Hey! I apologise for taking so long with this chapter. Thank you very, very much for the reviews, once again; sorry for the lack of individual review responses, I will catch up with that.

I was wrong and this one isn't the chapter in which Malik can't sleep...

See chapter one for disclaimer.

Chapter Seven

(In which we find out a little more about what the other side has been up to.)

He didn't really have to be near Pegasus to monitor him, but he was glad to have an excuse to leave for a while, and he didn't really want to freak out Ryou by prying into the millionaire's mind in front of him.

Because deceiving him is so much better, a small voice in his mind said. And it's not like he doesn't know that you're involved.

He gritted his teeth.

What did it even matter? he asked himself, as he reached the door to his room, millennium rod in his right, gleaming with its holder's irritation. It was hardly his fault this time. Bakura had started it, not him.

He stopped in front of the door, grabbing his millennium item, and carefully probing into the artist's mind. Even after the ring spirit had threatened him into submission, Pegasus had calmly informed them that he would never be able to paint a real picture if his mind wasn't left free. While they had not let this count, they had understood that Malik's presence had to be kept at its minimum; it was creating a dangerous balance, one in which Pegasus might break free too easily – and where, on the other hand, they might subdue him too far for him to be able to create the card.

He threw the door to Pegasus' room closed only shortly after: the man always irritated him, and he was positive he did it on purpose, with his calculated air of elegant insanity, and his ability to look like he could read his mind, even though Malik knew this couldn't be the case; but it made him want to sever all connection between their minds, just to be sure and get ride of the discomfort, and wasn't that exactly what Pegasus would want?

He leant against the wall next to the door, and let the rod's light die down. It did feel good to have the item back, no use in denying that. Not just the item, but the mad power he could have with it... it wasn't using it, it was the mere knowledge that he could make any person do whatever he wanted to at any time!...

He should be past all this. Even if he had such a desire, he shouldn't have acted on it.

He had defeated his own darkness; it was gone, wasn't part of him anymore.

But he didn't feel any different. He found that his anger was still there. Only unfocused and aimless, so that he didn't quite know what to do of it. Rishid had suggested that this was normal – not just normal for his situation, normal for a teenager –, but for some reason, Malik had found this even more frustrating.

He tipped against the gold with one finger, unsure.

If he was honest with himself, he had to admit he also liked the sense of danger that came with dealing with the spirit: the same trilling feeling that came with way too fast motorbike rides. And he didn't have to be so careful around him: Bakura was evil anyway. Vis-à-vis of him he didn't feel ashamed and regretful in retrospective, for what he'd done in Battle City, at least.

He was aware that it was foolish to bring a millennium item so close to the thief – but approaching him without one would have been even more foolish, and as soon as Ryou was absent, it was hard to recall ever having felt remorse.

This should have been over, after his victory over himself; it should have been enough; soon, the pharaoh would open the gate to his memory, and then their duty as tomb guardians would finally be fulfilled, and he could start a normal life.

But it didn't work like that; he could, should already have started a "normal" life, whatever that was supposed to be to begin with. Isis had, cautiously and without pressing the matter, asked him what he intended to do. She was talking about school, a job, things like that. He had haughtily replied hat he could read and write a dead language perfectly, which was a pretty unique skill, and would certainly manage find some work with that, to which she had patiently replied that he might still want to get a degree, and that revealing just how large his knowledge was might still be, if not dangerous then at least very disconcerting and confusing to those who learned of it; they might not even believe him.

Malik had shrugged it off. In truth spending the rest of his life working on anything that was in any way related to ancient Egyptian texts was last thing he wanted, but he didn't think it wise to reveal that at this point. It wasn't like he couldn't spend months and years doing nothing, and counting on his sister and his brother to support him, but he didn't want to remain in such a dependence forever.

He sighed, remained motionless for a few more moments, and straightened back up. He would get through this. And maybe he should be more careful around Ryou... Maybe he had never met the real Ryou, it was all a scheme Bakura had made up to confuse him. No, this was stupid. He would have noticed, as an item-holder.

But did the pharaoh? He had immediately recognised the spirit during his their duel on the battle ship, but Bakura wouldn't have been able to remain hidden until then if he always knew when it was the spirit who was in control...

Unless, he thought angrily, Ryou had actually covered for him...

"Are you insane?"

Jounouchi's voice rang loudly through the large room which, Anzu supposed, passed as Kaiba's living room, or would, if it wasn't for the fact that they had gone through three similar ones on their way there; Mokuba was sitting in front of a large TV, eyes riveted on the screen, fingers moving on his controller faster than the untrained eye could follow, but she could tell, by the way his shoulders occasionally tensed and relaxed that he was listening to their conversation; now, he hunched down a little; Anzu had the weird feeling that he was trying not to laugh. They'd left Honda in the Game Shop with Yuugi's grandfather, and had thus the person who usually held Jounouchi back from lunging at Kaiba was missing.

"You can't have anyone barge in on them like that," Jounouchi went on, while Kaiba watched him yell with a dispassionate look on his face. "The spirit can bring cards to life were you listening to anything we told you?"

"I was. I remember how you said that your friend Honda would never have woken up if you hadn't ruined our chances to follow them by driving into the see just to retrieve a card," Kaiba remarked sarcastically. "A pretty common one, at that," he added voice perfectly serious this time, seeming to suggest that had the card been rarer, it would have been a perfectly legitimate action.

"It – " Jounouchi began, clapped his mouth open and shut a few times, unable to find a good answer to that, and, in this moment, very much annoyed that Honda had woken up, no matter how relieved he had been when he had regained consciousness right before they'd landed. "Oh, forget it," he gave up, throwing his arms up dramatically. Kaiba smirked.

"We need to find them," the other Yuugi said calmly.

Kaiba straightened back up.

"You do that," he said, in a clipped tone that suggested that the conversation was over.

"Kaiba, your plan wouldn't work, but we do need your help."

"It's your problem. Or that of the police."

"Whatever it is they're after," the other Yuugi answered calmly, "it has something to do with the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

Kaiba twitched visibly. Be it because any involvement of the card interested him or because he felt guilty – or at least, like he owed a debt – for being the one who had torn it up, Kaiba had helped them this far: when he had heard about Motou Sugoroku's card, he had immediately arranged for a flight back to Japan for them; how he had a private jet ready in the airport of Cairo was anyone's guess.

"You don't know that."

"Kaiba," the other Yuugi said reasonably, "they stole my grandfather's card."

"You don't know they did."

"It's magic that knocked him out, I'm certain of it."

Kaiba rolled his eyes and looked away.

"I didn't know what to make of it first," the other Yuugi went on, "but now that I know that the ring spirit is involved, I do. And we can be almost certain they kidnapped Pegasus, and are forcing or bribing him to help; Bakura did call us from Duellist Kingdom, you found that out, and that's were they were coming from. Whatever it is they're after, It will affect the game, you know that..."

"Fine," Kaiba interrupted him. "Fine, I will help. I was suggesting –"

The other Yuugi didn't let him finish:

"Jounouchi's right," he pushed on. "We can't barge in on them like that, and your people, without protection even less; but if you can locate them..."

"Of course we can," Mokuba threw in with a note of childish cockiness, and put the controller aside even as a blinking score appeared on his screen.

The older Kaiba cast him a glance, then gave a curt nod.

"Fine," he said again; Mokuba grinned cheerily and stood up.

"I'll look into it," he promised, before leaving the room; Anzu and Jounouchi exchanged a glance: there was something slightly off with leaving this to a child; or with a child having this kind of power. Or both.

"Do you have any idea why they might have stolen it?" Yuugi asked.

Kaiba gave an annoyed, jerky shake of the head.

"If it was any other card, I'd say they want to create a counterfeit." He made a contemptuous face at their confused expressions. "When Pegasus created the cards, he had chips implanted in each of them to make it more difficult to forge them. It's what the hologram system uses to recognise them."

"So my Grandpa's Blue Eyes White Dragon still has intact chips that could be inserted into a new card," the other Yuugi concluded.

"But if a forth one shows up, everyone, we will know it's this one!" Jounouchi said; Kaiba nodded, scowling.

"I suspect that the ring might be able to tamper with one's memories," the other Yuugi said tightly. "If he makes Pegasus forget what happened –"

"We will still know," Anzu remarked. "Maybe if they sold it to a collector who doesn't use it...?"

"I've no idea what Malik wants, but I'm sure money isn't what the ring spirit is after," the other Yuugi said darkly. "We have to find them and stop him before everything else. Pegasus is in grave danger."

"You don't think he'll rip out his millennium eye, do you?" Jounouchi asked; Yuugi's earnest face was answer enough; Jounouchi looked like he was going to be sick. "Where'd Kaiba go?" he added.

Their host had slipped out of the room during the last exchange.

"Helping Mokuba?" Anzu suggested; at she didn't think the mention of Pegasus, whom he hated – and with good reason –, would be enough to make him less eager to find out what was going on. "What about Bakura?" she added, towards Yuugi.

"He will probably be fine. The spirit won't let any harm come to him." His lightly let his fingers glide over the puzzle, gentle as a caress. "We're more worried about Malik."

Note: Yuugi and the others don't know about Bakura stealing the millennium eye (Actually, I'm not sure they ever find out in canon, especially in the anime...)

I'm not sure Yuugi and his group, maybe Yami and Yuugi themselves excepted, ever get completely used to the Kaibas...

Thank you for reading! The next chapter should be there as soon as I've done some revising. Comments are greatly appreciated!