his feet up behind him in a mock innocent pose.

Ryou groaned. "Is this really necessary? The last thing I need is for the others to wake up and hear you."

"Oh don't worry, they won't," Bakura said, waving away Ryou's words dismissively. "You won't have enough air the scream when I'm done with you."

"What?!"