Shandy: Allright, a few chapters before the big battle.

Candy: But we thought we'd let you know- we have completely finished writing the whole story. It'll be a total of 104 pages on Google Docs- 108 if you count the three bonus scenes I have inspired by your guys' reviews! If you want any other bonus scenes, please review to us what you want to know, and we'll see what we can do!

Shandy: Reviews!

OddDangerSpiritualCyberLover17: I can't guarantee that I'll PM you after I'm done- updating during school is tricky. But I'll see what I can do about PMing you afterwards!

GGMJ: Thank you! And yes, it is adorable.

whitlaw123: They will. Eventually.

Amanda27A.g: Yes, yes it is. Ishizu's the one that gets hit this chapter tho. :)

KawaiiFanficLover: It's ok, we all do, and it's also ok that you didn't review last chapter. Also, I've put a small summery of sorts on the last chapter, but a more detailed (I hope) Version in a bonus scene. :)

Candy: Enjoy the chapter!

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"Ok, Marik." Yami instructed calmly. "I want you to envision Malik in your mind the best you can."

"Mhm."

"Then I want you to use your magic to make yourself look like him." Yami continued. "You will still have a few differences, but the best you can do is the best we got."

"Will Ishizu get mad?"

"Yes." Marik winced. "But she won't be for long. If she refuses to step down, Bakura said that he had a backup plan in case she wouldn't."

"Ok."

"Now, come on. Let's see your best visual of Malik." Marik closed his eyes, and in the back of his mind a very tired, but still awake, Yugi giggled.

'He really does act like a little kid. Who knows, you might end up as his big brother."

'Bleh! Never in a millenia!'

'Just a thought. I wonder how Malik puts up with this on a daily basis.' Yami watched Marik for a moment before responding.

'He probably acts differently around him, like I did around you at first.' Yugi nodded in his mind.

'I'm so tired…'

'Then sleep.'

'But Jou could be in danger! And Kaiba's magical aura is flaring again.' Yami glanced over to the room that they had locked Kaiba in- Chloe's bathroom.

'Good. Learning how to use his magic will come in handy.'

"Look Pharaoh!" Yami turned his attention to Marik again. He looked just like Malik, the only difference was that his hair was raised a bit more, and his eyes were his eyes. "Did I do good?"

"Great job." Yami praised. "Now continue to practice- I'm gonna go check up on Bakura."

"Say hi to the thief for me!"

'You know, he's kinda cute.'

'Yeah, cute and almost banished you to the shadow realm.' Yami growled. Mentally, he grabbed Yugi and held her tight.

'Yami, calm down, it's over now.'

'I know, but I want to protect you. That was living a nightmare I never want to re-live.' Yugi sighed in acknowledgement.

'How about we focus on getting Jou back, and not the past.'

'Only for you, aibou.'

'Thanks Mou-hitori-no-boku.' Yami walked into the next room to see Bakura pacing with his eyes closed.

"Thief."

"Pharaoh."

"The Tomb Keeper says hi."

"Idiot lost so much of himself he doesn't know the difference between a big cat and a lion." Bakura scoffed. "What are you doing here?"

"Annoying you." Yami leaned against the table casually. "When do you think Kaiba will finally grab a solid hold on his magic?"

"Hmn?"

"His magic just flared for the fifteenth time. I know cause it's keeping Yugi awake." Yami rolled his eyes.

"Oh." Bakura opened his eyes, but continued to pace. "Well, first of all, I'm pretty sure that he's doing that on purpose. Clearly he already knows that emotions react strongly with magic. It's why he's still shouting." Yami had to admit, the lowly thief had a valid point. He still didn't know why Kaiba tried to deny having magic. It was futile. "It's just a matter of getting to that magic. And it's highly unlikely for him to be able to activate it without Katsuya here. If the mutt were in immediate danger and the priest wanted to, I'm sure he could summon his magic." An idea seemed to come to Bakura's mind, but Yami brushed it off.

"What's got you pacing around, anyway?" Yami asked. For a reason he didn't understand and highly disliked, he realised that he and Bakura actually had a similar thought process.

He was still a lowly thief though.

"Well, isn't it weird?" Bakura asked. "The mutt is the hikari. Our magic neutralizes each other's. He shouldn't have been able to be possessed and become Rememorator. You said it yourself."

"Yeah, it is weird." Yami admitted slowly. "Maybe it's because we share bodies with our lights and they have separate bodies?"

"That doesn't effect the magic and the magic's job."

"But what if only we can neutralise it?"

"What?"

"Think of it this way, idiot." Yami rolled his eyes as Bakura stopped pacing. "The definition of us yamis is that we're the opposite of our light halves, our hikaris."

"I know that. Get to the point."

"I am." Yami growled. "Because we are housed in our light's bodies, however, their bodies aren't just flowing with light magic, but dark magic, protecting them from the akumas. Kaiba and Jounochi don't have that."

"So, Baka no Pharaoh, you're saying that because the Priest didn't share a body with the mutt, he wasn't able to protect him?"

"That's my best guess, thief."

"Well, Ishizu and Fu still need to come here. Until then, that'll have to do. Now, we need to focus on the mutt and locating him."

"I thought we agreed to let Marinette and her friends take care of that." Yami said. Bakura made a shushing motion with his hands and pointed towards Chloe's bathroom.

Strangely, Kaiba's yells and threats had quieted down. He raised an eyebrow at Bakura, wondering what the tomb robber was up to.

"Of course." He said a little louder than normal. "They do know how to track down akumas, but for all we know he could be hiding in the shadow realm. Just because we can now both use our magic at the same time, doesn't mean that their magic is able to penetrate through ours and vise-versa. Assume the low-life mutt Katsuya has enough brains in his head to understand that, and that Hawkmoth is leading him on a tight leash. In that case, we'd have to use our shadow magic to find the idiot."

'Yami, look.' Yugi specifically brought to Yami's attention the steadily growing magic aura coming from the bathroom.

Oh.

"That's true." Yami admitted with a knowing smirk, looking directly at the bathroom. Bakura did as well. "I just hope that Jounochi will be alright."

"Please." Bakura scoffed. "The idiot couldn't even tell his left from his right! That d*** mutt is probably letting Mr. Butterfly over here drag him all over the place, doing his dirty work. Suits the lowlife." Yami scowled a bit, opened his mouth to say something, but that was when something on the aura in the bathroom snapped. The door was knocked down, and a very angry, icy cold Kaiba emerged with Shadow magic gathering around his arms, a Khopesh of sorts in his hands. Bakura clapped his hands.

"Great show, priest." Bakura tilted his head in question, which seemed to infuriate Kaiba. "Did you have something to say?" Kaiba stalked up to Bakura and growled.

"Only I'm allowed to call the pup a mutt." He said in a low, dangerous voice.

"Duly noted." Bakura smirked. "By the way, congratulations on finally being able to grasp your magic." He shot a look at Yami, and Yami nodded. "Why don't you go back in and practice with it?"

"No one tells me what to do." He moved to walk toward the exit. "I'm going to find the pup."

"Really?" Bakura raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "No matter." He and Yami activated their own magic, and two against one- professionals against newbies- placed Kaiba back in the bathroom, locked the door, and reinforced it with a weak spell.

"What will we do when he gets out again?" Yami asked, already feeling Kaiba chipping away at the reinforcement spell.

"Place a stronger one on. Maybe even add a few traps. Best way to learn is by doing." Yami hummed.

"And that's the real reason why you were pacing earlier?"

"I told you that we needed Kaiba, and this is why."

'Isn't Kaiba hearing all of this right now?' Yugi asked.

'No, because when you reinforce something with shadow magic, it makes it harder to hear what's going on on the other side.' He explained. 'He will hear us talking, yes, but he won't be able to hear what we're talking about. He's probably assumed that we were continuing to talk about Jounochi.'

'Oh. Ok. By the way, Ishizu is here.' Yami jumped and cursed.

"What? Is something wrong, Pharaoh?" Bakura mocked.

"Ishizu is here." Yami moved to walk out of the room. "I'm gonna bring Marik in here for you to babysit- he needs practice as well."

"I'm not a bloody babysitter!"

"Would you rather face Ishizu?"

"..."

"I thought so." Yami peeked his head out of the room only to see Marik, looking like Malik, standing in front of the mirror. "Oi, tomb keeper, go into the other room. The thief's going to be watching you while I take care of something."

"Okie! I get to hang out with fluffy!"

"MY NAME IS NOT FLUFFY!" Yami rolled his eyes and moved to walk downstairs and to the main lobby of the hotel.

Ishizu had been out and about most of the day, so the fact that she was here now meant that she was finally going to get her answer.

And it wasn't going to be pretty.

Bakura had explained his basic plan to Yami, as far as Ishizu and Fu went, anyway. Although he hated this, the promise he made with Bakura an hour or two ago kinda had him with his back to a wall and a wall full of spikes coming at him if he didn't cooperate.

Besides, now that he thought about it, Yugi had been in danger multiple times while he had been in charge while Ryou remained safe. This time, the situation was flipped. He could live with it.

Ishizu was giving everyone weird looks, but her eyes focused on Yami instantly. She stood up straighter and bowed.

"Do not bow to me." Yami said. "We must hurry and talk in private. Jou's life could be on the line, and we have some questions that need to be answered." Ishizu nodded and led them to her room, wich was much more private than anything else they had.

"I see that the tomb robber isn't with you." She commented calmly.

"Nino, Alya, why don't you two go outside and bring Master Fu back here when he comes over?" Marinette suggested.

"I'm on it!"

"Good luck, dude." Nino told Yami before leaving. Yami almost smiled with the support, but remembered that he needed to keep his stone face up and simply nodded.

"Pharaoh, I'm pleased that you have sought me out." Ishizu said the moment they were gone. "I can only suppose that you are now ready to go and search for your memories?"

"Before I answer your request." Yami said sternly, sounding just like a king. "I must know why you kept it secret from Malik that he is a hikari. You know very well that if a yami dies, a hikari is left to either be suicidal or locked away in a mental asylum, and vise versa."

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Yes you do! Don't lie to me, Ishizu!" Yami growled, before taking a deep breath. "You had even told me once that there were four hikaris in total, just as there are four yamis."

"My pharaoh, clearly you have a faulty memory-"

"You think I don't know that?!" Yami exclaimed, and Ishizu winced, just realizing what she had said. Chloe would've snickered if she was here, but she was currently distracting her father from the three men in her room, and now the four people in the suite below her's. "Who do you take me for? An idiot?! I know a shadow-wielder when I see one- and the fact that it's two spirits in one body is more than enough proof! I want the truth, Priestess, and if you don't give it to me, I have enough proof to say the truth right here, right now." He continued to stare her down, despite her jaw hanging open slightly.

"Dang." Adrien muttered. Marinette quickly hit him over the head. "Ow!"

"Shhh!"

"My Pharaoh." Ishizu cleared her throat, straightening her back and giving Yami her own glare. "I have told you no such lies."

"Very well then." Yami's glare became more harsh, just on the edge on glaring daggers. "After Battle City, you feared of what would happen should Malik discover that he was the hikari to Marik, who had been sent to the shadow realm. Not wanting to make your brother go through that, you found a way to stop Marik from coming back. In order to take him away permanently, you decided that me sending myself to the afterlife in order to get my memories would be the best, seeing as it would send the other spirits with me and permanently separate Marik from Malik."

"My Pharaoh, this is absurd-"

"No, it isn't, Ishizu." Yami said. "We have two experts in this very room who are older than me that can tell you otherwise."

"Those teenagers?" Ishizu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, Yami's talking about us." Tikki and Plagg flew out from Marinette and Adrien's coat pockets. Ishizu gasped. "We're kwamis, demigod like creatures that grant powers to those who are worthy to wield us."

"The link between yami and hikari is even present in our relationship, and those of our chosen." Plagg said, a bit annoyed. "Our chosen are usually tied by the red string of fate. Even if they are fighting against each other, if one of them were to die, the other would either go insane or suicidal, even if they had never met before."

"We've lived through it." Tikki continued. "We've seen all sorts of outcomes. So far, our current chosen are the best reaction wise and emotionally stable."

"But-"

"Silly seer, the only reason you can't see us in your visions is because your magic neutralizes our magic traces, making you invisible to us, and vise versa." Plagg laughed a bit, ignoring Tikki's eye roll. Ishizu scowled, clearly not liking being backed into a corner like this.

"That still doesn't-"

"Stop fighting to keep your lie intact." Plagg stated sternly. "We already know that and we need to confront it in order to be able to explain on a more serious note what is going on. Do you want your long awaited answer or not?" Yami suddenly had a lot more respect for the kwami, as Ishizu seemed to snap.

"Fine! Yes, I did, and yes, that was my reasoning, but you wouldn't be able to understand. You have no younger siblings who have suffered from this!"

"We have had our chosen suffer tenfold what you are inflicting upon your younger brother." Tikki said softly. "Not to mention that Jounochi is suffering too."

"What do you mean?" Ishizu asked. "What does Katsuya have to do with this?"

"Ishizu, Jounochi is Kaiba's hikari." Was all that Yami said.

"What?"

"Yeah, the mutt is the stuffy prick's hikari, and he got akumatized." Plagg said. Yami felt a flare of shadow magic from above and sighed.

"Please do not call Jounochi a dog unless you want Kaiba to storm in here and attempt to strangle you." Ishizu's eyes widened considerably, and Plagg just raised a sceptic eyebrow.

"Attempt? He wouldn't even be able to try." He said seriously.

"I don't think the mayor would appreciate his ceiling being torn down by someone who had just unlocked his shadow magic." Plagg shrugged and began to float lazily in the air, bored already.

"Whatever."

"Kaiba has unlocked his shadow magic?" Ishizu asked, impressed.

"Yes." Yami nodded. "The thief is up there right now, uh, helping him learn how to use it."

"Please tell me that they are not playing a shadow game."

"They are not." Yami clarified.

"What is that other shadow presence that I sense?" Ishizu asked.

"That is Marik, practicing using Shadow Magic while in the body."

"You let him take control of Malik?!"

"We had no choice!" Yami replied instantly. "When we fought Jou when he first became possessed, he managed to hit Ryou and Malik while they were in their bodies. As an effect, they are currently re-living their best and worst memories. Bakura and Marik managed to take over- they're the only ones who can take care of Ryou and Malik without any damage being done."

"I must go up-"

"No."

"What?"

"I said no, you can not go up and see them. With how much Shadow magic is going around, they might as well be in the shadow realm." Ishizu fumed, knowing that she was once again cornered. She could not do anything in the Shadow realm, despite being a Millennium Item bearer.

"Then what do you suggest, Pharaoh?"

"Master Fu should be here soon." He said, hiding the smugness from his voice. He had won, after all. "You will talk with him and share any and all information you two have. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have three unstable shadow wielders to go check on."

"My Pharaoh, if I may ask."

"Yes?"

"What was your answer? To my proposition."

"I refused it the second you suggested it. I would rather stay with my hikari than retrieve my memories."

"I… see."

"Good day, Ishizu." Yami said as he moved to walk out of the room. "I hope that your meeting with Master Fu goes well."

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