Here we are, chapter 13. Things are now starting to get back into some form of normalcy; I shall try to update more often.

DISCLAIMER: Seriously, by now, you should know that I don't own this thing. Seriously.

'RISE AND SHINE!' The voice howled through the house, instantly waking all of its occupants.

'What—'

'Get up, and get up now,' the voice repeated.

Slowly, Seto blinked open his eyes, finding Raven standing over him and the other companions.

'We're late,' she said cryptically, before vanishing to the kitchen.

'Ain't she in a good mood today,' Joey yawned.

Yugi grumbled. 'Hope she loses a duel soon. I'm sick of her already.'

'You don't mean that,' Tea said.

'Oh, I do.' He folded his arms. 'That's not Ravana, remember.'

'We'll be better off hoping she doesn't lose a duel,' Seto said. 'When she loses all the extra souls from her Sword she'll turn into a physical form of who she truly is.'

'In other words, a monstrous bitch,' Yugi sighed. 'Great.'

Seto remained quiet.

In the kitchen, Raven had dumped a load of take-away on the table; greasy hash browns, sausages in rolls, bacon. 'Eat up,' she said.

'And just why should we?' Yugi said. 'What if we don't want to?'

'Then you can starve.'

Seto watched silently as she shovelled food into her own mouth. She'd woken up again last night screaming; luckily, he'd been returning her razors when it happened, so nobody else had woken. That he'd seen, anyway.

'Ah, quick question,' Tea said. 'Do we call you—'

'Raven,' she said curtly. With a glare at Yugi she added, 'It's not like Ravana exists anymore. To him, anyway.'

Yugi glared back. 'Ravana never existed.'

Before Raven could reply, Seto stepped in. 'Enough. I don't care who existed or who doesn't exist or anything like that. As far as I'm concerned, Ravana is dead, and she can stay dead. For the duration of our working together, she is Raven Astarte. You are Yugi Moto. There is no relation between you and you have never met before. Happy?'

Yugi smirked a little. 'Fine with me.'

Raven's eyes narrowed. 'Yeah, sure.'

Seto could have sworn she looked sad, but when he looked up a moment later she was frowning normally.

'Alright.' She clasped her hands together. 'As I'm still sorting shit out from yesterday's… incident… do whatever the fuck you want today. I mean whatever. Go bananas, fly a kite, fucking whatever. Seto's got my—'

'It's Kaiba,' he said. 'And manners, please.'

'You don't have any blackmail on me anymore, so I'll call you whatever the fuck I want and swear as much as I damn well like,' she retorted. 'As I was saying, Seto has my phone number should you need me. Don't call unless somebody's dying or you need a soul returned, got it?'

'Okay,' Ryou said gamely; nobody else bothered nodding.

She nodded curtly before grabbing her helmet and marching out the door. With a roar her bike came to life; then she killed it, before starting it up again and riding away.

'So now what do we do?' Joey asked.

'Why don't we go for a ride in the limo?' Tristan suggested. 'You know, learn to drive it properly. Do a bit of exploring.'

'Sounds good,' Mai agreed. Joey grinned.

Seto sighed; he'd no doubt have to tag along. He supposed it was for the best. Keeps my mind busy.

*

After a few hours of driving aimlessly around in the desert, Joey, Tristan and Kaiba had managed to work out the clutch and could drive the limo smoothly. Kaiba insisted on driving, though; after all, it was his limousine, even if it was horribly bent out of shape.

However, when they went to drive back to the house, they soon found they were lost.

'Maybe if you go left here,' Tea suggested.

'We've been left here before,' Mai said. 'Let's go right.'

'Done that,' Ryou said.

'Straight ahead?'

'We've been straight ahead already, Moto,' Seto growled. This was just perfect. Not only was he lost in the middle of a desert with the freaks, the limo had only a quarter tank of gas left and there was only about an hour left til sunset.

Yami took over from Yugi. 'Maybe if we just went back the way we came we'd get out of here.'

'We tried that already. Four times, to be exact.' Cursing, Kaiba slammed his hands against the wheel. 'For the love of God, we've seen that mountain six times already! We're just going around in circles.'

What's that? Yugi asked.

What's what, aibou?

That! Look, over by the mesa.

Yami glanced at the direction chosen by his partner, and his eyes widened. 'Look!'

Unhappily, Kaiba looked in the direction Yami was pointing. His jaw dropped. 'A helicopter?' Flooring the limo, he sped towards the hovering machine.

'And we're just going to go towards it without any kind of knowledge as to who's flying it?' Tea yelled over the engine.

'You rather stay here all night?' Tristan yelled back.

Suddenly, the limousine was thrown into a slide as Kaiba slammed on the brakes.

'The hell was that for?' Ryou yelled.

'Would you rather I went over the edge?' Seto asked thinly, pointing to the cliff-edge they were now parked sideways on. His heart was pounding. Too damn close.

Silently, the seven got out of the limousine.

'Where'd the chopper go?' Joey asked.

'I don't know,' Tristan replied, glancing around nervously. 'I say we just get back in the limo and head away. Far away.'

'Shit!' Mai swore, stepping back. Her face had gone pale. 'It's them!'

'Who?'

'Them!'

As the dust cloud cleared, the companions saw that hanging from the cliff edge was a rope bridge, leading across a seemingly bottomless canyon to a small, round mesa. And on top of the mesa stood—

'Rafael,' Yami muttered.

The stocky man laughed, the sound echoing off the canyon walls. 'Indeed. So nice of you to join me here.'

'You got us lost, didn't you?' Joey said.

'How the hell could he have gotten us lost?'

'He just did, Tristan, okay?'

Rafael smiled a little. 'Your blonde friend is correct. You won't be getting back to civilisation any time soon. Not without a duel first, of course.'

Yami immediately stood forwards. 'If you want a duel, a duel you shall get.'

'Excellent. The mighty Pharaoh himself.' Rafael motioned for Yami to come over the bridge.

'What if it's a trap?' Tea whispered.

'We don't have a choice,' Yami said. 'He's got all the cards at the moment. Do not worry. I will be fine.'

Seto almost felt like yawning. 'Hurry it up then. We don't have all night.'

Glaring, Yami walked over to the mesa. Immediately after he stepped off the bridge, Rafael drew two axes. And before anyone could move, he'd thrown them.

With a dull thunk, the ropes holding up the bridge were cut, sending the ramshackle pathway collapsing down into the void.

'I will capture your soul and save the world,' Rafael snarled. 'By locking away your soul, I will save the world from the evil you hold.'

'You will destroy it. Doma are the evil ones.'

Rafael smirked. 'That, dear Pharaoh, depends entirely on your view of things.' He threw a small green stone—not glowing—over to Yami. 'How about you see for yourself?'

'I don't need a soulstone,' Yami snarled.

'It's not a soulstone. This is merely an Orichalcos Stone. The darker a person is, the brighter it glows.'

Yami slung it around his neck carelessly, ignoring Rafael's smirk as it began to light up. 'Everyone has some darkness inside them, Rafael. You may go first.'

Rafael drew his hand, then said, 'I play the magic card Guardian Treasure. In exchange for discarding the five cards in my hand I can draw two new cards, and can draw an additional two cards every turn.'

'He's searching for the Orichalcos,' Mai whispered.

'I play one monster in facedown defence mode and place one card facedown. Your turn, Pharaoh.'

Seto watched as Yami summoned Gazelle, King of Beasts and fused it with Baphomet before attack Rafael's facedown monster. This duel will be over soon.

But when Rafael revealed his monster as having two thousand six hundred defence points—enough to make Yami lose a hundred of his life points—he realised that it wouldn't be over as quickly as he'd imagined. As the duel progressed, Yami was beaten down time and time again. The only life points Rafael lost were the thousand he sacrificed in order to save one of his own monsters. Even after Yami had summoned his Legendary Dragon, Timmaeus, and merged him with Dark Magician Girl, he was still unable to touch Rafael's life points.

'I now play Exchange,' Rafael announced. 'We each take one card from each other's hand.'

'But they only have one card each,' Tea murmured. 'What's the catch?'

Seto understood instantly. During the duel, Rafael had insited that Doma was only interested in bringing justice to the world, returning things to the way they were before evil people such as Yami had destroyed it. He wants Yami to play the Orichalcos to prove he's evil!

It seemed that Yami understood as well. The stone glowed brightly as he looked over the card, then faded as he ordered his Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight to attack Rafael's Guardian Grarl for the second time.

'Not so fast,' Rafael said. 'I activate Crystal Seal. Until your monster has three thousand or more attack points, it's trapped inside the crystal prison.'

Yami's eyes widened as his monster was sealed inside the glowing crystal. Yugi, we're in trouble.

I know, Yami, but we can't play that card! It's evil!

The stone began to brighten.

As he reduced Yami to a mere six hundred life points, Rafael remarked, 'There's only one card that can save you now, Pharaoh. Are you man enough to play it?'

Seto watched as Yami's eyes drifted down towards the card. The stone was growing brighter and brighter.

Jesus Christ, no! If Yami played that card, Rafael was sure to win. He didn't know how he knew this; he just did. 'Pharaoh, I'm warning you—'

But his voice was lost in a green whirlwind as Yami shouted, 'I play the Seal of Orichalcos!'

Over the roaring winds, they could all hear Rafael laughing. 'Now we'll see who's evil, Pharaoh.'

When the column of green light dropped back down, the glowing circle of the Orichalcos had appeared on Yami's forehead, and his eyes were furrowed into an angry glare.

Roaring, his Dragon Knight broke free of the crystal as its attack points climbed to three thousand one hundred—but then Dragon Timmaeus vanished, leaving a smirking Dark Magician Girl with the Seal of Orichalcos on her forehead alone on the field.

'What have you done with my dragon, Rafael?' Yami shouted.

Even before Rafael had replied, Seto knew in a flash. The Dragons were creatures of light. The Orichalcos was a thing of the dark. They can't mix.

'I have done nothing. It was you who sent him away,' Rafael replied.

Yami didn't seem to care.

'Yami!' Tea screamed. 'Yami, get rid of that thing! It's evil!'

All Yami did was turn to her and smile, before facing Rafael. 'I play Hand Control. If I can correctly name a card in your hand I can play it.'

Rafael still has the card Yami gave him when he played Exchange, Seto realised. Yami knew exactly what card Rafael had.

Grinning darkly, Yami correctly named his Necromancy card, and re-summoned four monsters from his graveyard. Seto could only watch helplessly as he sacrificed two of them to summon his Dark Magician. For a moment, his monsters—Kuribabylon, split into the five Kuriboh brothers; Big Shield Gardna; Dark Magician Girl and the Dark magician—appeared to writhe in pain, but soon straightened up, each smirking darkly as the five-hundred-point bonus from the Seal boosted their power.

'I recombine my Kuriboh Brothers to form Kuribabylon!' Yami said, laughing as the giant monster appeared, now with four thousand five hundred attack points. 'Scared yet, Rafael? My monsters are stronger than yours, thanks to the power of this card.'

Rafael merely smiled. 'The power had nothing to do with the Orichalcos, Pharaoh. It comes from the darkness inside you.'

Yami snorted. 'It doesn't matter where it came from. It's mine now. Perhaps you shouldn't have given me this card… it's your soul on the line now. Kuribabylon, attack his Guardian!'

Rafael covered his eyes as his Guardian was destroyed, his life points dropping to fifteen hundred. But as Yami ordered Dark Magician to attack he revealed his facedown card.

'Aid to the Doomed!' he shouted. 'I discard two cards from my hand to repel your attack.'

Yami smirked. 'Is that truly all you have?'

Rafael ignored him, smirking right back. 'How does it feel to have your true self back, Pharaoh? The one who draws his power from the darkness?'

'You are merely jealous that I have the Orichalcos on my side of the field,' Yami laughed. 'You will regret giving it to me, I assure you.'

Like hell he will, Seto thought. That wasn't Yami down there; that was something else entirely. And Rafael knew it.

Rafael drew his cards and activated Monster Reborn, re-summoning Guardian Grarl. 'I also play Swords of Revealing Light. Your monsters are frozen for three turns, Pharaoh.'

Yami shrugged. 'I sacrifice Big Shield Gardna to summon my Catapult Turtle. Its special effect allows me to sacrifice a monster in order to inflict half of its attack points as damage to your life points.'

Rafael smiled. 'Not this turn. I activate Limit Tribute. You can only sacrifice one monster per turn, Pharaoh.'

Yami scowled darkly, sending a chill down Seto's spine. That scowl wasn't Yami's, not at all. 'Fine then. I end my turn.'

'Good.' He drew his cards. 'I play Nightmare Binding, which allows me to take eight hundred points from one of your monster's attack points and add it to my life points. It also means that the monster I choose cannot be sacrificed.'

Yami shrugged as his Kuribabylon's attack points dropped. 'With the Orichalcos behind me, nothing you can do will stop me from defeating you.' He drew his own cards, smirking. 'Since my Dark Magician can't do anything now, I'll sacrifice him to use with my Catapult Turtle. And now that he's in the graveyard, he also raises my Dark Magician Girl's attack points by five hundred. You only have eight hundred points left, Rafael. One more hit from Catapult Turtle and you're finished.'

'Perhaps,' Rafael said. 'I set one card facedown and end my turn.'

'Hah! I only have to draw one card and this duel is over.'

A shiver ran through Seto's body. The duel's over, alright, but it's not going to end well for you.

He drew, smirking. 'I sacrifice Dark Magician Girl.'

Seto could almost hear Yugi screaming for him to stop. But Yami didn't stop at all, only smiling as his monster unhappily climbed aboard the catapult.

'Go!' He shouted.

'I activate Shrink!' Rafael called. Yami snarled as his monster's attack points dropped by half to fourteen hundred, inflicting only seven hundred points of damage to Rafael.

'You can't escape the Seal, Rafael,' he growled. 'The Swords of Revealing Light are gone now. The next monster I sacrifice will be the end of you.'

'I suppose we should be happy,' Tristan murmured. 'Rafael only has one hundred points to Yugi's six hundred.'

'But that isn't Yugi duelling. Yugi would never sacrifice his monsters like that.' Joey said. 'He's been brainwashed by that thing.'

'It's what the Seal does,' Mai said softly. Her eyes were sad.

Rafael laughed horribly. 'It's just what I told you. You're evil, Pharaoh! The Seal revealed the truth. This is who you are: greedy, full of hate, a monster. Look at what you've done to your monsters. They're creatures of the shadows now.'

They watched as Yami looked over his red-eyed minions, the first hint of concern crossing his face. But it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. 'You deceived me.'

'You chose to play the Seal, Pharaoh, not I. You played it knowing you'd lose Timmaeus. You destroyed your most valuable monster. The only one I feared.'

He drew his cards, smiling in triumph. 'I play Celestial Sword and Guardian Eatos!'

Yami's expression changed to one of horror.

Seto felt his heart grow cold. It's over.

'The Celestial Sword allows my Guardian to absorb the attack points of all the monsters in your graveyard, Pharaoh,' Rafael said. 'This is what you've done to yourself. You sacrificed them selfishly and now they'll be the end of you!'

As his monsters were pulled into the glowing sword, Yami's eyes filled with tears. 'Forgive me,' he whispered.

The attack points of Eatos rose to ten thousand.

'Guardian Eatos, attack!' Rafael shouted.

Shouting in horror, all the companions could do was watch as the monster destroyed Yugi's two remaining monsters and the rest of his lifepoints.

The Orichalcos shrunk down around Yami, and Rafael walked over to him, smirking. 'You sealed your own fate when you played that card, Pharaoh. Now your life force will awaken the Leviathan. The world will be saved!'

With a howl, the Seal absorbed his soul, and Yami collapsed unconscious to the ground.

A whirring noise began echoing from above their heads.

'The copter!' Ryou called. 'It was theirs!'

A rope ladder descended from the hovering machine and Rafael climbed onto the bottom rung, slinging Yami's motionless body over his shoulder. The chopper flew over to the companions.

'Here, have him back,' Rafael shouted. He tore the necklace from Yami's neck before dropping the body. 'I have all I wanted from him.'

As the chopper roared away into the distance the companions crowded around Yami's body.

'Wake up, Yug, wake up!' Joey yelled, frantically shaking his shoulders. 'Come on!'

'He can't wake up, mutt, his soul… his soul…' Seto rubbed his eyes. 'No. No way.'

Yami was opening his eyes.

'Alright, buddy! We knew you could do it!' Tristan cheered. 'How'd you do it?'

Yami struggled to his feet, then collapsed back to his knees, shaking.

'Yugi… are you alright?' Ryou put a hand on his shoulder.

'No. I'm far from alright.'

Seto started. Yami was crying.

'He's gone!'

'Who's gone?' Tea whispered.

'Yugi! Yugi's gone!'

'But you're here, aren't you?'

'I'm here. Yugi's not, and it's all my fault!' He collapsed into heaving sobs, shouting out for Yugi to come back. 'Aibou!'

As the others crowded around him Seto stood back, watching. He understood what had happened. Yami and Yugi were two separate souls. The Orichalcos only needed one. Yugi sacrificed himself for Yami, even though it was Yami who lost the duel.

No wonder he was crying.

Suddenly a roaring noise began to echo from behind them and he spun around. It couldn't be the Doma gang again, could it?

He brought his duel disk to bear, just in case.

'What the fuck happened?' A voice shouted, and he closed his disk again as the dust cloud cleared to reveal Raven on her bike. 'What the fuck happened?'

'Yami, he…uh…'

She got off her bike and strode over to the still-sobbing Yami, grabbing him by his shirtfront and lifting him off the ground. 'I said, Yugi, what the fuck happened?'

Then she noticed it wasn't Yugi. 'Oh, no. No.'

All Yami could do was nod.

'You did not lose his soul!' she shouted, turning red. 'Tell me you didn't!'

'I did,' he whispered, closing his eyes.

'Goddamnit!' She dropped him, spun around and kicked out, punching a hole in the rock. 'Goddamnit!'

'I'm sorry for making you give up one of your souls,' Yami managed to choke out. 'I really—'

'I'm not annoyed at losing a soul, Yam,' she snarled. 'I'm pissed that you lost my brother.'

Every last pair of eyes widened.

'What, you deaf?' she shouted. 'I said I'm pissed that you lost my brother!'

'But didn't you agree that—'

'Fuck what I agreed to. I don't give a shit if he doesn't think of me as his sister, he's still my goddamned twin brother. Remember back in Domino, Yam? Remember how you promised you'd look after him for me? Remember?'

Yami nodded silently, tears still flowing.

She picked him up again and shook him. 'THIS IS NOT LOOKING AFTER HIM!'

'I said I was sorry!'

Seto watched as she put him down again. She did still care. Ravana was still in there, if only well-hidden behind Raven. Maybe…

'I'll bring him back,' she snarled. 'But so help me, if you lose him again, I will make you wish you were dead a thousand times over before I kill you. Do you understand?'

He nodded again.

She relaxed a little, frowning. 'And don't any of you dare tell that little runt how pissed I was, or you'll be joining Yam.'

They watched in silence as she closed her hands around the sword, one hand resting on Yami's shoulder. A bright light came out of it; with a howl from Raven, it shot off into the night. She collapsed to her knees, panting heavily.

Despite himself, Seto ran to her. 'Are you alright?'

'Fucking fine,' she snarled.

Another light appeared, this time hovering over Yami. It entered his body. Suddenly Yami was gone, replaced by a shell-shocked Yugi.

'Yugi!' Instantly he was crushed under his friends' hugs. Seto watched in silence, feeling rather than seeing Raven get to her feet.

'The way out of the desert should be clear enough now,' Raven murmured in Seto's ear. 'I'll see you all back at the house.'

'Alright, Ravana,' he said softly.

She stiffened. 'I'm Raven.'

'Considering you nearly killed Yami for losing the soul of your brother, I'm inclined to think otherwise.'

She turned and stalked away. 'Think all you like. Ravana only exists in your memories. The only person I am is Raven.'

As she roared away, Seto felt himself smiling a little. If you say so, Raven. If you say so.

And then he cursed. No. Ravana was dead. Dead.

And she wasn't coming back.

Now things truly begin. Sorry for the rough intro to the Dragons; however, I figure that you probably know of that subplot by now. Sorry for any Rebbeca fans; I don't like her, so consequently she features not at all in this storyline. Unless I need a victim =]

Joking, joking... anyhoo, reviews are much loved, will try to post shortly.

Hope you enjoyed it ~