FudoTwin17: So. Hey.

Cat: Apologies begin here.

FudoTwin17: Yes. I'm so sorry for my horrible updating. It's . . . terrible how much I keep you guys waiting, but I promise that this story will not be abandoned. I refuse to leave any of my stories unfinished, and if I ever know I can't finish them, they'll be handed off or deleted. And this story will never be handed off or deleted. This story is special. This is mine, and I promise you that I will finish it. So I am sorry for the way that life gets in the way, but I can't cut off my life for FF, even if I sometimes want to. So, moving on.

Dog # 1: Huh. That was a very . . . weird speech.

Cat: Yes. She's very possessive of her favorite stories, isn't she?

Dog # 1: Yeah.

FudoTwin17: I love you guys, and I hope this chapter is good. I don't own ANYTHING! Enjoy!

Chapter 16

"That's impossible." The girl whispered, backed against the creamy wall. Her golden eyes, wide and terrified, were locked on the pharaoh. She developed tunnel vision, the only thing she could see being the face that haunted so many. "No, no. You're impossible. It's not possible." She kept breathing.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. Everything is okay." Atem breathed, trying to move closer. His gaze darted to Isis for just a moment to see her mirrored confusion before he sharply returned his cutting crimson eyes to the adolescent again. Biting back a bated breath, he tried to inch forward again. "Tell me what's wrong. I want to help. Okay?"

She shook her head, closing her stunning eyes. Her soft, pale hands moved to her temples. "No, no. It's not possible. You can't be Yugi. I'm here to help Yugi. Can't be him." She murmured, pale green hair falling in her face.

However, Atem suddenly froze. For a moment, it felt as though his cape had lost its weight, and his crown fell away. The feeling of a duel disk, metal warm from skin he wore that wasn't really his, captured his arm, and leather clutched at his legs and chest. Not Atem, Yami. Yugi's Yami. Darkness to the light, his light, his best friend, his better half, his savior, his-

"Pharaoh?" Isis's voice, oddly worried, cut off his panicked train of thought and dragged him back to the comfortably warm room where he stood, arm heavy with gold reaching out still to the strange girl. He took a calming breath, but it was ragged. "Are you alright, Pharaoh?"

"Yes." He barely whispered.

It was rare for him to lose himself like that. He often thought of Yugi without panic attacks. To be honest, he'd never had that kind of feeling here, never here. The last time he'd felt so off balanced, Yugi's soul had been captured by stone (his fault-all his fault), but he tried not to think about that. He took a deep breath. It was really just the idea of Yugi being in need of help without him there that set him off. The protective instinct that came into play with Yugi (only Yugi) that he hadn't had triggered since he walked the earth was startling in its revival.

Of course, he still had little things, little thoughts and emotions mostly, that connected him to Domino-to Yugi. The feeling was familiar and just like when they would commune without words, only a little bit dimmer. It took a long time for him to understand it, but over time, he figured that a bond as strong as a mind link (their mind link) couldn't be broken so easily, not even by death, and there was a little part of him that was comforted by that because it meant that one day he might meet his friends again.

But recently, something had felt wrong. Time was hard to judge in the afterlife, but he knew it must've been a long time that he'd known something was wrong. It was Yugi's panicked thoughts, jumbled words (No, don't give in. It hurts-BURNS-He wouldn't approve. I won't. Can't. Have to find him, need to succeed. The mission. Mission. Mission), painful emotions, and the odd racing feeling and fleeting pains beneath his fingertips that he didn't understand and couldn't ignore.

And secretly, secretly, the pharaoh had been terrified.

But now there was proof that not only were his fears correct, but they needed help to save his best friend. His heart pounded at the little suspicion in the back of his mind, trying to flatten the hope that it gave him. If it was wrong . . . .

The girl went back to murmuring nonsense, and Atem forced himself to calm. He stepped forward again, reaching out to pull her hands into her lap. "What's your name?"

She went completely silent, those wide eyes on him. When she didn't say her name, lips continuing to form his partner's instead, it finally clicked. He wanted to smack himself for being so stupid! "My name is Atem." He introduced, watching as her eyes snapped to attention. "I'm Yugi's friend. What's your name?"

Sudden clarity came to her eyes as realization hit her. She took a shaky breath, composing herself before him (and the silent woman behind him). A flush slid up her neck and across her face. "My name is Luna. I-I'm sorry. That was-"

"It's fine, Luna." Atem tried to give her a smile, but his worry for Yugi was finally beginning to shine through. It was hard to keep up his forced calm. "We'll answer all of your questions, I promise, but first, will you tell us your story?"

Sharp gold eyes appraised him before a peculiar look (Surprise? Relief? Fear? Joy? Caution?) that the former pharaoh couldn't quite identify crossed her face. When her lips moved, both he and Isis frowned in confusion at the words that spilled forward, seeming to make perfect sense to their master.

"Let's rev it up."

And she told them everything.

. . .

"You want us all to enter? Are you mad?" Jack Atlas exclaimed, eyebrows furrowing despite knowing that the blond girl couldn't see him. There was a faint huff over the phone, and he felt an indignant scoff build up in his throat automatically.

"Of course not." Rebecca snapped back. "We need as many people to enter as possible."

Jack scowled harsher, making a harsh turn on his D-Wheel than necessary at the corner and ignoring the angry honks that resulted from his dangerous driving. His anger seemed to externalize in the form of his ever increasing speed. "Why waste our time on something as unimportant as a Dueling Tournament when we could be rescuing our friends?" He hissed, feeling his fury mount on hearing her growl.

"Because they're going to be in the tournament, you idiot!" She snarled, and he could practically hear her trying (and failing) to calm down. "I mean-I mean that-"

"How do you know?" His voice sounded oddly calm. For a moment (a moment in which she did not respond), he wondered if his quiet tone was sallowed by the winds. However, she did respond, though quiet and sounding oddly defeated.

"I-I have a hunch. I . . . I can't be sure of it-" The scowl that had only been familiar to the blond male in recent years spread across his features again as he interrupted the other.

"How do you know?"

There was a silence before she spoke. "Kaiba is hosting another duel tournament."

Jack frowned less in annoyance and more in confusion as he sharply swerved to avoid an oncoming hippie van. The silence coming over the speaker in his helmet was a bit unsettling, and he found that there was a part of him that wanted the feisty girl to yell again instead of reverting back to this painful silence. "So?" He prompted.

"So? Do you know Kaiba?" She asked. Thankfully, he didn't have to answer in the negative or prompt her again as she was suddenly speaking so fast that he could barely make sense of her words. "He's obsessive and obtrusive. He only ever did the real tournaments when Yugi was in action. When Yugi disappeared, the games died, and no amount of hinting or begging from his staff could revive them."

"But Yugi's back now." Jack pointed out, stubbornly not following her train of thought.

"Yeah, but he's being controlled by a crazy group of psychos." Rebecca pointed out, and Jack found that he had to concede that point. "My point is that Kaiba needs Yugi to be in the tournament for him to even consider restarting them. Why would he announce that there's going to be a tournament if there's a question of whether the King of Games is going to be in it or not? Obviously, he's confident that Yugi is going to be in it."

Jack frowned, noting how the genius girl managed to confine her entire thought process into a couple of sentences as if Kaiba weren't as complicated as any other human being. However, there were more pressing matters for him to be considering. "How can he be sure, though?"

"Exactly my thoughts." Rebecca replied quickly. "He can't, can he? Not unless someone else planted the thought in his head. But who would do that? It couldn't be just some random person. It has to be someone that he trusts, possibly with his life. It wouldn't be any of us considering that we don't know what's going on exactly yet. Then, a thought hit me. Who would be confident that they would become involved in the tournament?"

"Someone . . . someone who's part of the organization." Jack murmured, sudden realization hitting him like a train. He was careful, though, not to suddenly slow in case of letting the teal car on his bumper hit him.

"Exactly." She replied. There was a painful relish in her voice that made Jack wince slightly. Every time they discovered anything new, it seemed like they were adding another hurdle to the race they were running despite getting closer to the finish line. "So, that made me think. Who is it that this group probably has watching Kaiba?"

"A business associate?" Jack guessed, turning again and frowning when he realized he'd missed his last turn. "Darn it."

"No, of course not." Rebecca snapped back, regaining her less than kind affect. "No one would trust a businessman, but you know who you do trust?" She didn't wait for Jack to guess wrong again. "Security. I've seen it. Their security is more than security. They're loyal to a fault and are like family. I think the organization has a security guard at their service. After all, who else would you trust with your life?"

Jack could find no response as he made a U-turn (illegal or not) and sped toward the correct turn.

"See? Now, while I was thinking this, it occurred to me that Kaiba Corp. is huge. It's one of the biggest corporations in the entire country, and this group that has our friends has hands in everything, or at least, I think it does. That means that this person most likely has control over Kaiba Corp. as well. So, with that in mind, I couldn't call Kaiba about this possible breach in his security." She continued. Her volume steadily increased with her sounding excitement, and, theory or not, Jack could tell that she believed full-heartedly in her convictions. "I hacked the security tapes, and guess what I found? A security guard that continually influenced Kaiba to do another tournament by the name of Kira Dellington. At first I was wary, but I noticed something when I did a background check."

"What?" He asked, smiling as he finally made his way down the stretch of gleaming road over the glittering waters. He'd finally made the right turn.

"There was an accident she had when she was a child that is mentioned briefly in her digital records. I don't know what about it bothers me, but it stands out." He heard an odd shuffling and assumed that she'd moved her phone between her shoulder and head for full usage of her hands. He smiled softly. Yusei used to . . . . "The digital world can be influenced too easily, so I'm looking for the hard copy right now. Hold on a sec. I think I found it."

Jack waited, feeling oddly patient as he rode in a strange kind of bliss. He had an odd feeling of . . . peace. He couldn't explain it, staring at the slowly urbanizing island in the distance, the glistening water, and the shining bridge as he crossed it, but somehow, he finally felt . . . comfort.

There was a feeling of comfort in visiting the very thing that Yusei himself managed to save and create. This was the fruit of Yusei's labor as well as a piece of his childhood that he had lost in the eternity that Yusei had been missing.

The bridge was made of hope.

Rebecca cursed. "I knew something was wrong!"

Jack's smile fell. "What?"

"She died. Kira Dellington died in a fishing accident when she was five!" Rebecca exclaimed. "I knew it."

Jack felt his patience tighten. "Yeah, yeah, you got it! Now go warn Kaiba! You've sorted out who one of the moles is! We need to get rid of her now." He exclaimed.

There was a short pause. "No, I think not."

"What?" Jack exclaimed, feeling his anger mount. "You have to warn him! He's got one of them manipulating him!"

"No, no. I'm going to warn him!" She snapped back immediately. "But we can't remove her! Think for once in your life, Atlas!"

"I am thinking!" He snapped back, feeling both insulted and extremely furious.

"No, you're not. Otherwise you would've seen how beneficial this can be. She may be their playing piece, but now she's also our rook. Understand? We can bug her, figure out what they're planning and what they want through her! We can use her!" Rebecca exclaimed. She didn't wait for Jack's response, just rushed on. "I've gotta go talk to Kaiba! Bye!"

Immediately, his helmet sounded the ending of their conversation, and Jack felt a foul taste fill his mouth. He tried to submerge himself back inside the peaceful bliss he'd felt already, but it seemed to have left him with only a ghost of happiness he feared he may never meet again. Because of that conversation, he finally seemed to realize the extent of the game they were playing. This organization had hands in everything. This was a battle that, for the first time in his life, he didn't think everyone would escape unscathed.

The thought chilled his heart and sent a shudder down his spine.

Jack didn't want to think about it. No, he needed not to think about it.

For the first time in his life, he really feared for his friends.

He blinked as the road turned to rough pavement, realizing that he'd gotten to the still rough part of the Satilite. Though it was much newer and better looking than when the bridge had first been built, it wasn't entirely (not even halfway) done with renovations. This area was specifically bad, but he loved it because it housed so many memories.

Jack had met Yusei here. Sure, he knew the other male from the orphanage, but they hadn't been friends.

It all changed here.

Jack closed his eyes, remembering. He didn't even look up when the door to the teal car that had been trailing him creaked open and a familiar figure stepped out. He was too lost in the old days.

. . .

FudoTwin17: I wanted to give you more, but you guys deserve an update, and I have to go right now. Bye!