Disclaimer: I own nothing… for now.

A/N: Happy Thanksgiving my American friends… in America! For this chapter only, we are not allowed to write in anything but American. Eat a big portion out of your American food and one more for this poor authoress who isn't American and has to wait for Christmas…

See? That's why I am gonna destroy you all… in America.

(Edited: 11/09/2014)

And a long night it was. For a while all we did was remain in an awkward silence, each of us waiting for the other to say something and it soon became apparent that the spirit was not going to be the one to do it. Eventually, I decided that the crazy bloke, who had left the unlocked, unattended chopper on a lunatic's private island, pulled spinning tops that produced holograms for a children's card game out of his silver briefcase and gloated over his victory against another teenager in said card game, was the safest topic of conversation at my disposal.

"So... who was that Kaiba kid? He didn't really sound like the rest of you rays of sunshine."

The spirit of the Puzzle quirked his brow at this, to which I replied with a wide grin. Smirking back at me in the end, he explained what little he knew about the Kaiba brothers' situation. It made me feel kind of a total wanker to have thought so badly of him and made a note to myself to apologize if I ever saw him again. After that, it was easier for us to talk. Not that there had not been roadblocks mind you- the spirit was insistent that I should talk to him about what had happened to me in the Shadow Realm. However I managed to dodge that bullet, so to speak, since there were few things I could remember with any semblance of accuracy anyway. There were flashes of what I had gone through but they were short and made no sense to me at all. I had no intention of digging any further than that either, so I asked the spirit as kindly as possible to leave that one alone. He nodded his agreement but from the frown on his face I could tell this was not quite his intention. The rest of the night went without farther unexpected attempts at playing "Dr. Phil" on his part so we managed to make idle chit chat. Eventually we ran out even of those topics and at around the break of dawn I was desperate enough to try my luck with the weather conversation again.

Thankfully, Joey chose that particular moment to interrupt yet another promise of revenge at Kaiba and wake up. During the course of the night he had yelled many of those and done so rather loudly. I couldn't possibly figure out how the rest of the gang had managed to catch some sleep. The spirit and I were constantly caught of guard and a couple of times I had actually jumped on my feet.

Joey rubbed his eyes to chase off sleep and then decided that anyone in a ten-mile radius had enough sleep- no matter that it had roughly been five hours since the last human present fell asleep.

"Joey! What's going on?" asked Yugi sleepily, not really in touch with reality yet.

"Yeah, what is it Joey?" Ryou yawned.

"Nothin's wrong! It's just a brand new day in that tournament and I'm hot to find us a duel!"

A hand fell on my shoulder and I glanced at the spirit.

"I'll see you later." he smiled tiredly.

"Oh, sure, yeah. See you around." I nodded quickly. Poor bloke deserved his rest.

As the last sleeping people were roused and shot glares full of promises of eternal pain and torture at Joey, I took in my surroundings. They looked decidedly different in the light of day, that was for certain. It was a beautiful day, not bad at all for early autumn. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, not willing to miss a single sound of the forest. A sad attempt may I add- as it turned out, not one single of these berks could shut their mouth, even as they made their morning preparations.

It took some time for them to get ready- too long considering there was not nearly enough food for a long breakfast and in its majority consisted of left-over baked candy bars and canned fruit. When everyone was good to go, we went on our way with Joey and Tristan's silly bickering following us like a soundtrack.

"Did you hear that?" asked Joey again. He was being paranoid for the last hour or so, looking around him suspiciously and jumping at every sound. Honestly, he looked like a blond Inspector Gadget. Only taller, blonder and without the coolest hat known to man. "I think we are being followed."

"I think you are getting a little paranoid Joey." Tea snapped exasperated.

"You've been acting hyper ever since you woke up this morning. Man, what is eating you anyway?" asked Tristan trying to hide his own irritation.

"I'm tellin ya! Somebody's stalkin' us!" Joey insisted and then, out of the blue took off.

"Where are you going?" yelled Tristan behind him.

"To stalk them!"

Brilliance is underrated in this show.

"Joey's been gone an awfully long time…" Yugi eventually voiced what we were all thinking.

"Could he be lost?" asked Tea.

"No way. But he could have been challenged to a duel."

"I bet that's it. I must have been on his case a little too hard so now he's gone off to find a duel all by himself." Tristan muttered guiltily.

"Okay, so let's split up and find him!" Ryou proposed enthusiastically.

I shot my brother a dirty look. With his luck he would most likely end up lost or falling off of a particularly high cliff. Furthermore, he was still wearing the Millennium Ring around his neck, something that I found particularly foolish. According t my humble opinion he could sell it and get a good prize for it too, what with it being such a rare and precious ancient Egyptian artifact. Or if he didn't want to, he could always just tie it to a rock, rent a boat and throw it to the deepest parts of the ocean. Both solutions worked just fine.

"Right! Yugi and Tea, you go that way. Bakura and I will go this way!" Tristan took the lead and each team followed the direction he had pointed us at. I sighed and followed Ryou and Tristan, hoping that no cliffs would come out of nowhere at our direction.

After spending a good amount of time running around and screaming Joey's name -well the others did, I was just following them and was watching out for cliffs to keep Ryou away from-we eventually headed back to the meeting spot. I was panting from all the running, which was weird considering that my lungs are long gone and buried in a cemetery. I stopped a few feet away and placed my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath, when I heard something about checking inside a cave. I felt my eye twitching but before my very special version of what might just happen to their limbs –even Ryou's- if they so much as considered going a step further could be expressed in a good several-hours-long rant, they took off.

"Aah! Wait for me, you bloody twits!" I shouted enraged and followed.

"What is this place?" asked Tristan a bit spooked by the atmosphere.

"Be careful. It could be some kind of trap." Yugi warned us.

There are two coffins in the entrance and I'd have a flutter that if we went a bit deeper in this cave we would probably find the serial killer that completed the set. So I couldn't hazard a guess where Yugi got that idea in his head...

"What's up with those coffins?" Tea whispered.

"Beats me! Who'd leave them just standing here?" Ryou wondered, putting a hand on one of the coffins and Tea followed suit.

"I swear Ryou, if you don't get away from that thing…." I trailed off when I saw the chain that kept the coffin closed start unwrapping itself from it.

Oh bugger.

The coffins opened and skeletons fell out, their hands gripping tightly Ryou and Tea's clothes. That's right. Skeletons. That Pegasus guy either was a maniac, or had an extremely sick sense of humor.

Ryou and Tea were running in circles screaming their bloody lungs out in the process and Tristan and Yugi immediately went to their rescue. Now, under any other circumstances I would have been terrified to see Ryou being harassed by a skeleton, but the whole image made me laugh so hard that if any of them could see or hear me, I would get some really strange looks. Eventually, Tristan got rid of Ryou's new friend with a punch and Yugi pulled that thing off of Tea, leaving her shuddering in disgust and fear.

"That Pegasus sure has a sick sense of humor." commented Tristan dryly.

"You said it Tristan." Yugi agreed.

We went –or should I say ran- deeper in that cave, leaving behind us any last traces of light. I tried to focus on anything else than the almost absolute darkness around us, though I wouldn't be able to keep that trembling in check for long. The deeper we got, the more I wanted to get out of there.

However I got more sidetracked than I probably wanted to when Ryou got separated from the others. For the love of God, they didn't even take any turns! I didn't know how he did it, but leave it to Ryou to do the one most stupid thing that you never expect anyone else to do.

"Guys?" he asked, scared. We kept walking forward, hoping that we would come across the others. Suddenly, I heard Ryou curse and something big fell on him, causing me to shriek and him to scream bloody murder. He turned on his heels and ran for dear life, flailing his hands around.

"Bakura! This way!" we heard Tristan's voice and Ryou went towards it, a skeleton firmly clung on his back.

"Aah! HELP ME!" he screamed. The others freaked out and tried to get away from him, shouting at him to not come any closer.

"Aah! Get this thing off of me!"

Eventually Tristan managed to destroy that skeleton, while the others played dead. If I hadn't been so scared about Ryou I would most likely have been rolling on the floor with laughter for the second time today. I supported myself on the wall, catching a little break from all the running. I hated running. When this was over I would never run again.

"From now on, don't go picking any hitchhikers." commanded Tristan sternly, crushing the skull under his shoe.

"Is it safe for me to open my eyes now?" groaned Tea from her spot on the ground. I shook my head. These guys were trying to have a rescue mission to help Joey? They needed rescuing themselves!

"You gave us quite a scare with that skeleton Bakura!" said Yugi, sounding disturbingly okay with it.

"Sorry…"

"Never mind that. Because now we have another problem. Which way do we go now?" Tristan questioned seriously, causing us all to turn our heads and face a crossroads. Just great! Truth be told, I was half expecting to see a giant boulder coming at us, so compared to that, the crossroads weren't all that bad…

"Anybody have any ideas?"

"Gee, both ways look so inviting!" Tea exclaimed sarcastically.

"Yeah, but Joey got himself invited in one of those tunnels, so we need to find which one!"

"Tristan's right. We need to find Joey now."

"Yeah!" they shouted all together. However when they stood up, my beloved twin brother stepped on another trap.

"Hey! My foot!"

We heard a cracking sound and we turned to the direction it was coming from.

"What's that sound?"

"I stepped on a switch or something…"

"Quiet now!" Yugi ordered.

"Listen, now the sounds getting louder…"

God, why must it be so dark in here… We were like sitting ducks, waiting for whatever was in there to come and get us. And we were doing it in the dark. Why couldn't they have a nice, big flashlight with them? They could set up a camp alright, but a flashlight? God forbid the work of the devil.

"I think it's coming this way." Tea mumbled, not even bothering to hide her fear.

"Yeah, but just what's coming this way?" Yugi wondered aloud.

Ryou was shaking in fear, with his hands over his mouth. At this picture, the fierce protectiveness I always felt towards him came rushing back. I knew that anything that belonged to the physical realm was well out of my league, but I couldn't just stand back and let whatever that thing after us was to get to Ryou. So I stood before him and took a fighting stance, my hands shining from the energy gathered there.

The thing that was making the unfamiliar noise came closer. We could now see it.

My eyes widened. Was that…

"You have got to be bloody kidding me!"

The gang screamed at the same time and took off towards a random direction like the devil himself was right behind us. Which he kind of was, in the form of a bloody giant boulder!

Me and my bloody mouth.

"Why is that boulder chasing us?" asked Tea. The most stupid question in the universe, I should add. It was the worst possible scenario. That's why that boulder was chasing us!

"Cause we are downhill!" answered Tristan. Yeah, that one too. But mostly because of what I said.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Ryou was chanting, really getting on my nerves.

"Oh sod off R-", I turned to yell at him and then trip over my feet at the sight that greeted me.

In that instant Ryou was being crushed underneath the boulder that had been chasing us. He screamed out toward me with a pained expression of horror etched into his features. The very same face that I had seen countless times, all of them flashing in front of me in an instant, all of them with the same helplessness in his eyes. The overwhelming feeling of shame paralyzed me.

But they had all been nothing but nightmares, fake situations, things I had never actually done. But this time...this time...

How could this have happened? How did I let it happen?

I didn't move from where I was lying on the ground, instead letting the boulder pass through me with my eyes shut as tightly as possible, trying to stop myself from going into hysterics. My breath was erratic and my tears flowed freely, as my hands gripped at the dirt...dirt I couldn't really touch or feel.

A chuckle escaped me as understanding finally downed on me. How could I have protected my brother like this? I had taken his place into the Shadow Realm, but that had ultimately done nothing at all to protect him. Bakura had come back, he had used him in yet another Shadow Game and I didn't even know, let alone protect him. I had left him alone.

Ryou was dead and I couldn't stop it. What would happen to me now that he was gone? What if it was too late for me to move on from this world? Would I fade away or stay like this for eternity? Would madness overcome me, would I end up just another monster? What about me?

I had promised to myself to see my brother happy when I died. When Bakura began to hurt him I promised to myself that I would protect him. And now, here I was, lying pitifully on the ground, afraid to open my eyes, knowing that I would only see his blood pooling around his crushed body. I had to look at him. Look at him and face my failure straight on, it was the least I owed him for letting him down.

But I...just...I just...

Soft steps echoed and I felt someone pass through me.

"Are you okay Bakura?" Tea's soft voice broke me from my oncoming hysteria.

My eyes snapped open at the question, my breath caught in my throat. I slowly raised my head and stared at Tea's back which covered some of Ryou's body. The rest of it was shaking in fear. I was able to listen his soft whimpers. My eyes went wide as Ryou shakily stood up and sighed in relief. He was alright.

I continued on staring, unsure if what I saw was actually true. Ryou was alive and well.

Why?

I had seen that rock run him over. I had heard him scream in fear. So why...? Why was he alive?

My hands tightened into fists as rage took over me. I got up from the ground and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I couldn't. That bloody bastard was alive. Alive and well and not so much as a scratch on him. I had been so terrified; I had felt so much agony for those moments. He had no bloody right to be alright. I wanted to hurt him so badly. I wanted to show to that sad bastard that he couldn't do this to me. How dared he do this. How dared he think that he could just play with me like that!

Everything suddenly became clear, my thoughts, my vision, everything was absolutely painfully blatant and I could finally see that darkness inside me, which I wasn't aware of till that very moment. All that pain, all that agony was now clear as day to me and I clutched my head and screamed. The fear and sorrow that existed inside me long before I ever set foot into the Shadow Realm was now filling every fiber of my being. Ryou was the one to stay alive. He was the one to have his chance at fulfilling his dreams. Ryou had been the reason for everything I had gone through; he had been why I had to go through so much pain. He deserved to die for what he had done to me and I would be glad to kill him with my own hands.

I concentrated in the energy inside me and gathered it to the palm of my hand. It was the strongest energy ball I had ever constructed, I felt certain of the results. It would kill Ryou before he could even blink. I was ready to kill him, had nothing to hold me back. He deserved to die; it was his punishment for everything he had done to me.

For a second I felt unsure of what I was about to do, I even felt a pang of fear and for a brief second I searched for a reason to leave him be but I found nothing but pain and anger. My pain, I could now see, was constant and sharp and all I wanted was for my pain to be inflicted on others. I launched the concentrated energy and for a moment, I wondered whether his chest would explode or his heart would simply stop. That is, until I saw my attack shine brightly for a moment and then disappeared all together. Instead, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle was standing there, arms crossed in front of his chest. His eyes gave his rage away but when he spoke his voice was sharp and emotionless.

"What are you doing Amane?"

A/N: Okay, I know that it's a bit late for Thanksgiving but you should know that when I started this chapter it was not. With that settled and with the fact that no one likes chocolate cake with nuts in mind, I offer two chocolate chip cookies to everyone who will review.

Also, if you want to ask anything, feel free to PM me. R&R, no flames allowed, hope you enjoyed it! :)