Hey, here's chapter five! Quick note: for those who speak Egyptian, I'm sorry my "Egyptian" is utter rubbish [SETO-KAIBA-LIFE =) ]; I am working on finding a reputable [i.e. correct] translation online. Hopefully it will be correct and up very shortly. In the meantime, I apologise, but here: have a new chapter.

Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Dammit.

Seto walked back to his companions, thinking hard. Mokuba's call had shaken him; he would admit that, though only to himself. Ravana…

He shook his head, telling himself to stop thinking of her. Even if she wasn't dead in a physical sense, she was dead in an emotional sense. Raven wasn't Ravana. She couldn't be Ravana. He refused to believe that Ravana—the gentle, sweet, caring, mischievous girl that he'd wanted to know so well—could have become the crass, uncaring, unemotional trash that had thrown him across the room.

You were kind once, too, a voice inside his head told him; he ignored it. Niceness was not a part of him. At least, not he part he showed to anyone. Not anymore. He'd only know Ravana for a year and a few months, and she'd been gone more than three.

'Whaddya know, Kaiba's still alive,' Joey said. 'More's the pity.'

'Shut it, Wheeler,' he snapped. He strode back to his laptop and began working furiously.

'What are you doing, Kaiba?' Ryou asked.

'Work. Some of us have jobs, you know.'

Ryou reddened and returned to his companion's conversation.

Seto didn't even feel guilty for lying to him.

He didn't have his business work up on the screen. Instead, he had a picture of Ravana. It was a candid shot—she didn't know he'd taken it—and just the single image was enough to remind him of the feelings he'd buried so long ago.

She was atop a duelling platform, in the school uniform of Domino High. Unlike the other girls at the school she chose to wear long blue pants instead of the short pink skirt; when questioned, she'd shrugged and said it was easier to run in. Her dark blue jacket was tied around her waist. Underneath, instead of the school-issue shirt, she wore a white tank top.

Her hair, a dark brown with natural highlights, reached just below her shoulders; it was billowing in the wind like a cape. Two violet eyes stared across the platform at the long-forgotten duelling opponent. She was smiling, and just that smile was enough to make Seto's stomach churn. She looked… free.

'What are you all doing out here?' Valon's voice interrupted his thoughts. 'I thought I told you all to stay in the house.' He marched towards them.

'Your friend in there was intolerable,' Seto snapped, disgruntled at being jerked so roughly out of his memories. He quickly closed the photo.

'You try staying in there with that music the way it is,' Ryou quickly chimed in.

'Did she even try to talk to you?'

'No.'

Valon sighed. 'Why am I not surprised… ah, well, I'll talk to her and see if I can't get her to behave next time. Come back to the house. Pizza's here.'

Joey and Tristan instantly leapt to their feet and began sprinting towards the house; groaning, Valon followed. Yugi, Tea and Ryou were more sedate in their actions. They calmly stood and walked to the house.

Seto remained behind, returning his laptop to his briefcase. Certain nobody was looking he sighed. What wouldn't I give for one more day with her.

As sweet as she'd been, she was logical and reliant, too. If something would be beneficial in the long run, she was more than happy to suffer short-term; if she had a choice between hurting her friends to help them or letting them help themselves, she'd choose to hurt them and explain later. Her duelling strategies were top-notch. And—Seto had been particularly happy about this—she was another dragon-favouring duellist.

But she was dead. So he shook his head, ignored the flutter in his chest, and strode purposefully back to the house.

In the kitchen, Joey and Tristan were messily tearing through two pizzas. Tea and Ryou were politely eating their shared Hawaiian; Yugi had given control of his body back to Yami, and Yami was grudgingly picking at his cheese-less supreme. Seto's vegetarian pizza sat unopened on the table besides two oversized bottles of cola and four rolls of garlic bread.

Neither Raven nor Valon were in the kitchen, but he noticed that there was another pizza near the sink, and a foil box.

He grudgingly sat down and began slowly eating his pizza. For cheap, greasy, takeaway food, he had to admit it wasn't that bad.

'Right, where's my food?' Raven announced, striding into the kitchen. Joey visibly flinched, but didn't stop eating. Apparently she didn't expect an answer and picked up the foil box, grabbing a fork as she did so.

And she sat next to Seto.

'Don't you have some other place to sit?' he grumbled.

'I live here, Seto,' she said. Another thing that annoyed him; her refusal to use his last name. Only Mokuba was allowed to call him Seto. He'd told her that during their last big fight.

But this time he didn't make an issue out of it. Not only was he hungry—something he hadn't noticed before—but he knew her little secret, and was determined to use it wisely. 'Do you now?'

'Yeah, you fucking idiot,' she snarled, shovelling a forkful of carbonara into her mouth.

'Funny, a little bird told me you're not supposed to be in the country,' he whispered.

At this, she straightened up, eyes open. 'How—'

'Never you mind,' he said. He was going to enjoy this.

She put the box down. 'What do you want?'

'I'll tell you after dinner,' he said, raising the slice of pizza to his mouth. 'For now, though, I suggest you behave. I'm happy to keep this quiet, but the others… the others may not be. And I'm sure the department of immigration will be quite grateful for your capture.'

Her eyes narrowed, but she spat, 'Fine.' She silently returned to her meal.

He smiled to himself. Mokuba's information had been correct; she was here illegally.

And she was going to suffer for what she'd done earlier.

*

After the companions had finished their meal, they moved to the living room. Raven chose to remain in the kitchen, however, claiming that she was still eating and didn't want to mess up the living room—despite its already-filthy state. Seto also remained behind for "a drink of water in peace".

For a few minutes they sat at the table in an awkward silence, until Raven spoke. 'Out with it, you bastard. What do you want?'

'Information and some courtesy,' he replied.

'What kind of information?'

'Information on you,' he said. 'I already know both you and your little friend are illegal aliens. I'm fairly sure you both have juvie records, too. Unless you want to be returned there, you'll tell me everything you know.'

Raven winced. 'What do you want to know?'

He leant towards her. 'I want to know what you did to get put in juvie.'

'Grand theft auto,' she said matter-of-factly. Before Seto could reply, she continued with, 'Assault and battery, attempted robbery, break and enter—'

'Hold it.' He put up his hand. 'How many times have you been in juvie?'

She thought for a few seconds, before replying, 'More than ten.' The look on her face told him that these were things she wasn't happy talking about.

'Total sentence length?' As bad as her confessions were, he was enjoying making her squirm.

'Concurrently or cumulative?'

'Big words.'

'You learn them.'

'Total sentence length for all offences, and time served.'

She stared into the distance for a while.

'Raven, answer me or—'

'About eight years served,' she said quietly. 'Sentenced to upwards of twenty.'

'So how'd you get off so easily?'

'I was only eight when I first got arrested. I'd serve a few months, get out, get arrested again, serve another few months… time off for good behaviour at first. Escaped twice.'

Explained a bit. 'What about Valon?'

'Ask him yourself,' she snarled.

'Tell me about Valon, or I'll turn you in to the police.'

'He's my friend. Turn me if you want.'

New tactic. 'Tell me about Valon or I'll turn him into the police.'

She closed her eyes, sighing. 'You win. Valon was first arrested at nine. Crimes include grand theft auto, drug dealing and manufacturing, assault—'

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. 'How'd you two get over here?'

'Escaped from the centre together. Smuggled ourselves onto a boat going to Mexico, and from there snuck over the border. Hitch-hiked our way to here.'

'So how did you come by the bikes, the house, all this stuff?'

At this, she narrowed her eyes and folded her arms. 'That, I will not tell you. Turn us in, do what you will. You won't get that from me.'

He could let it slide. 'Very well. That will be enough for now. However, your attitude needs changing if you want me to keep this quiet.'

'And why should you?'

'Because I am willing to keep the cops in the dark. The others probably won't be.'

She groaned. 'What the fuck do I have to do?'

'Be nicer. Be politer. Call me Kaiba instead of Seto. I don't care for the swearing; use whatever you want, but don't call me anything. You'll be helpful. And you will stop playing that goddamned music so loudly. I don't care if you play it, but play it quietly.'

She pushed her chair back from the table and stood. 'Fine then, Kaiba. It's a deal. You shut up about me and Valon, I'll be less of a bitch.' Grudgingly she shook his hand, then hurriedly left the kitchen.

Seto remained behind. He snapped off an email to Mokuba, telling him that both Raven and Valon definitely had records; he included the charges that Raven had told him about. Remembering that Mokuba would be worried, he added the instruction not to inform any of the authorities.

As it sent, he remembered that he hadn't asked Raven about her necklace. No matter. He'd ask her next time they had a little "chat".

After closing his laptop, he joined the rest of the companions in the living room. They were discussing plans for tomorrow. Reluctantly, he joined the conversation; they would be needing his limo, after all. It was decided that they'd make for the warehouse by travelling outside of the town. A limousine with its roof torn off stood out, and Valon insisted that was something they didn't need.

He smirked to himself. He knew exactly why the boy was so hesitant to garner attention.

Raven refused point-blank to drive the limo, and Valon unhappily said he would; he could drive manual, after all, and nobody else could yet. He offered to teach the companions how to. Joey happily accepted, and to his own surprise, Seto agreed as well.

Their plans drawn, they broke off into their own activities. Raven and Valon retreated down the hallway; Seto guessed that she was telling him what had happened. Joey, Tristan, Tea, Ryou and Yugi happily relaxed in front of the television. He himself pulled out his laptop again and started on a report for an investor.

An hour or two later, at about ten, Valon came back into the living room. 'Alright, everyone's off to bed now; we need rest for tomorrow. Four of you get the living room—one per couch, and two share the spare mattress—and the remaining two can use the double in my room.'

Tea instantly claimed one of the couches, followed by Yugi. Tristan and Ryou got the double, leaving—

'No way am I sharing a bed with moneybags!' Joey whined.

'You think I'm happy to share with you, mutt?' Seto snarled.

Joey folded his arms. 'I'm not sleeping with him.'

'Seconded.' Kaiba growled. 'I want a couch.'

Valon groaned. 'Do we have any volunteers to share the double?'

Nobody put up their hands, and Valon sighed. 'Alright, then. Joey can have the double and Kaiba can sleep on the floor.'

'Refused,' Seto said. 'I sleep on a bed.'

'This isn't a hotel, mate,' Valon snapped. 'You can share with Joey, or you can sleep on the floor. Take your pick.'

'Why don't Raven and I share?' Tea said. 'We're both girls.'

'Raven doesn't share a room with anyone but me,' he explained. 'So, what'll it be?'

Seto cursed under his breath. 'I'll share.'

'Wasn't so hard, was it?' Valon turned. 'I'll grab the mattress.'

Unsurprisingly, the mattress Tristan and Ryou were sharing was grubby and lumpy, and everyone's sheets were riddled with holes. But nobody complained; they'd had it worse. Valon switched off the lights amidst a chorus of half-hearted grumblings from the living room and muffled swear words from his own room, where Kaiba and Joey lay on the very edges of the bed, as far apart as possible.

Despite the discomfort, all were soon asleep.

*

'YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!'

Shocked from his peaceful sleep, Seto leapt out of the double bed, dragging Joey—still asleep in the tangle sheets—off the bed with a thud.

'What the hell was that for?' Joey's muffled voice asked.

'Someone screamed, mutt.'

Joey was instantly on his feet. 'I didn't hear—'

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!'

Seto flung the door to the room open, running into an equally-shocked Yami. 'You heard that too, Kaiba?'

'Yeah,' he said. 'Who was it?'

Yami shook his head. 'None of us.'

'That leaves—'

Another scream echoed from Raven's room, followed by Valon's voice shouting, 'It's alright, it was just a dream, you're alright—'

The companionshurried down the hallway, barging into Raven's room. Valon had his arms around a still-shrieking Raven, who was curled into a tight ball and sobbing.

'What happened, Valon?' Ryou asked.

'Nightmare,' he replied. 'It's alright, Raven, it's alright—'

'I get nightmares too, but I don't wake up screaming and crying,' Yugi said.

'She has reasons to,' he said.

'Like?'

Valon shot Kaiba a dirty look. 'Not right now. Sorry for her waking you up. Probably should have told you this happens most nights.'

Raven began rocking back and forth, mumbling in Egyptian to herself. Valon tightened his grip around her, and began smoothing her hair. 'It's alright. You're safe. It was just a dream.'

Ryou knelt beside them and made to put his hand on Raven's shoulder, but Valon blocked him.

'She won't like that,' he said. 'Words are fine, but she'll hurt you if you touch her.'

'Then why are you holding her?' Kaiba demanded. He was furious at being woken at this time of night, but an odd feeling of concern was growing in his chest. It was disconcerting to see Raven in this way; only a few hours before she'd been arguing with them.

'Because she knows I mean her no harm,' Valon said. 'Look, go back to bed. She'll be fine.'

Too tired to be worried, Joey and Tristan nodded before returning to their respective beds. Tea also left, after a soft "hope she's alright". Yugi and Ryou remained with Valon for about half an hour before returning to bed.

Seto stood at the doorway for a full hour, watching silently as Valon calmed Raven in soft Egyptian, singing her some form of lullaby as she dropped off to sleep. He soon returned to the mattress on the floor next to hers.

Seto watched for another fifteen minutes - after snapping a covert pic of Valon for Mokuba - before returning to bed. It wasn't out of concern, he told himself; it was merely out of curiosity. That and he was still wide awake. He wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. Besides, he needed to keep an eye on them. They were dangerous.

At least, that was what he told himself.

Wonder how soon Mokuba's results will come in? Reckon they'll be alright tomorrow?

And why do Raven's nightmares scare her so badly?

Hope you liked... reveiws are loved! ^_^