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Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

As to the lateness of this chapter….. I have no excuse apart from this… Procrastination, I have been doing that a lot at the moment! :S Naughty Rose I know…

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Chapter 4

"He's been gone awhile now." Tea said.

"It might be worth going to look for him, just in case." Marik said.

Yugi sighed, "Don't." All eyes turned to him, "For all we know he's still angry in which case it is best to let him come back of his own accord. He might be on the way back right now."

There was a moment silence, "Well, Odion has gone to gather some things if when he comes back the Pharaoh has still not returned, then we go to find him."

Yugi sighed. He was concerned about the Pharaoh having been gone so long but the fact was the best thing for the Pharaoh was to come back in his own time. But knowing that he would never get this point across to the others he said nothing.

He was vaguely aware that he was still bleeding he could feel the blood flowing slowly through his limp fingers. But he could not do anything about it, it seemed that he was too weak. The only thing he could hope for was someone, preferably someone on the boat, would find him. He had no idea how long he had been lying there, maybe minutes or hours he did not know. All he could do hope that someone would find him.

Odion walked out of the shop, fiddling with the bag of groceries he had just bought. Walking down the street he was suddenly distracted by alleyway. He did not really understand why he stood there staring at it as it was an alleyway, there was nothing special about it. But then something was telling him that he needed to investigate the alley. Walking into the alleyway he very quickly realised that once in the alley you could not been seen by the main street. He looked around, he still was not quite sure why he had come down here, something had drawn him don't here but it seemed nothing would come of it. As he turned away he saw something in the corner of his eye. He turned to face what he had seen. A boy crumpled on the floor, but the boy looked familiar. Odion drew closer then rushed over to the fallen Pharaoh's side.

"Pharaoh?"

There was no response from the Pharaoh. Odion took in the Pharaoh's appearance, the King was pale. Just then he noticed something wet soaking into the material of his trousers, he looked down. Blood. Odion's eyes widened, it was a lot of blood. His eyes found the blood stained hand of the former Pharaoh, it seemed that it was the abdomen was the site of the injury. Gently, Odion moved the Pharaoh's hand trying to see what state the wound was in. It appeared, for now, the wound was not bleeding. It appeared that moving the hand had stirred the King; his eyes had opened and found Odion.

"My Pharaoh, are you alright?" Odion said.

"I've been better." Was the quiet response.

"Can you walk my Pharaoh? We need to get back to the boat."

"I can."

Odion had to support the Pharaoh, despite stating he was strong enough. If possible the Pharaoh grew paler once on his feet. They set off. It was a painfully slow journey, firstly the Pharaoh wanted to dodge the crowds for reasons he did not explain. Secondly, the Pharaoh was very weak and, although he did not and would not admit, he was in pain.

It was hard to tell how long they walked towards the boat; it could have been minutes or maybe hours. Odion was wrapped up in supporting the fading Pharaoh that he did not notice they were close until there was a cry of:

"Oh crap!"

It was Tristan, having seen the pair approaching and seen the state the Pharaoh was in had rushed over to help.

"What happened, Odion?" Tristan asked, pulling the Pharaoh's arm over his shoulder.

"I don't know, I just found him in an alleyway."

They were very close to the boat but it still took a little while to get there. Atem was fading fast, his wound was oozing blood again and his fading meant that he could not support his on weight. Finally making it to the boat they hoped to quietly get the Pharaoh into his room and fetch Mr Muto but as they arrived the bumped into Téa, who upon seeing the state of the Pharaoh shrieked.

"Oh my God! What has happened?"

"We don't know Téa, let us get him sorted and then we can try to figure this out." Tristan said.

Téa did let them pass but her shriek had attracted the attention of everyone on the boat. It was Joey and Yugi who arrived first. Yugi's face paled in an instant. He was desperate to find out what had happened but right now he needed to find Grandpa, he would be able to help Atem. Leaving Odion and Tristan to settle Atem, he ran around the boat trying to find Grandpa and eventually finding him asleep in a chair.

"Grandpa?" He called.

Grandpa stirred and opened his eyes, "What's wrong Yugi?"

"It's the Pharaoh. He's hurt, badly."

Grandpa got to his feet, "Well, let's take a look then."

Marik paced up and down. He was lost in his own thoughts. Up and down he walked. Then he stopped a thought had just crossed his mind. He'd been thinking about the situation and how the Pharaoh could have got himself into this situation when a thought came to him. What if Zorc had something to do with it? What if everything linked back to him? Marik left the room in a hurry; he had to talk to the Pharaoh. He had just been hurrying up the corridor towards the Pharaoh room when he ran into Yugi.

"Yugi, I need to talk to the Pharaoh."

"You can't. He's resting." Yugi replied, he eyed Marik, "Why?"

"I just…" Marik thought before continuing, "I've just had a thought which I need to talk to him about."

"You'll have to wait. Grandpa doesn't want him disturbed."

Marik sighed. There was no point trying to persuade Yugi to let him through, he would just have to wait.

There was a very odd atmosphere that following morning, apprehension was the word. Yugi stretched and walked towards the main room where everyone would be having something to eat. On the way he passed Atem's room, he found the door was closed. That must mean that he was still sleeping in there. Not that he was surprised, he had heard from Grandpa that Atem had been in bad shape. So with that in mind he was surprised to find the Pharaoh sitting one of the comfy chairs in the main room. He was still incredibly pale but his eyes were alert and, for the moment, seemed to be lost in thought. Yugi sat opposite him which seemed to bring the former King out of his thoughts.

"You alright?" Yugi asked.

"Yes, I'm fine Yugi."

"What happened though?"

At this point Marik moved over to listen as well.

"Zorc took control of me and did this.." He indicated the location of his wound, "to me."

"But how Pharaoh?" Marik asked.

"There is a link between myself and Zorc. He used the darkness in my, which I still have apparently, to get through but that means we are connected, much like our former link Yugi. He can talk to me and injure me but I cannot do the same. I also believe that the reason I have collapsed has something to do with him but I do not know what. What I do know is that Zorc is in Domino City so that's where we need to be."

There was a pause of a moment where only Yugi spotted a flicker of pain flash across the Pharaoh's face.

"Do you know how to stop him?" Marik asked.

Atem sighed, "I do not know. But I'll work it out."

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Well, I meant to have this up yesterday but I fell asleep writing it so it's a day late… My bad!

Please Review!

I hope you enjoyed and I shall see you next time!

~RedRosePetal