A/N: *Numerous pieces of garbage gets thrown at Grace* Alright guys! I totally deserve everything you throw at me for not updating for almost a year. I probably don't expect many of you to continue waiting for me, but alas, there are a few. Thank-you to all who waited for me and favourite/ alerted to this story! I love you! Now onto the real issues!

There are actually a few different reasons why I haven't updated, the first being my year 12 studying. I went through a big year in regards to schooling and the like, and was unfortunately unable to put together another chapter. During the end of year exams, my Grandmother almost passed away, making the exams incredibly hard to sit. I then proceeded to do absolutely crap on them, giving myself no direction for later study. However, now I have found a University course I am comfortable with, I'll be able to update again! Again, I'm sorry and hope you all continue to read...

Chapter 5

Info to know: Marik= Hikari Marik and Malik= Yami Marik

This is also set in post World War One, so for those of you confused with the time period know!

Kul Elna

The group of men stood silently for a few minutes while they took in the sight before them. The overturned pillars and large boulders were the only objects capable of making the city visible to an outsider and the tourists that hadn't travelled within the ruins before….Well; it was certainly a sight to behold.

While the other men preoccupied themselves by staring aimlessly towards the heaping mass of nothingness, Bakura and Joey cast smirks at each other. Now was the time to go.

Then they were off!

Both men whipped their camels and urged them to go faster than the person beside them, not daring at all to look back for fear they'd fall behind. Unbeknownst to them, their manly cries of 'HAH!' and 'YAH!' had alerted the others into movement, breaking them out of their trance.

Bakura and Joey remained in the lead, neck and neck for first place, the others following close behind. Suddenly, Bakura heard the sounds of hooves that weren't his own gallop up to him. Chancing a sideways glance at whoever it was, he was dumbfounded to find Marik atop his own camel, blonde hair flying in the wind and a content grin plastered on his mouth.

While Bakura was distracted however, Joey had managed to bring his whip around and began to thoroughly whack the white-haired thief with it, trying to knock him off his camel. The coward managed to hit Bakura twice with his whip before it was removed by said man, causing Joey to lose his balance and go plunging into the sand below. The others stampeded past the fallen man as Bakura and Marik made easy distance ahead of them.

The two leaders raced across the desert, wind whipping their faces as they chuckled to one another. Marik, having quite the time of his life, had found a sudden burst of speed from his camel and launched forward, passing the now stunned thief and leaving him for dust. He laughed heartily at Bakura and the white-haired male couldn't help but grin in his companion's direction as the blonde darted closer and closer towards the finish line.

"Marik! Slow down!" A voice suddenly called a little bit behind the thief. The older twin turned around to glare at whoever had said it when he noticed that Ryou was the culprit. The soft-spoken male was currently staring ahead of him in fear towards Marik, who was just making his way towards the stone ramp that surrounded the city….and wasn't stopping.

Shit! Bakura swore internally, trying to push his camel to go faster.

"Marik! Slow down, there's-," but he was unfortunately too late. Marik's camel had suddenly stopped in front of the run down wall and had caused the younger Egyptian to go careering over the front, making him land head first in the sand. "A wall…." The thief trailed off. Seeing Marik's prone form lying on the ground, not to mention the sound he made as he flew off, promptly caused Bakura to burst out laughing.

Behind him he heard the obnoxious cackling of Malik and the soft chuckle of his brother as he came to a halt near the now sand ridden male.

Pulling his face out of its itchy position, Marik turned his now crimson face towards the men who were currently laughing at him, glare in place.

"Have a good trip, Princess?" Bakura questioned, smirking like the bastard he was. Marik decided to play it cool with the thief. After all, it wasn't worth the man's satisfaction.

Pushing himself off his stomach and into a standing position, not making any eye contact with his obviously humoured companions.

"Hardy har, you're a real comedian. Please, stop it before my stomach explodes from laughing so hard," Marik said sarcastically, while fixing his now well battered shirt. He then turned his nose up at the air and carefully made his way further into the ruins, a laughing thief cackling behind him.

Just then, the other group arrived on their horses, Joey a little more worse for wear. Duke trotted past Bakura, scowl gracing his features. The thief gave him a shit-eating grin.

"You owe me cash Devlin." Then, just like Marik, Bakura stuck his nose into the air and wandered off behind the ruffled Egyptian.

The afternoon saw our adventurers in a strange ditch-like area. Marik, his ever present notebook that he'd managed to salvage together after being drenched with water a few days prior secure within his grip, instructed the other three men what they were supposed to do, much to the chagrin of a certain thief.

The Touzoku brothers were in the process of digging up an ancient hole that opened into a deep underground tomb, while Malik was lazily polishing a strange mirror-like object with a cut off part of his top. Marik was lost in his excitement when his brother broke his reverie.

"Hey, Mar?" the taller man called to him.

"Yes, Malik?" Marik replied off handily, eyes not leaving his notes. Malik scrunched his nose up at the lack of enthusiasm in his brothers' voice, but decided to continue without care.

"What exactly are these things?" he asked, gesturing to the item in his hands. Marik, finally coming to his brothers' attention, snapped his notebook shut and proceeded to wander over to Maliks' side. Taking the domed object from the wild-haired blonde, Marik tilted the angle of the object so a beam of light from the sun reflected down into the darkened tomb, lighting the entrance.

"I'll show you once the others have finished with the tomb," he stated with a secretive grin, turning on his heels and going closer to the opening in order keep an eye on the process, leaving Malik to his own wonderings.

"Your brother is a strange man," a voice stated from behind the daydreaming Egyptian, successfully startling (not scaring) him from his musings. Malik turned around, only to come face to face with the camel owner obviously putting his two cents in.

Malik rolled his eyes at the man, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wow, tell me something I don't know," he replied with sarcasm, then strutted away for fear he'd actually have to partake in converse with the man.

While that little piece of interaction was taking places, Bakura and Ryou were catching up. When I say 'catching up' I really mean 'arguing'.

"I'm curious, why the fuck did Mum and Dad send you to 'keep an eye on me' when Amane would be so more helpful to me." The thief's words stung, but Ryou was by far use to it now.

"They didn't, actually. I sent myself, and I'm quite capable of handling myself Bakura. As I've said before, I'm stronger than I look." The younger twin was quite sick of being told he was weak by people, especially his brother.

"Oh yeah? About as strong as a kitten…" Bakura rolled his eyes, "How is old Bastet going anyway?" he asked.

"Well this 'kitten' has claws that he isn't afraid to use, and your 'cat' is fine. Still hates anyone that goes near her, kinda reminds me of you a lot." Ryou stated wryly, shovelling a shovel full of dirt more harshly than before. "Why don't you come ho-"

"Don't start that again, Ryou!" Bakura interrupted, "I don't want to go home. I'm perfectly fine where I am, and I don't need a stupid psychiatrist telling me otherwise!" The thief said, frustrated.

The twins meetings always resulted into this type of cat fight. Bakura would spill his annoyance to Ryou, Ryou would tell Bakura the reason, provoking some sort of negative reaction from the thief which would break out into a petty argument about what either of them hated about each other. All in all, both brothers couldn't see how alike they were besides their looks. Both were incredibly stubborn, straightforward and emitted a sense of danger about them. Bakura's was obvious through his expressions and actions while Ryou's was secretive.

While the twins were busy arguing about past times, they were oblivious to the increased pace they were digging and were close to falling through to the tomb underneath. Luckily for them, Marik was wondering over just as they were about to break through the chamber's roof.

"Er, guys?" He asked, warily.

"For the last time, I'm not a bloody psychiatrist!"

"Oh, but you certainly sound like one!"

"If you even took one moment out of your 'so called' busy schedule and be interested in your own family for a change, then you might actually know what I do!"

"Guys?" He tried again.

"Well, if you'd stop pressuring me then I might actually visit once in a while!"

"Oh, that's rich, coming from a thief like you! All you care about is bloody treasure!"

"How the fuck can you assume that? You haven't even seen me for years! I could be doing a world of good over here for all you know."

"Pfft, I'd believe that when I see it!"

"What am I doing now, huh, Ryou? I'm helping two goddamn Egyptian idiots in a place I don't particularly want to be. See, the keyword there was 'helping'."

"Oh, is that how you treat someone who's saved your life is it? Call them names? Well, if I were them I'd-"

"GUYS!" Marik finally shouted towards the twins.

"WHAT?" The Touzoku brothers shouted back. Then, realising what they'd just done, glared at one another.

"Will you save the stupid family problem for another time? If you haven't already noticed, your digging is going to cause a cave in at the rate you guys are going." Marik replied stiffly, pissed off at the 'idiotic' comment made by Bakura.

There was a pause while the two English brothers took a look around them. Realising Marik was right; they put down their shovels and climbed out of the hole. Ryou, who'd climbed out first, went to observe the mirrors Malik had polished to get his mind off his impossible brother.

As Bakura was making his way out of the hole, Marik extended his hand out to offer help. Bakura, thinking nothing of it, grabbed the tanned hand as leverage. Just as he was making it to the top, Marik let go of his hand, causing the thief to go plummeting back down the hole, landing heavily on his rear.

Turning to glare somewhat surprised at the man who dropped him, Bakura found Marik staring down at him, an evil smirk gracing his features.

"That," Marik began seething, "is for that 'idiot Egyptian' comment." He then dusted invisible dirt from his hands and walked away.

Well, surprise surprise! The kid sure has a lot of spunk in him, Bakura thought, rubbing his slightly sore bum softly. Might be worth it to give him what I found. I won't use it anyway…

It was three by the time they'd made the gap in the ground safe enough to climb down, and the small group was taking a rest from the heat. The eldest of the Touzoku twins stepped out from his tent with an object in his hands. Marik, who was currently distracted with a book he'd gotten from the market, didn't hear the thief making his way over to him.

"Ey, Ishtar!" he shouted, thoroughly startling the Egyptian. Bakura chuckled while the flustered man glared in his general direction.

"Yes, you annoying thing?" Marik eyed the Touzoku warily. He looked like he was hiding something.

Bakura suddenly thrust something into his hands and walked away. Curious as to what the object was more so than why it was handed to him, Marik looked down to his hands, eyes widening when he realised what exactly it was that he was holding.

It was a scroll, well, not an actual scroll. It was actually a small tool kit when it was unfolded. Specially designed for excavating, the tool kit came equipped with small brushes, chipping tools and hammers. Basically, it was an archaeologist dream kit.

Glancing around to where the thief disappeared, Marik found him with a rope between his legs above the hole, smirking towards him. Before Marik got a change to say something, thanking him somehow, the thief had already jumped down into the tomb below.

A/N: Well there we go! It's a little short, but I was really stressing with it. I've had it partically made for a while now. R&R! =)

~Grace