I promise, I don't even pretend to own the characters or anything. I just pretend I can write about their lives.

Seto had a triumphant gleam in his eye as he finished the beacon. The night had come and gone, with Dmitri and Eliana forced to admit defeat on their mission. Dmitri had switched places with Cole and Eliana was now in the medical center collecting data and helping with patients. The only real question now was how long it would be before they got a response. In actuality, people should be here for him already. He paid them for this, and it wasn't as if the plane had flown into outer space. They should have at least a basic idea of where their boss was.

A lot of heads were going to roll, but for now all they could do was wait- although Seto got to come up with a few cutting remarks for the idiot soon to be ex-employees who had failed.

He looked up as Eliana came in with Yugi, both seeming to hold each other up. Yugi seemed to be protesting, though, until Eliana made the comment "There's a fine line between shirking your duty and getting people killed because you're too tired to do the right things." That shut him up, and both found empty cots (not a hard task) and collapsed.

"How bad is it?" Dmitri asked, tossing the two exhausted teens blankets.

"Bad enough," replied his sister a bit snappishly. An argument might have ensued had she remained in the world of awake, but as it was she was asleep almost before Dmitri could open his mouth to reply.

"She's had a hard time of it. She's working with the little kids, mostly," Yugi interjected sleepily. Dmitri gave a soft 'oh' and moved to tuck the blanket better around his sister.

"How long will you be here for?" "Until I wake up," Yugi replied. Yami was confused (a more and more familiar sensation recently) and Cole explained as Yugi slept, "He has an odd internal alarm. It's like he just knows when he needs to get up, no matter how long he's been sleeping or when." He shook his head. "Trained response, I think. Maybe natural gift, don't even start, Dmitri!" he said, glaring at the teen.

Dmitri 'hmphed' at his lost chance to discuss one of his favorite topics, but satisfied himself with getting some food for the two when they woke up. On Seto's part, he was busying himself with fixing broken electronics. Leanna had come in and was busy compiling all data she had found. It was rough and sparse on solid facts, but it was better than nothing.

They had at last given up any pretense that it was anything but Camp 3 work, although when they had stopped tiptoeing around it Yugi couldn't remember, not that he wanted to. All he really wanted to do was go to sleep, wake up, and have all of this be nothing more than a bad dream. It didn't seem as though he would get much luck in that, though, as he awoke, and wished desperately that he could continue clinging to the dream world.

Things like this almost made him miss dueling for his and/or his friends to be freed from the Shadow Games. 'I have got to get a more normal life,' he thought, as he got up and stretched. Looking around the tent, he saw that Seto had that incredibly concentrated look on his face he got right before…

"Hah!" Seto gave one triumphant laugh, smirking (quite expertly) at the apparently now working electronic he held in his hand. Mokuba was seated beside him, beaming with pride at his brother's accomplishment. "This should really get things moving now," said Mokuba, though Seto just grunted in reply.

Yugi, moving towards the table, raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "I thought you had already gotten the beacon working," he stated rather than asked. "Of course I did, Moutou. This device, however, will allow me to talk directly to the numbskulls I'm about to call ex-employees who are supposed to be here by now." Yugi nodded with over-exaggerated understanding. "Right. I think I'll just leave you to it."

Shaking the last bit of sleep from his head, Yugi left the tent to fight the never-ending and seemingly hopeless battle against whatever this cursed disease was. He never noticed his Yami's very worried eyes watching him leave.

"A bit odd that he wouldn't even notice you," Seto stated, blunt as ever. Yami snorted, but in truth he was as worried as Seto was about Yugi. And yes, that statement was about as worried as Seto would ever show (bar emotion-inducing painkillers) about anyone besides his brother. This was wearing Yugi down, physically and emotionally. It was increasingly difficult to stay here, doing nothing when every instinct screamed at him to get his hikari somewhere- anywhere- but here.

He also knew that his aibou's kind and loyal nature would never let that be. He moved to sit beside a very much concentrating Leanna, who also didn't notice his presence. Idly, he read over her shoulder some of the figures- and stopped cold. Grabbing the notes, he looked carefully at it again. "Seto," he said sharply. Angry eyes glared at him. "What? I'm actually doing something-"

"Give it to Mokuba, he can talk better than you can. This is something you'll know, and will likely find interesting." Yami gave him a challenging look. Seto complied, though he did so with bad grace. "What, Yami?" he half sneered half grunted. "Do these numbers look anything like-"

"Playing card stats? Yes, they do. Where did these come from?" He asked a startled Leanna. She shrugged. "They came in over the radio a few days before the deaths started. Nobody knew what they meant, but unexplained things tend to be important, so they were copied down anyway. I needed paper but there's not much to spare around here, so I used the back for the information I gathered."

Seto and Yami glanced at each other. The cards indicated- or at least, as far as they could tell from the abbreviations used- were not 'nice' monsters like Dark Magician Girl. Someone was sending a message- this was personal, and it looked as though the crash in the Kaiba plane was not an accident after all.

"Right," said Mokuba, breaking up the dark moment slightly. "People should be here before nightfall." Seto nodded. It looked as though he still wasn't through fighting for ownership of the Kaiba Corporation. Fine. He never backed down from a challenge, and this one was getting far too personal. No-one messes around with the Kaiba brothers and gets away with it. He watched Mokuba, still cheerful despite the gloomy surroundings. Any threats to his brother would be put down immediately. It's what he did.

Right. Umm...I am SO sorry. I meant to update this well over a year ago...But here it is, the next chapter. And I think I finally know how to end it, too! Thanks if you're still reading, and yes, the reviews helped guilt me into continuing...