The sky was dangerously dark, thick clouds rolling across the expanse of the human's sight as, in the souls of 3 people, the ancient gods, older than the three beast gods, stirred. Anubis,. Osiris and Horus all awoke. Deep in the soul of Darius, Anubis smiled in his beast form, a black jackal which padded stealthily around the crevices of Darius' soul, red eyes gleaming and lips parting in a wicked doggy grin. The death god blinked slightly, feeling the soul of his container jolt as black began spreading up the edges, burning away the light and leaving that same endless black. Darius, eyes tinted red, grinned even as the wicked claws of a shadow creature slid deep into his arms. Voldemort narrowed his eyes but was distracted as a ball of white flew at him, claws curved and needle sharp as they tore into Voldemort's face.

Voldemort struggled wildly, arms getting torn up from the beak and talons of Hedwig, Darius' beautiful familiar. Amber eyes narrowed at Voldemort as white wings stood out starkly against the black background. Darius snickered wetly, the blood bubbling up and getting caught in his throat causing the laugh to rasp out, the liquid not quite able to leave his lips. Hedwig, distracted by her master, stopped her attack and Voldemort, in his fury, punched the white animal into the forest, Hedwig screeching loudly before falling frighteningly silent. Darius froze, his eyes going an even greater red as he snarled loudly.

"How dare you!" Darius snarled, the faint outline of a black jackal appeared beside him, mouth open and dripping with blood from a fresh kill. Darius' eyes were fully red by now and from the corner of his eyes, black liquid began to slide down his pale cheeks, evidence of the corruption within. "Foolish human, you don't know who you're dealing with."

"Human? You forget Potter, you're human too." Voldemort laughed, beckoning to the monsters who turned Darius over, and one slightly misshapen Dark Magician moved his staff, a deep green light causing the purple staff to glow. The misshapen, once grand monster lifted the staff high, the sharp tip gleaming in the low light, and pushed it down hard, the blade sliding deep into his eye. Darius didn't notice the pain at first, only noticing the world tilt on its axis as his senses altered to the sudden darkness in is eye and then that tearing, screaming pain that billowed out in waves of agony. Blood streamed down his face in rivulets of intoxicating red, mingling with the black tears that had automatically come out of his eye, the eye twitching rapidly as it fought against the intrusion.

Darius felt his senses disappear, his screams, while still long and loud, fell silent and an odd kind of echoing made him fall limp, feeling the cool touch of magic spread over his system, he didn't noticed but an odd black tattoo spread over his eye, curling strands of black, on his forehead the millennium eye sat lightly above his damaged eye and below it was an ankh with a snake curled loosely around it. Darius felt the staff withdrawn and looked up at the creature which was visibly fighting against the commands, Darius frowned sadly at the shadow monster, lightly smiling at the creature, even as blood soaked his hair.

Darius had always had a special bond with the shadow monsters, while Atem once commanded them with their respect for him, Darius used his understanding of them and his ever present kindness so that they followed him willingly. Darius felt a ghostly hand touch his eye, as if in memory, and his one working eye looked up with shock as he noticed the ghostly spirit of a familiar face sooth the pain of his wound, Lucas was knelt next to him, helmet at his side and red hair gleaming. Darius had fallen silent by now, his injured eye gently closed and his body lax and uncontrollable. He was in so much pain his limbs defied him.

Darius looked around weakly, noticing the reluctance in the monsters eyes and smiling softly. With a pulse of shadow magic, Darius sent out a distress signal to a certain group, even if he didn't know he did it. Immediately the forest lit up with the noise of creatures moving throughout the darkness and then, out of the darkness, dog-like creatures that moved like living shadows sped across the green grass. At the head of the group was a jackal of pure white, eyes a deep blue which gleamed brightly, the jackal seemed to send an unseen signal to the rest of the pack and they broke off, onto the sides of the mass group of creatures and death eaters.

Voldemort roared angrily. "What did you do Potter?!"

Darius, for the first time in a while, looked confused. "I.. didn't do anything."

**

Silver hair gleamed as Bakura ran, behind him Ryou ran, hair pale against the coming night, next to Ryou was Yugi with Atem running in front of him and next to Yugi was Malik, Marik running in front of him. The group was luckily very near their destination with Hedwig leading them, swooping gracefully along the wind currents. Bakura stopped abruptly at the edge of the tree's, spying the massive group of shadow monsters, three whom were pinning down their neighbour. Bakura turned to the pharaoh, his red eyes stark and bright as he conveyed a message.

"Will it work?" Atem said softly, looking Bakura straight in the eyes.

"It should do. Won't hurt." Bakura replied easily. The group behind them exchanged confused looks and Bakura didn't blame them, he knew that Atem hadn't told them all of his secrets. Not that Bakura knew all of those secrets. "Do it, Atem." Atem nodded and concentrated, his forehead glowing gold as the sennen eye appeared on it. Everyone could feel the burst of shadow magic that swept the area and abruptly, the shadow monsters froze, trembling as they fell.

"Bakura, can you explain?" Ryou asked softly, doe-like eyes pleading with his partner.

"Atem can, to some extent, control the shadow monsters and the shadow monsters, as they aren't doing it willingly, are helping him in relinquishing the strong hold on their will. Atem was pharaoh for a reason, you know." Bakura explained smoothly.

Marik laughed. "I never thought I'd hear you say something like that about the pharaoh. I thought you hated him."

Malik grinned. "I don't know, he's been rather nice lately."

Yugi levelled them all with a stern stare. "That's because if he steps one toe out of line I'll tear off his privates and feed them to Kaiba's blue eyes, that goes for you too, okay?" Yugi snarled.

"Damn straight!" Ryou snickered, teeth gleaming in the low light. "Now shush, let Atem concentrate."

**

Darius whimpered as he felt the claws and teeth of the monsters withdraw, leaving only the aching pain of the wounds. Distantly, Darius noticed the familiar shape of his neighbours and Hedwig, injured but not down. Voldemort roared in anger, ordering his remaining forces to attack, throwing his arm out heavily. However from nowhere the Dark Magician, once again in its normal shape, appeared and went to work, fighting off the forces as the other neighbours summoned monsters to help.

Darius had been fighting off consciousness throughout his ordeal and yet, as his friends rushed in, he fought no more. "I'll leave it to you now." Darius murmured softly before lightly touching Lucas' ghostly hand and falling into unconsciousness leaving the roar of monsters echoing in his ears.

***

Ryou rushed to Darius' side, kneeling down to tend to his wounds. Atem, looked at his friends and nodded with a smile. "Look after him, we'll deal with these guys. Yugi, protect Ryou while he helps Darius, alright?"

Yugi nodded but put on his soft expression, innocence shining in his eyes. "Alright. But after this, we need some answers okay?" Atem nodded with a gentle smile. "Be careful, my love."

***

Authors Note:

That got a bit bad at the end but my head hurtsss D=

Still, I hope you liked it, review you meanies!!! =D