...and here's chapter six! New developments ahoy; my apologies if any characters are, well, out of character, but so far I think they're all fairly close to how they are.

'Pass the juice.'

'Get it yourself, shrimp.'

Seto glared at Raven, and she sighed before passing the orange juice to Yugi. 'It's alright, Val. Here you go… shrimp.'

He sighed. Politeness in her book obviously didn't extend to not calling people names—or apologising for waking them all up at three in the morning with her godforsaken screaming. She hadn't even apologised for waking them. She'd only glared at the mention of her nightmare and stalked off to breakfast.

Seto hadn't slept much after Raven's nightmare episode; he'd begun comparing her to Ravana and his mind had taken things from there. Every last memory he had of her had run through his mind. The only thing he was grateful for was the fact that Raven couldn't be Ravana—she'd told him she'd first been in juvie when she was eight, and had served eight years with only breaks of a few months in between sentences. He'd known Raven for one year and three months when she was fifteen turning sixteen, he being sixteen turning seventeen—he was nineteen now.

Unless Ravana herself had a juvie record that nobody knew about, Raven was Raven, and Ravana—

Is still in the graveyard, he told himself.

'Kaiba? Yo, Kaiba? You alright?'

He snapped out of his thoughts to find Joey eagerly waving a piece of cold pizza in front of him. He roughly shoved it away. 'I'm fine, mutt.'

'I'm not a mutt!' He calmed himself before saying, 'Would it be cool with you if I used your laptop to speak to Serenity before we go after these goons?'

'You expect me to just let you use my laptop to call your sister?'

He blinked. 'Well, yeah. If anything happens to me today I want her to know that I care for her and that things will be alright. You got a little brother. You'd do the same, right?'

Grumbling, Seto opened the laptop. 'You owe me, mutt.'

'I should probably talk to Grandpa too,' Yugi said.

'They're probably not even with Mokuba.'

'No, they will be,' Tea said. 'It's Friday. We agreed to call in on Fridays, remember?'

'If you say so.' He started up the webcam, but before he could open a window to Mokuba, another window opened. Serenity, Mokuba and Grandpa sat smiling in one of Kaiba's offices. To his surprise, Shadi was also there, standing in the background.

'That's my office!' Seto growled.

'It's alright, big bro, I cleaned it up first,' Mokuba said. 'How you going?'

'Alright,' he said. Considering I'm stuck with the nerd herd and two criminals, I'm doing just fine.

'Cool.' Evidently Mokuba hadn't noticed his sarcasm. 'How are you all doing?'

'Serenity!' Joey plunked himself down beside Seto, ignoring the CEO's protests. 'How you doing, sis?'

'Fine, Joey!' she replied.

'Your eyes still good?'

'Yup!' She smiled happily. 'How about you guys?'

Joey glanced over at Raven and Valon, who were eyeing the laptop with a mixture of suspicion and interest. 'We're, uh, doing good… we've made two friends!'

'Friends?' Raven scoffed. 'You have an interesting definition of friendship, mutt.'

'Who are they?' Grandpa, ever cautious, spoke up. 'Yugi, are they trustworthy?'

'So far, they've been just fine,' Yugi assured him.

'Can we see them?'

Yugi beckoned Raven and Valon over. 'Okay, Grandpa, this is Valon—' Valon gave the old man a small wave— 'And this is Raven.'

Raven frowned and stuck her tongue out.

Seto glared at her again, and she rolled her eyes before retracting her tongue and snarling, 'Pleasure to meet you.'

Grandpa frowned in return. 'Yugi, I don't like her.'

'Hah, he likes me but not you!'

'Oh, can it, fucktard.' Raven said.

'Neither do I,' Serenity said.

'Maybe not. I can't say I like you much either. But it's thanks to me that your little friends are still alive right now, so I'd be nice if I were you,' Raven said.

'Look, forget about you for now,' Seto interrupted, earning himself a glare from Raven. 'We have a track on the signal, and a location to travel to. That's where we're going today.'

'You'll be alright, won't you, Seto?' Mokuba asked.

'Of course I will,' he assured him.

'Joey, please be safe,' Serenity begged.

'I will, sis.'

Grandpa sighed. 'There's not much point in telling you and Yami to stay safe, Yugi, so I'll just tell you to look out for each other, alright?'

'We will, Grandpa,' Yugi said. His eyes creased. 'We're missing you.'

'I'm missing you too. Hopefully this will be over soon and you can all come home.'

'We'll do our best to be home as soon as we can.'

'Good.' The old man sighed before smiling and waving goodbye. 'I'd better get back to the Game Shop now, so I'll say bye for now.'

'Alright, Grandpa. Bye!' Yugi waved at the retreating figure of his grandfather before returning to his breakfast.

'I'd better get going too,' Serenity said. 'I'm helping out!'

'Neat!' Joey said, waving. 'See you, sis. Stay safe!'

'I will, Joey.' She waved before following Grandpa.

Seto shooed them away from the laptop. 'Alright, you've made your calls.' He clipped on a headset, and began typing. Alright, it's safe for you to talk freely, I have my headset on. Found out anything yet, Mokie? The text-to-speech synthesiser, courtesy of KaibaCorp, gave his words a robotic tone.

'Not yet, big bro,' he replied. 'But Shadi wants to talk to you.'

Alright.

What could the keeper of the Millenium Items want?

'Kaiba.' The Egyptian nodded politely.

Shadi. What do you want?

'That necklace that Raven wears. It's an Item,' he said, a note of urgency in his voice.

What? Raven's necklace another Millennium Item? I thought there were only seven.

'No. There were originally thirteen created, but six were destroyed.'

So how'd she end up with one?

'I know that I personally destroyed five of the Items. The sixth one, the one Raven wears now, was to be destroyed by an associate of mine. I suppose that he failed.'

Figures. Kaiba sighed heavily. This complicated matters immensely. There was already Yugi with his Puzzle, Ryou with his Ring, and Malik with his Rod—only one out of the three spirits not evil—another spirit-in-a-necklace would make things much more difficult than they already were. Especially if said spirit was another evil one.

'The Item she wears is called the Millennium Sword,' Shadi explained.

So what's it do? Any more evil spirits we have to worry about?

'No, no spirits reside inside the Sword,' Shadi said.

He sighed. At least something was going his way today.

'Rather than a spirit, the Sword grants the owner access to the Shadow Realm. Unfortunately for you, however, the Sword also grants the owner immense physical strength and the ability to control the strength of others.'

You mean she can make us stronger or weaker?

'Only one of you at a time. But the boost to her own strength is always in effect.'

That explained how she could throw him so easily—and how she could bench-press upwards of a hundred and eighty pounds. Anything else we need to know?

'Yes. The Sword also grants the wearer the equivalent of thirteen souls. Normally this would not be an issue, but given the current Orichalcos problem, she has the ability to survive losing thirteen duels. She can also return souls to their original bodies by sacrificing one of her own.'

Great. They were never going to be rid of her. At least they could use her to bring back any of them that lost a duel.

'However, there is a drawback,' Shadi said. 'If she loses all thirteen souls and her own, she will not simply fall unconscious until they are returned. She will die.'

That wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Shadi evidently guessed what he was thinking, because he added, 'If she dies due to loss of the souls, the Sword will turn her into a physical representation of who she truly is. From what your brother has told me of her, that will most likely be a monster of some kind. And it will attack you.'

Great. Not only was she going to be very hard to get rid of, but if they used up all her extra souls, she'd turn into a monster and kill them all anyway. Any upsides to this?

'Yes,' Shadi said. 'Because she can speak Egyptian, she will be able to use all the spells contained in the Sword. I do believe you have already been shown some magic in the form of bringing cards to life.'

Yes. Anything else?

'Should she require a weapon, the Sword will provide her with one. Only she will be able to use it, however.'

That's not really an upside, you know.

The Egyptian shrugged, turning away. 'Depends whose side she takes.'

Seto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had a headache already. Another Millennium Item. And in the possession of a psychotic bitch. Just what he needed. Chances were she knew what it was, too.

Alright. Thanks for the intel. Mokie, have you got any new information on Raven and Valon?

Mokuba waited until Shadi had left the room before nodding seriously. 'I do, big bro, but it's not good. None of the Raven profiles we've found extend back to eight years old. We know the last name of the Raven that escaped with Valon, though. So either she's lying or—'

Or she's changed her name. Seto finished his sentence. How long til you can find her prior name, you think?

'Probably another day,' Mokuba said. 'But we have Valon's profile up. I'll email it to you.'

Thankyou, Mokie. Seto out.

'Mokuba out. Be careful, Seto.'

He closed the window, swearing under his breath. Another goddamn Millennium Item. A "new email" alert popped up.

Seto quickly opened the attached file and began scanning the document.

*RECORD START*

Name: Valon Mubarak

DOB: Jan 16 1992

Prisoner Number: M-83025731

2001: Age 9, arrested for theft and break-and-enter. Served eight months out of one-year sentence.

2002: Age 10, released CCMJDC [Cairo City Male's Juvenile Detention Centre] in February. Arrested two months later for assault and battery. Sentenced to eighteen months. Served twelve.

2003: Age 11, released CCMJDC February. Rearrested in June for assault and battery, grand theft auto. Sentenced to two years.

2005: Age 13, released CCMJDC in June. Arrested in August for theft, break-and-enter, drug dealing. Sentenced to three years.

2007: Age 15, escaped CCMJDC late January.

2008: Age 16, returned to custody by U.S. Department of Immigration in April. Suspect had illegally entered the country. Arrested in U.S. for drug dealing and manufacturing, additionally charged with resisting arrest, illegal entry, grand theft auto [two counts], theft, break and enter, and grievously wounding an officer. Sentenced to five years in U.S., returned to CCMJDC to serve sentence. Sentence extended to six years for escaping imprisonment.

2009: Age 17, escaped CCMJDC with prisoner F-298349027 [Raven Astarte] early March.

*RECORD END*

Kaiba sighed. At least they knew Raven's last name. It suited her; Astarte was one of the ancient Egyptian goddesses, and she dealt with sexuality and war. It was little wonder she'd chosen it.

A pair of fingers snapped in front of his nose. 'Wake up, Kaiba. We're going.'

He glared at the fingers' owner. Unsurprisingly, they belonged to Raven. 'I'm awake.'

'Wouldn't know it from looking at you. I guess you always look like that, though.' She left the kitchen before he could get her to apologise.

'She's right, you know,' Joey said.

Seto sighed. 'Oh, shut up, Wheeler.'

After "cleaning" the kitchen—by Raven's definition, shoving everything in the sink and the garbage can—they went to the garage, where Raven declared that Valon would be driving the limo.

'Why not you? You've had more experience driving.'

'Because I shotgunned it.'

Valon grumbled, but got into the driver's seat of the limo. 'You're missing out, you know. This is a pretty sweet ride.'

'It's a limo with its roof torn off. There's no paint job—' she flipped the bonnet up, glanced over the engine and dropped it again— 'No turbo, no supercharger, no nothing. The only thing "sweet" about it is the fact it belongs to Kaiba, and probably cost more than this entire house.'

'It has heated seats!'

'Oh, big deal. My bike has a heated seat.'

'That's only the engine heating it.'

'It's still heated.' She slipped her helmet on; she already wore her jacket. Seto had taken a while to figure out how she got her jacket on and off without removing her duel disk. Eventually, he'd noticed the hidden zips that let her open and close the jacket's left sleeve.

Raven mounted her bike expertly and the engine roared to life. With a flick of her hand, she indicated for Valon to follow her, and she rode off down the road.

'Alright, let's see what this thing can do,' Valon said. He drove the limo far faster than Kaiba had ever made his chauffers go, and he was certain that by the time the adventure was over he'd have to replace not just the roof but the clutch and gear box too. The concept of "drive it like you stole it" seemed to be the only way Valon drove.

Not terribly surprising, he thought, recalling the numerous charges on his record. It didn't help matters that Raven insisted on drag-racing Valon on every flat stretch of road they came across. Unfortunately for Valon, her bike was supercharged; despite the limo's larger engine, she easily outran them every time.

After about ten minutes of stop-start heart-pounding driving, Raven slowed down to ride beside the limo. She nodded to Valon, who told the companions, 'We're about five minutes away. I suggest—look out!'

Two stone blocks had suddenly appeared in front of them, about a hundred feet down the road. Valon shouted and swung the limo into a screeching drift turn; Raven threw her bike into a slide. She managed to stop before the barrier. Valon didn't.

The limo slammed into the barriers side-on, sending the companions flying across the back seats. Dust and tyre-smoke filled the air.

'You guys alright?' Valon's voice, choked by dust, rang out.

A chorus of groans rose from the back area of the limo.

'I'm good,' Seto answered. His arm was stinging from where his disk had dug into it, and something heavy—Joey, he realised—was sitting on his stomach, but he was physically fine.

'Same here… if good means in pain but alive,' Ryou groaned. He pried himself up from his position under Yugi.

Yugi's legs were wedged under Tea, who in turn had landed on Tristan. Joey had landed on Seto's stomach. Valon, who nobody had sat next to, had escaped un-squished.

'You lot fine?' Raven's voice echoed loudly through the gloom. It sounded oddly concerned.

'We're alright, Rae,' Valon called back.

Rae? Seto had to stop himself from laughing. Two hardened criminals, and they called each other by nicknames.

A sharp blow landed on his shoulder. 'The hell?' he yelled angrily, turning to face the puncher, only to find—

Nothing?

'Stay where you are.' Raven's voice was taut. 'We're not alone.'

'Damn right you're not!' A male voice yelled out.

'Who's there? Show yourselves, fucking cowards!' Raven yelled in return.

When the dust settled, two figures were visible. Both wore long black cloaks and dark duel disks. One wore a glowing green stone around his neck on a string, pendant-style. The other didn't.

'Like I guessed. Fucking cowards,' Raven snarled. 'Lemme guess. Orichalcos, right?'

'Doma, actually,' the green-stoned man said.

'Doma?'

'Or Paradius. Pick one,' the second one said, shrugging. 'Doesn't matter either way. They're just front names for—'

'Oh, shut it, you're boring me,' Raven said. 'Let me make another guess; you want to duel someone here. Steal their soul, etcetera.'

'Close, but not quite,' One—the one without the green stone—said, waving his finger at her. 'We want to duel two of you here.'

'And steal both their souls,' Two added, somewhat unnecessarily.

Raven rolled her eyes. 'Alright. Who?'

'You and him,' One said, pointing to Valon.

'Deal.' She strode forwards, Valon eagerly following.

'Wait, this is dangerous.' Yami had taken control. 'You should let me do this. I know what I'm doing!'

'Can it, Yam,' Raven ordered. She snapped open her disk. 'I'm not a pushover either. I could beat you with my eyes shut. These guys? They'll be a five-minute duel, six at most.'

One snarled, but opened his disk anyway. 'You'll pay for your insolence, Raven.'

It was the first time Seto had ever seen Raven shocked. 'You know my name?'

'Of course,' he chuckled. 'Raven Astarte, is it not?'

She snarled. 'Who are you?'

'You'll find out soon enough,' Two said. 'You and your little friend Valon Mubarak—'

'Enough mind games,' Valon snapped. He opened his disk and stood next to Raven. 'I take it we're using the regular tag-team system: you two, then us two.'

'Sounds fair,' One said.

Two opened his disk. 'And we're using the regular Orichalcos rules, too. You lose, you lose your soul.'

'The only ones who need to worry about that are you,' Raven said. 'I claim start.'

'How?'

'Ladies first, asshole,' she said.

If she's a lady, I'm gay for the mutt, Seto thought.

She drew five cards, then one more. 'I place two cards facedown and play my Koumori Dragon in defence mode. Val, your turn.'

Koumori Dragon? Maybe she wasn't so bad.

'One facedown and I'll play Robot Warrior in attack mode,' he said. Their two monsters glared proudly at the cloaked opponents.

Seto couldn't help but watch Raven. She was smiling; she was enjoying this. He hadn't seen her smile until that moment.

And as the bulge in his pants attested to, despite the tattoos, she looked damn good when she smiled.

So, developments. Yes. Still working on proper Egyptian translations; I did, however, manage to find Mubarak [I think it means blessed light or something like that]... could be horribly wrong, but it sounds alright. I hope. Apologies if it doesn't!

Chapter Seven should be up shortly. Reviews are loved!