Chapter 9

Malik's head shot up when he heard gun shots followed by an agonizing yell from Ryou and a loud thump.

'Ryou!' he thought and rushed from his hiding spot to go help his friend. He ran towards Bakura who was currently holding Ryou close to his chest but before he could reach the two, he was intercepted as two strong arms encircled him from behind.

He struggled from the grip around his torso and screamed out Ryou's name. Tears blurred his vision as he saw blood dripping down Ryou's arm.

"Let him go!" he screamed at Bakura who made no sign that he'd heard the blonde agent.

Malik gave a roundhouse kick backwards at his captor but the arms did not loosen from around him. He turned around in the grasp to give the man a punch to the face however was shocked to find himself staring directly into Marik's eyes. Marik's eyes were filled with many emotions; anger, betrayal, but mostly hurt.

Before Malik could comprehend the situation, a blast came from the front of the room and several KaibaCorp agents came flooding in.

"Don't hurt them!" Yugi called out after the other agents.

It was then that Malik noticed that Yami was also in the room however he looked lost and uncertain as to what to do.

Malik used the distraction of the blast to break out of Marik's grip and run towards Ryou.

He was intercepted yet again, but this time by a KaibaCorp agent who pulled him away from the scene.

"Come on, let's get out of here" Honda said grabbing Malik and pulling him towards the exit.

"What about Ryou?!" Malik yelled.

"The others will grab him. Let's move, Yugi is waiting outside" Honda replied urgently and dragged Malik out the door.

Malik looked back once more and saw four other agents run towards Ryou and Bakura. He hoped Ryou would be okay.

His heart twisted when he saw Marik run towards Bakura to help his brother. What had they done?

(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)

"Code red code red. We have a situation down at Millennium Corp. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill" a voice called over the loud speakers at KaibaCorp.

A group of men led by Kaiba piled into a van and sped off towards Millennium Corp. Noah frowned to himself. Couldn't the agents at this company do anything right?

He went over to the mainboard and tapped into the audio attached to the agents' earpieces. It took a few moments but then Noah picked up on one of the conversations taking place.

'No Yami that's not true! That was it in the beginning but things changed. We just wanted to make sure that there weren't any missing people here. We were never going to take the duel disk design or harm the company' he heard Yugi say.

Noah's eyes narrowed in anger. How dare an agent go against the corporation's orders? Scratch that, how dare he go against his orders! This trio was going to learn how traitors were treated the hard way.

(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)

Two agents wrestled with Bakura to try pry Ryou out of his tight grip. Bakura however was not letting go of the unconscious boy.

Bakura picked up the gun from the floor with his free hand and shot blindly at the agents. The bullet missed both targets and only managed to anger them.

Otogi leaned forward and punched Bakura in the face. Bakura let go of the white-haired agent and Otogi and the other man grabbed the boy and ran towards the exit.

The other two agents who had been holding Marik back, let him go and followed the agents out the door. In a matter of seconds, the room was silent.

(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)

"Quickly get in" Kaiba yelled at the final two agents as they entered the van waiting outside the building. As soon as the last agent was in, the van door slammed shut and it sped off into the night.

"How's he doing?" Yugi asked leaning over Ryou's unconscious form.

"Not too good, he's lost a lot of blood. We just need to get him some medical care as soon as possible so we can make sure no permanent damage has been done to the use of his arm" Honda replied as he kept pressure on Ryou's arm.

"We'll be taking him to our private on-call doctor at KaibaCorp. She's the best in Japan" Kaiba explained as the van sped around a tight corner and entered the KaibaCorp complex.

The van pulled to a stop and Ryou was immediately rushed inside where he was met with the doctor. Shizuka took one look at her patient and ordered the spies to bring him into the medical room. In a flash Ryou disappeared behind the doors and Yugi and Malik were left to their own thoughts.

"How did that go so wrong?" Malik asked, his head in his hands.

"I don't know" Yugi replied. He felt so empty inside. Yami's face kept coming to the forefront of his mind and he couldn't forget the utter betrayal that passed through his expression. He wished he could rewind the last 24 hours and forget everything that had just happened.

(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)

Kaiba walked towards Noah's office but stopped outside the door when he heard Noah on the phone.

"Yes the three on the Millennium Corp mission. I want them gone as soon as possible … I don't care if one of them was shot, they'll be in far worse condition if I get my hands on them. Don't you understand, they went rogue! Get rid of them!" Noah yelled and hung up the phone.

Kaiba stormed into the room and Noah looked up in surprise.

"What are you doing?" Kaiba demanded and picked up Noah by the front of his collar.

Noah looked back into Kaiba's eyes, not fazed by their positions. "Your favorite agents went rogue, we need to dispose of them" Noah answered simply.

"How did they go rogue?" Kaiba asked with venom in his voice.

"They said they weren't even going to get the design. They pretty much admitted they've been backstabbing us the entire time" Noah explained.

Kaiba dropped Noah back to his feet and slapped him across the face. "You are such a child! That is the most idiotic reason to think someone went rogue. There are so many possible reasons why they said that!" Kaiba yelled.

"I wouldn't treat me like that if I was you" Noah smiled, wiping the trickle of blood that was running from his mouth.

"Call whoever you were just speaking to back and tell them you were mistaken" Kaiba ordered slowly.

"If I do that, then I'm cutting Mokuba off from everything. If he wakes up, he'll have nothing. And I'll freeze your shares so you can't give him anything either. Is that what you want?" Noah asked patronizingly.

"You wouldn't dare" Kaiba said through gritted teeth.

"Do you want to bet?" Noah asked.

Kaiba stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He needed to fix this.

(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)

Bakura threw another plate at the wall and watched the porcelain shatter into a million pieces.

"Bakura! Calm down!" Yami yelled.

"Calm down?! Don't you understand? I SHOT him" Bakura yelled back and found a glass on the counter and threw it at the wall.

"And don't you understand that they were lying to us! They used us!" Yami roared back.

Bakura stopped smashing the tableware for a moment as Yami's words sunk in.

"I think we should let them explain their side of the story" Marik spoke up and both brothers turned to look at him in suprise. "As much as what they did was a betrayal, and believe me, I am beyond pissed off at the whole situation" he continued, turning to Yami, "I think we should still understand what happened before we make any rash decisions."

"And how do you propose we find them? I doubt they'll come into work tomorrow" Yami said sarcastically.

"We need to find them" Bakura said. "I need to know what happened."

"Fine, we'll figure it out tomorrow" Yami muttered, walking to his room and closing the door behind him.

Yami leaned his back against the door and slid down to sit on the floor. Why was he so angry? Usually he was the calm one in the family. And it was all because of Yugi. Yugi and his stupid grin that made all his problems seen insignificant. And his stupid amethyst eyes that he melted at every time they looked at him. Yami remembered the last time he saw those eyes and the incredible fear that they held within them. Fear for him.

'Stupid Yugi' he thought. And even as his mind reveled in the anger the name brought about because of his betrayal, his heart still clenched when he pictured the boy in his mind.

(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)

Malik looked up as Shizuka exited the medical room. She found Malik and Yugi and walked towards them. She saw how worried the two looked and gave them a reassuring smile.

"So good news. The bullet missed all vital nerves and bone so there was no nerve damage and Ryou will have full use of his left arm in the next couple of weeks. He'll just have to keep it in a sling for the time being" Shizuka explained and Malik and Yugi sighed in relief.

"Just make sure he gets plenty of bedrest. Or as much as he can considering your line of work" she laughed.

"Thank you" Malik said sincerely and Shizuka smiled in response. "You can see him now if you would like" she said.

Both boys walked into the room Shizuka had just vacated and saw Ryou lying in a bed, his arm bandaged tightly.

"How are you feeling?" Yugi asked, going over to sit on one side of the bed.

"Yeah pretty good considering" Ryou answered. He tried to smile but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Yeah, we should talk about what we're going to do now. Usually the companies we're undercover at don't catch us. So this complicates things" Malik said and sat on the other side of Ryou's bed.

"We should probably lay low for a while. Maybe stay here for a couple of weeks until things die down at Millennium Corp" Yugi suggested.

"That may be a problem" a new voice added and the three boys turned to the door to see Kaiba. He walked in and stood at the foot of the bed.

"What do you mean?" Malik asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Word has gotten out that apparently you three went against headquarters' orders and now there's a price on your heads to get rid of you" Kaiba explained.

"What!" the three yelled in unison.

"Don't worry, I know you three didn't go against anyone because you reported directly to me. I'm trying to fix this from the inside but at the moment you three will have to stay low. Which means you can't stay here or go back to your apartment because your address is on KaibaCorp's records" Kaiba continued and threw Yugi a set of car keys.

"These are for the Nissan Pulsar in the garage. It has no tracking devices and it's the easier car we have that will blend in. Also you've got about an hour before anyone comes down here. I've given Shizuka specific instructions not to let anyone else down here for the time being. If I were you, I would leave now before people notice you're not in your bed" Kaiba ordered.

Kaiba walked towards the exit but before he opened the door he turned back to his agents. "Don't make me regret trusting you."

Yugi, Malik and Ryou nodded and Kaiba left without another word.

A/N: Wah it's only been 2 chapters and I already miss our couples together :'(

Also I'm having major writer's block :/ Hoping that disappears soon haha. See you next chapter!