What do you know... the second chapter's up! Hope you like...

Disclaimer: if I didn't own YGO before, what makes you think I do now?

Half an hour later, Valon walked back into the living room, followed by Raven. Her duel disk was still on her arm but she'd shed her jacket.

'So, the fabled Raven deems us worthy of her presence,' Seto growled. 'What's the occasion?'

'Shut it before I smash your face,' Raven snapped. She roughly pulled a chair back from the table. 'You got no right to be here, and the only reason you're staying for now is the Orichalcos problem. You're lucky I don't throw your ass out of here.'

Valon sighed. 'What happened to "I'll try to be nice"?'

'He's being a cunt.'

'Wash your mouth out,' Tea said.

'Go fuck yourself,' Raven replied.

'And this is such a good way to get to know people,' Ryou sighed.

Raven glared at him. 'Never said we had any need for white-haired shemales either. You're welcome to join him if you want.'

'Raven,' Valon said, exasperated, 'Do you have to be so aggressive?'

She turned to him. 'You want to ask the guys at the centre that?'

Valon turned back to the kettle. 'One sugar or two?'

'That's better.' She settled into the chair. 'So, Valon's told me your names. Who owns the convertible limo?'

'That would be me,' Kaiba said. 'It wasn't a convertible.'

'So I noticed,' she smirked. 'You couldn't drive it, either.'

'I have chauffers to do that for me.'

'Not anymore you don't.'

Growling, he folded his arms. 'What did you mean by "the centre"?'

'None of your business.'

'I think it is.'

'I don't,' she said.

'Enough,' Yugi hastily interjected. 'We wanted to ask you about what you used to bring those cards to life.'

'Just why should I tell you?'

'Because they're as much a part of this mess as we are,' Valon said. 'Tell them.' His voice was firm; not in warning. It was an order.

She sighed, suddenly looking much older. 'Alright; if you trust them.'

'You don't?'

'No. But I trust you. I figure your judgement will be good enough. If not…' she let her voice trail off menacingly.

'My judgement is fine,' he said. 'Explain. I can't.'

Shaking her head, she leant forwards to rest her head in her hands. 'It's some form of magic; I don't know where it comes from or why I can even use it. All I know is it allows me to bring cards to life.'

'But Valon used it too,' Yugi said. 'Yami said he—'

'Heard his voice; yes, I know,' she said, sounding irritated. 'It allows me to bring cards to life. It also allows those that I trust the most to use that power too. I trust Valon with my life; he can use the magic.'

'You must know more,' Kaiba said. 'You're lying.'

Her eyes narrowed, becoming violet slits. 'Even if I was, it wouldn't matter. I don't even trust you with my coffee, let alone my life. You couldn't use the power even if I wanted you to.'

'You didn't say you weren't lying.'

'I never said I wasn't,' she said. 'But that's all the explanations you're getting. You can like it, you can hate it; you're not getting anything more.'

Yami took over from Yugi. 'I apologise for Kaiba's insolence, Raven,' he began. 'I am Yami; I don't know if Valon explained about—'

'I don't give a shit about his insolence, Yam.'

'My name is not—'

'It is now,' she said. 'And yeah, Valon explained about you and Yugi there.'

Yami crossly folded his arms. 'Don't call me Yam.'

'I'll call you what I want.'

'Raven—'

'Screw it, Valon,' she said. 'I can say what I want.'

He sighed, 'Raven, ne sheh tutorna kisonoo attawah.'

'Nem tan,' she replied. She noticed Yami staring, and frowned. 'What're you looking at, Yam?'

'You speak Egyptian.'

'Wow, really?' Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

'What'd they say?' Joey asked.

Yami smirked. 'Valon said that Raven is a real bitch sometimes, and she replied it was his problem.'

'Not bad,' Raven said. 'Translate this then: Yami shen ur marswah tanchet nis shah—'

'I am not a dog-fucking bastard!' He snarled, rising to his feet. Raven eagerly jumped up, fists at the ready.

Valon quickly stepped between them. 'Enough,' he said firmly. 'Raven, don't call them names.'

'I wasn't calling him anything, I was merely stating the obvious.'

'As true as that may or may not be,' Valon continued determinedly, 'We will be working with them until either this mess is over or you lose your soul to the Orichalcos. So for the sanity of all concerned: play nice.'

'This is nice.'

'By society's standards,' Valon said.

'But mine are—'

'Not acceptable.'

She pouted. 'Fuck that.'

Sighing, Valon dragged her into the living room, and the two began chattering in Egyptian.

'Wonder how they know Egyptian?' Tea asked.

'I don't know, and I don't care,' Yami growled. 'She's a marswah kisonoo.'

'A what?'

'You don't want to know,' he said, before vanishing into the puzzle, leaving a slightly smiling Yugi in his place.

'What did he call her?' Tea repeated. 'You're Egyptian; you understand, right?'

Yugi blushed red. 'Yeah… uh… he called her an f-ing female dog.'

'Why don't you just say he called her a fucking bitch?' Kaiba asked.

'Because some of us have a sense of decency and politeness,' Yugi snapped back. He calmed himself before continuing, 'Anyway, it's not like any of us need to swear… she uses enough for all of us.'

'Speaking of which, you alright, Ryou?' Tristan asked.

'Fine,' the white-haired boy replied. He smiled a little. 'It's not like I haven't been called a shemale before.'

'Who?' Tea instantly jumped in on the conversation, eager for gossip.

Ryou shrugged. 'Bakura.'

'Not really surprising,' Kaiba chipped in, promptly earning himself a glare from Tea. He glared back. 'What? He looks like a girl.'

'Glad to see someone agrees with me,' Raven said, stalking back into the kitchen.

Yugi groaned. 'Oh Ra, what do you want now?' Since getting to know Yami, he'd adopted most of him mannerisms; invoking the gods of Ancient Egypt was one of his favourites.

She glared at him. 'I'd love to sic my Curse of Dragon on you, but Valon says I can't.'

'You have a Curse of Dragon?' Yugi asked, astonished.

'Yeah.' She seemed nonplussed. 'You do know there are hundreds of them in the world, right?'

'Of course.' But this was the first time he'd run into someone else who had one.

'Look, enough, already,' Valon sighed. He ran his hand through his hair. 'No more fighting. No more arguing. No more anything. You came here for the Orichalcos, right?'

Seto nodded.

'Then start searching for that signal. You—' he took Raven by the arm— 'Can go let off some steam in a productive manner.'

'You're no fun.' Scowling, she yanked her arm from his grip and marched from the room.

'The rest of you can do whatever takes your fancy so long as you remain inside the house. We can't afford for those Orichalcos jerks to find where we are. There's a dodgy workout area behind the garage if you want to use it; we don't have internet access unless you want to hack the local wireless network. No phones, very few books, and one or two board games. There's also a deck of regular playing cards if you want them. I'll be with Raven.' He hurried out of the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, 'There's also foodstuffs around here somewhere, but I wouldn't eat anything without checking the best-before.'

Kaiba quickly pulled his laptop out of his briefcase and opened the lid. Interested, Ryou sat down next to him and watched quietly over his shoulder. Tristan and Joey immediately began rummaging through the ramshackle cupboards; unfortunately for them, at the end of their searching, they'd only managed to uncover a half-empty packet of stale cornflakes and a number of unidentifiable mould-encrusted objects. Tea, after shaking her head, retrieved the playing cards and began playing solitaire. Yugi lay down on the cleaner of the couches and tried to nap.

Inside the confines of the Puzzle, Yami grumbled to himself. Marswah kisonoo.

And it's done! What happened to Raven? Why is she so mean? And what will happen next?

I have no idea... R+R pls!