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Chapter 20

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His eyes narrowed until they were only slits. They shone with a glint of darkness as the glow of the sluggish moon exposed itself from behind the grey clouds. He lowered his head, allowing his bangs to fall over his face and he emitted a dejected feeling for a moment. The men around in the room felt a sudden wave of discomfort and glanced at each other, but never dared to actually shift their position, they didn't even dare to move their heads.

They stood still, awaiting their next decree, as the small glow of light glimmered onto the murky room. They waited a few more moments, pupils going to the edge of their eyes, watching their master who controlled their very existence from the time when they swore their oath, but he never made a motion of movement.

He was known for his aloofness and distance from all other creatures and that was what attracted the need for wealth, greed, and power to him. His shoulders started quivering, as if he were sobbing, and one of them dared to move to check on him.

"Mast--" Immediately, his head jerked up and his eyes tainted crimson. He snarled at the movement and the entire room, alerted, went doubly silent as they awaited the punishment of the man that stood there. The lone servant gulped silently, but it was audible in the silence of that room.

They heard the gritting of his teeth as he closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the long thin object in his hand. It, bright from the glow of the moon, was raised and pointed towards the man. It didn't take much effort and was only momentary, but as his hand lowered back down into its original position, the man fell to his knees, his hood falling back, revealing an almost ghostly expression of bereavement as he fell to the earth and radiated a small thud. He glanced around to the rest and they remained silent and motionless, now not even daring to bat an eyelid or take in breaths. His head curved slowly around the room, going through each and every soul there as his eyes returned back to their normal hue.

Again, another surge of discomfort came over the men there, but this time, it was rancorousness, fear, and inferior ness from the man that stood above them all in power. His shoulders started shaking again this time but nobody dared to say or do anything this time.

He erupted into laughter, his sudden interruption of the silence making the men wince and the halls echo. But this laughter didn't have any atmosphere of mirth or delight in it, but it held the air of iniquity and malevolence. His voice soon resided and now, only his lips twitched into a sneer. He opened his mouth to say the words that the men in the room anticipated would let them out of there, away from the outrageous, impatient man.

"Last time I didn't succeed in capturing them, but this time I definitely will." He said, emphasizing I as he said it. The men still stood still, intently listening for any orders. "Fools, that means you," he said, emphasizing you, "go. If you don't succeed in this, you will never breathe life, and don't worry; I won't let you breathe your last breath either." He yelled at the men there, and in a flash, they were all scampering around towards the rock door, keen to leave the retched place. But before one foot could set out of that place, the door had slammed open and there stood a silhouette. He was one of the few souls who did not fear their master, and that was because he, himself was as dreadful and appalling, maybe even more than him.

"Leave them; they cannot do this petty wish of yours for you. I will do it, in exchange for something of course." The silhouette said, walking towards their master as he spoke. Their master didn't question about privacy, eavesdropping, or ask for more authority in address; he wasn't infuriated and he didn't make any moves to show form of any punishment, for this man held the same power as him and he didn't have any authority over him as did to the servants. But in response, his smirk only grew broader.

"Very well, you may."

"And who may you want?" The silhouette stepped into the moonlight to show piercing russet eyes with pearly yet silky tresses. Their master stood in the shadows, but the ashen whites of his eyes glinted and the occupants of the room could feel the smirk radiating from him.

"Serenity Wheeler and Seto Kaiba."

Now he stood in front of Seto Kaiba with a gun to his head. He had never resorted to these sorts of things when opposing his enemies, but after five thousand years of living, tactics and styles tend to change. It was no longer dueling with monsters, as he had believed before would've worked like ancient Egypt but proved wrong, it was now with strategy and diplomacy with the generation he was 'living' in.

He felt a presence behind him and he saw Seto Kaiba's eyes reroute there and they widened. Instantaneously, he knew the extra occupant of the room. He threw his head back, in the motion a wolf would do when howling to a moon and closed his eyes and he slowly raised it back, opening his closed eyes, staring sharply at the figure, Seto Kaiba, in front of him. He chuckled on a low tone there and again pressed the gun harder onto the side of his head. An audible gasp was heard behind him and he, pretending to just notice the presence, turned around and shot at the location of the sound.

And of course, he missed. His job was to bring them back alive, not dead, wounded if necessary. Kaiba moved trying to attack Bakura in anyway that was possible. The girl that was shot at, now on the floor scampered up and tried to hurry out of there to get help.

"Get her!" He roared out. In a matter of seconds, she was surrounded by men in dark robes and they closed in on her.

She strolled out of the train station with him. He held her hand to guide her through, as she was still blind.

"Serenity, we're going to find your brother and you'll be able to watch him duel for the first time." He said, and she nodded in response.

"Ok Tristan. I can't wait!" She squealed at the thought of seeing her brother again, and dueling too. But rapidly, the mood had changed and she could feel it in the air.

"What's wrong Tristan?" She asked in a diminutive voice.

"Rare hunters." She felt people surrounding her and she cowered and hid behind Tristan.

"Hop onto my back Serenity." She nodded again.

In the background she could hear thumping and as she galnced quickly, she saw that Bakura had once again forced the gun onto Seto's head. But soon, she glanced back to the problem she was facing herself. These were the same men; she could feel the same presence as that time. They surrounded her like that moment, but this time, she had nobody to hop onto the back of, no one to protect her. She again cowered as they parted to let someone into the crowd. She gasped at who she saw.

"Tristan!"

The man who had once saved her from these very same hunters.

"Whaddya mean you can't let us in? You let my sista in, why not us?" Joey bellowed at the guard standing there. He stood in the same position, a rifle up in his arms, stiff and alert, and unfazed by Joey's shouts, roars, and threats.

"Mr. Kaiba's orders. Nobody gets in now without authority from Mr. Kaiba. Your 'sister' has authority, but you don't. I suggest you leave or I will be forced to escort you out." The guard said, still unmoving.

"But, sir," Yugi said, making sure to give the guard a sense of authority "We are close friends of Mr. Kaiba, and we think that he is in grave danger right now"

"I can assure you that he is not. We don't let anyone get in that easily." The guard said, even unfazed by Yugi's kindness in his voice. At that moment, the earth shook and they saw one side of the Kaiba corporations building explode. The guard immediately sprang up and for the gang, time seemed to stand still.

Serenity was in that building. What if she was in that part of the building? That was the way she was headed. These thoughts all coursed through all their heads, especially Joey's. In his eyes, he traced a bit of an item that had caught on fire and now was falling down to the earth. He saw it fall to the ground, and in a flash, he was dashing to the building yelling his baby sister's name over and over again; he needed to confirm that she wasn't there when that bomb went off. As he ran off, everything was a blur and all the noises jumbled.

"No—more bombs there—wait Joey—Don't shoot!" That's all he heard until he felt a pain sting through his arm into his shoulder blade. He let out a piercing cry as his hand went up to the wound to lessen the pain. As he raised his hand off of hsi shoulder and examined it, it held blood. His blood. Blood that might've been shed when that bomb exploded. Blood of hers, not his.

He had to keep going, for her sake and for his. So he did, except with the now numbing pain, he trudged along slowly, and as guards came to drag him back or to escort him into an ambulance, he shrugged them off, only holding a determined look on his face, ready to find his sister. But the loss of blood didn't allow him to go on much longer. Soon, he was a bleeding pile on the floor, collapsed, and slipping into unconsciousness.

He saw a figure standing before him, a girl. He couldn't tell who. He was starting to see double vision and it was rapidly blurring.

"Serenity?" He murmured before he completely lost consciousness.

Darkness, there was only that. She felt the murmurs of the chilly air crawl up her spine and make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She shivered involuntarily and the cold grip that was on her wrist tightened. As they approached the stone gate, she felt something that was telling her that there was evil, lust and hatred residing in that room. She squirmed to get free but failed miserably under Tristan's stronger grip.

"Don't you dare fidget or you will regret it." He hissed into her ear. She again shivered involuntarily. He twisted the door knob and opened the door in to the room. He shoved her in and she stumbled over her feet but managed to balance.

"Welcome, dear Serenity." A guttural voice greeted, echoing through the halls.

OK thank you for waiting for this chapter. I, for this chapter, wanted to give a mysterious feeling and I hope it worked! Evaluate me please on how well I did, in you review. Please and thank you...Oh yea, sorry It wasn't that long or great but I wrote this out in a stretch of 2 hours, taking a lot of breaks in between so I lost a lot of track of thoughts and got sidetracked. I tried adding a bunch of good adjectives in here to make it more interesting and so I hope you understood it somehow...anyways..that's pretty much all the news except I just moved...away from all my friends...so depending on my moods of the days, I might update fast or slow...WAHH..I didn't wanna move!!!

I know. yes, I AM an immature brat in Middle School. Sorry for the time you wasted reading this author's note, I know it wasn't worth it, but please DO waste your time reviewing something to improve my writing!

Ja ne? Is that what the Japanese say? anyways, until next time!