See it's a little faster this time! But then again I've been camping with my boyfriend and his friends. Which is super fun 80% of the time. But the other 20% I'm realizing just how stupid guys can be... Personally I don't see the interest in trying to kill myself. I like to call that my "run away to the Starbucks in town and do some writing" time.

Special thanks to vampiregirl 31, DemonKittyAngel and Bonnie-San for beta-ing this. And double thanks to Bonnie-San again for helping me through the Bakura section. It's hard to keep Bakura in character when your making him a good-ish guy. This becomes even more difficult when your trying to give him a sappy moment.

Ryou stumbled as he ran forward, the sudden change in his balance causing the stitch in his side to be thrown into a more noticeable existence. The sharp stabbing pain that spread up his spine with fiery precision caused a hitch in his breath, making it impossible to breathe. But he wasn't getting enough air into his lungs as it was, and his muscles began to burn from the exertion as his jaw began to tingle.

Ryou had never been much into running. Or physical activity in general. A waste of time, energy, and the general uncomfortable feeling one gained was just not worth it in his opinion. But Ryou was far past caring about how his body felt at the moment. Despite the fact his body was screaming for him to stop and catch his breath, Ryou kept running. He had to get away. Away from the heat, the suppressive air of the caves. Away from Bakura and Malik.

Just away.

Further and further he ran, taking sharp turns, and traveling deeper into the caverns than he had ever dared to before, in fear of getting lost. Left, right, straight, left... Ryou wasn't paying attention anymore. The stones were nothing more than a brown blur, the sandy floor which his shoes skidded against may have been as smooth a surface as cement for all he noticed. Torches lined the walls, the only light source in these dark tunnels. But he couldn't see even their burning light, everything was black.

Water blurred in his eyes, and it burned as it flowed down his cheeks in constant rivers. The liquid flowed into Ryou's open mouth as he gasped in another panting breath, causing him to choke on the salty tears. He spluttered for a moment, choking in blind panic, and his foot caught underneath his weight, rolling painfully out from beneath him.

Ryou collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap, unable to move from the spot he had fallen. His lungs burnt as if some had forced him to breathe in a lit match, and his legs felt like an odd cross between lead and jello. Somewhere in the back of Ryou's mind that impulse to run remained, but his body was no longer responding. So he lay there gasping and moaning like a lost child.

Shakily Ryou rolled onto his side, and drew his knees up to his chest, tucking himself up into a tight ball. The pain in his heart was too much... too much to deal with right now. It made him nauseous... Ryou could feel his stomach churning as he rolled in tighter, could feel the acid burning in his throat.

Not since Amane had Ryou ever felt anything like this. The death of his little sister had nearly killed him. The loss of Yugi may as well finish him off.

More than a friend. Yugi understood everything about him, what he was going through with Bakura. Understood the feeling of suddenly blacking out and never knowing when you woke up how many people had been hurt. Never knowing if they had ended up dead or insane just for the crime of talking the wrong way to you. Never knowing if it was you that was going insane... Nobody else understood, the feeling of having to control and maintain the sanity of a figure that could quite effectively destroy the entire world. Having a Dark could at times make life unbearable, yet you wouldn't give it away for anything.

Ryou had thought the same about Yugi. So much so, in fact that Ryou had admitted rather sheepishly to being envious of Yami no Yugi's presence when Yugi and he had been talking so long ago. Ryou had said that he would have given an arm and a leg to have a dark that wasn't hell bent on robbing and killing anything that moved. Ryou couldn't hide his desire, his craving to have that kind of protecting, loving figure in his life.

To this day Ryou could still feel the immense confusion that had bubbled in his chest as Yugi's disbelieving snort transformed into barely concealed giggles. Protective? Yugi had said that one could take Yami's interactions with Yugi like that. Only if they wanted to sugar coat the word possessive.

"Gods," Yugi had said. "How many of Yami's superhero-esque rescues had only happened because someone somewhere had the audacity to touch that which belonged to the Pharaoh." Sure Yami had saved the world, played the perfect Hero; he had changed in ways that shouldn't have been possible. But there was so much more that every single one of Yugi's friends over looked.

Ryou's disbelief had still held, Yugi had to have been pulling his leg. Yami, the white haired teen had countered, was the perfect gentle men. One that was not obsessed with excessive violence like Bakura was. Yami only fought when he had to, to protect his loved ones.

After that point, Yugi's laughter went from being barely concealed to uncontrollable. Still laughing, he had pulled free a slightly worn looking spiral bound notebook from his backpack which had lain forgotten at his feet. With shaking hands, Yugi had dropped the book onto the table, before taking a few deep steadying breaths to steady himself.

"Yugi, What's this?" Ryou had asked as he ran his finger over the plain purple cover. The notebook had looked like all the rest of Yugi's school books. Purple cover, white ruled paper. But the book looked thicker than the rest of Yugi's notebooks. As if other pages had been shoved into it.

The ear to ear grin that had been the dramatic after affect from Yugi's impromptu laughing fit slipped from his features, and his expression became solemn and reflective in the space of a second. "I took it from my locker when you said you wanted to talk." Yugi had said in a flat tone as he opened the notebook on his lap. "This was my sanity for an unfortunate amount of time between solving the millennium Puzzle and Duelist Kingdom."

Ryou had been so confused, as he leaned over to look at the slightly worn pages. Carefully he had taken the notebook out of Yugi's lap and dropped it down onto his own. The pages were crinkled and they rustled as Ryou begun to leaf through the pages. Yugi had filled the entire thing with newspaper clippings, and a few odds and ends that barely seemed to make sense in any context. A solid gold ankh cufflink, a slightly bent Queen of Spades card, a piece of cloth so burnt and so dark that he could barely see the original orange colour. If those hadn't been confusing enough, Ryou found himself struggling to understand the articles.

"Local teen pleads insanity after assaulting high-school janitor for stealing... a pile of leafs?"

"Convicted felon spontaneously combusts at local dinner. Witness provides answers fit for fairy tales."

"Registered sex offender found dead in local warehouse."

"5th admission to mental ward in weeks causes local psychologists to raise the alarm."

"Monster Fighter System recalled after student is seriously injured at Domino High school."

"Substitute teacher at Domino High School collapses screaming. Panic attack sources say."

The list had gone on and on, to the point where Ryou no longer bothers to read the articles, instead he had only skimmed the headlines. Something about a shop keeper... and a scorpion? Were there even Scorpions in Domino? The colour had left Ryou's face, leaving the already ghost like teen with an ash like complexion. "Yugi? What is this!"

The question had been the exact same as the one before, right down to the last syllable. But the inflection asked an entirely new question. Not out of curiosity, but of concern and apprehension. Yugi had sighed, leaning forward to flip to the last page of the notebook. A list of names stood stark clear, written in hasty, shaky black ink. As if the writer at the time had been unable to keep his hand steady.

"I started working on this notebook... a few days after playing our first Dark game against Bakura." Yugi had said, his voice so soft that Ryou had to strain to hear the whisper, despite sitting shoulder to shoulder with his friend.

"That was when I saw Yami for the first time, saw that look in his eye when Bakura was putting me in danger. At the time I didn't truly get what it meant, but I understood well enough to start to connect the dots."

Yugi had fallen silent, So Ryou nudged his friend in the ribs, gently persuading Yugi to continue. For a moment an echoing exhale was the only response Ryou received before Yugi started to speak once more. "The random blackouts, the new expensive stuff hidden in the back of my closest; leather pants, boots, chains. Things like knives and lighters that I most definitely had no recollection of buying. The realization that if someone had hurt me or my friends... whoever it was, no matter how minor the action, I wasn't going to see them the next day. I was so scared Ryou... you know the feeling. Never knowing what your body would end up doing when you closed your eyes. So I decided to keep track. I had no idea what I intended to do with the thing... but it helped.

Ryou ran had run a soft finger against the words written so haphazardly, some almost intelligible in places, where others were as stark and clear as day.

Seto Kaiba for one.

"Kaiba was one of many, and one of the only ones to recover..." Yugi had replied to Ryou's unspoken question. "I'm not one hundred percent sure what happened there, but for some reason Yami almost seemed to calm down a bit. Now that I think about it, after that I started to accept Yami's presence. The black outs lessened, as did the random deaths and disappearances."

Yugi sighed again, leaning further back into the leather sofa in Ryou's living room, his arms wrapped loosely around his knees. "When I wrote that book, the list was a lot longer than I had originally expected. Everywhere I turned some other person had gone insane or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I had singlehandedly raised Domino's violent crime rate. I felt so scared and sorry, but I couldn't bring myself to be angry at Mou Hitori no Boku...

"I was able to forgive him so easily. In a way I felt guilty, as if I was trying to condemn him. So I kept the notebook in my locker at school... I never intend for Mou Hitori no Boku to see it. I mean he's so much better now. He hasn't actually created a dark game in ages. In a way it's kind of like the more I trusted Mou Hitori no Boku, and accepted his presence in my life... the more sane he became." Yugi paused, leaning back as he tipped his neck against the back of the couch, leaning his head to the ceiling. "I think that's going to be your answer with Bakura, Ryou. Because, even though Yami never hurt me as he hurt you, and I am not even going to try and insert myself into that little circle; his body count is just as bad, if not longer than Bakura's."

Ryou owed Yugi everything. Yet to repay him, Ryou had done nothing but stared as his friend was carried off by people that bared nothing but ill-intentions.

"It's over Ryou..."

A chocked sob ripped its way through clenched teeth, and Ryou felt blood swell into his mouth from where he had bit his lip to try and keep the sound inside of himself. There was no use however as sob after sob followed after its brother, taking complete control of Ryou's body.

Yugi was dead!

Every ounce of Ryou was attempting to scream in denial. There was no way that Yugi could be dead. It wasn't possible. Not Yugi. Not pull-through-at-the-last-second-every-time Yugi. It just didn't compute. Those words cycled their way through his system and reality was pounding against him with the force of a tsunami.

Dead!

Dead!

Yugi was Dead!

This wasn't like every time in the past. Usually Yugi would do something stupid and kick everyone else into finishing whatever job they were supposed to be doing, to take back control from the manic bent on destroying everything. This time however, the only instructions Yugi had given them was to stay away.

"Ryou?"

Yugi was dead! And it was all their fault. If only they had been able to fight for a little longer. If Ryou had been able to have some control over the light that the ring had granted him. If only these... wizards had left them alone. If only...

"Ryou!"

There were hands on his shoulders, Ryou noted blankly. They were holding him, lifting him up into a sitting position. Ryou's stomach churned as his centre of gravity shifted, and another ripping sob carried its way through his open lips.

One of the hands on his shoulders shifted slightly, moving to awkwardly rub circles into his back. The motion was jerky, not assured, made by a person that was not exactly well versed in the art of comforting. At the moment however, Ryou couldn't care less. He tilted his head to the side and buried it into the soft warmth of whoever was holding him up. The scent of sand and spices met his nose as Ryou pressed his cheek into the lilac material of the person's shirt.

Malik.

A small gasp slipped through the tomb keeper's lips as Ryou lurched forward, removing his body from Malik's support to wrap his arms around the teen. Malik struggled against the sudden vice grip, feeling the normally quiet and reserved Ryou starting to squeeze the air from his lungs.

Yet as the white haired boy's tears started to soak through the material of his hooded shirt, Malik realized that Ryou needed the physical contact. With a small sigh, Malik once again shifted to wrap his arms to loosely wrap around Ryou's back.

Ryou choked, and held on even tighter to Malik, continuing to sob helplessly. All Malik could do was sit and hold his friend. This was not his thing... comforting another person. It never had been. Normally he was on the 'go beat the crap out of whoever hurt you in the first place' team. Yugi was the one who would sit here, wrap his arms around Ryou and calm him down. The small light knew precisely what to say in this kind of situation.

Malik wasn't Yugi, and they both knew it.

Malik shuddered, feeling an icy cold hand wrap around him. Suddenly his own shaking started to mix with that of Ryou's. He couldn't control himself, despite the fact Malik knew that right now he needed to be strong, he was shaking like a leaf from the force of his emotions.

Yugi...

With a shuddering gasp, Ryou fought to regain control. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head from Malik's shoulder, and slowly unwound himself from his friend's self-conscious embrace. Yet just as Ryou was trying desperately to get control of his emotions, Malik was starting to break down.

Yugi meant more to them then either boy was willing to admit. Getting close to other people was dangerous, something both Ryou and Malik had learned on more than one occasion. Yet Yugi had welcomed them both into his life when they both needed it... without a moment's hesitation Yugi had let them into the Kame Game shop.

Now he was gone.

Water was starting to fall across Malik's face, he could feel the liquid stream across his cheeks. With a shaking hand, the one that Ryou finally let him have back, Malik raised his hand back up to his cheek, and ran his fingers over the wet skin.

The fact he was crying was a huge surprise.

They sat there like that for several minutes, clinging to each other. Ryou struggling to regain control of his emotions, to rationalize everything that was happening. Malik trying to understand what was happening, why he was, in fact crying. Maybe not quite as openly as Ryou, but crying all the same. Which was not something that he had done in a long... long time.

There was no denying the fact however, that he was crying. No denying that the news of Yugi's death could bring him to that state. For Malik could barely understand, he may have started to spend more and more time with the teen, but in truth, Malik knew nothing about him.

Only that it hurt far more than it should have to hear that he was gone.

"I'm sorry about this." Ryou finally said, taking a large shuddering breath through his mouth, still unable to even consider breathing through his nose. It was the first statement either boy had said in nearly ten minutes, and it shattered the awkward silence that had filled the air. Ryou's voice was horse and nasally from his crying, and his cheeks where cherry red from the tears, a sharp contrast to his tangled mass of pale white hair.

As awkward as the silence had been, hanging in the air like a leaden weight, the sound of silence had absolutely nothing on the expression of Malik's face. When Ryou's face finally drew up to meet Malik's own, the blonde teen hastily moved his hand up to his face and wiped away the lone tear that stubbornly clung to his eyelash.

Malik could only hope that Ryou hadn't seen. If Ryou had however, he was keeping silent about the embarrassing ordeal.

"Don't be sorry." Malik said gruffly in return to Ryou's statement. It was then that Malik realized that his arms were still wrapped around his friend. He stared at the limbs for a moment, before letting them drop awkwardly to his side, hanging like lead weights. "Bakura shouldn't have dealt with Yugi's de... this the way he did. He such a jackass sometimes."

Malik couldn't bring himself to say the word death. Even though he was supposed to be the tough guy, the insane one with no sense of emotional attachment. Here he was, the future dictator of the entire world and he was afraid of a single word. One single, and horribly final, word.

Despite Malik's stumble however a small chuckle was able to make its way through Ryou's lips. "It's not his fault." Ryou said, smacking his fist lightly against Malik's chest in mock violence. "He just doesn't handle things like this very well."

The hand stayed perched on Malik's chest however, the momentary flicker of light humour that had filled the air, disappearing like a candle in the wind. Malik could only watch with sad eyes as the fist on his shirt clenched tightly, the only thing preventing Ryou's finger nails from digging into the teens sensitive skin was the thin material of Malik's shirt. "He can't handle things like worrying, death and dying. Because of the way he was forced to 'grow up'."

Malik winced at Ryou's word choice, the usage of the unwritten taboo words that Malik had so carefully danced around but Ryou didn't notice. "He gets angry, and closed off, forgets that just saying things like they don't matter hurts everyone else, just like he used to be. He pretends like he doesn't care that it hurts not only us, but himself as well."

A sharp shudder ran down Malik's body, but he realized quickly that it wasn't his own. "Oh Malik..." Ryou cried, looking up to the blond with wide, teary eyes. "Do you really think he's gone?"

"I..." Malik paused. It would be so easy to lie. To hold off the unavoidable pain until there was actually concrete proof that this was actually happening. They had nothing more to go on beside the fact the ring was unable to pick up on Yugi's signature. Excuses started to run through Malik's mind like fire crackers.

He escaped, and is in hiding like we are. Suppressing his magic to hide himself from the wizards, so even the ring can't find him.

There's too much background magic for the ring to pick out one unique thread.

We're too far away to pick up Yugi's signature.

The underground is designed to be secret. Something in the walls is stopping Bakura's magic from leaving.

Who was he kidding? There was no time left to try and make excuses like this. Bakura was right, this was the real world. Not the dolled up fairy tale they had been living in for the last little while. They knew the ring worked in the caves, tested it the first day they got here. There was no chance that Yugi had managed to escape his captors, not with how diligent those men appeared. Chances were that after Yugi lived out his usefulness, or more likely they finally gave up on trying to break the runt, there would be absolutely no reason to keep him alive.

"Yes Ryou, I really do."

The chair splintered on contact with the wall. Spindled legs flew in a flurry of wooden chips before they fell to the ground in a pile of broken chunks. There was a low guttural growl from the shadows of the opposite corner. The hulking forest green exoskeleton of the Man Eater Bug leapt forward, slashing its claws through the remains of its prey before throwing the arm rest against the opposite wall once more.

The long blades of Man Eater Bug's hands rustled against each other, making a sickly screech as its eyeless face surveyed the room. It may have been messy and disorganized a few minutes ago, but that had nothing on the devastation now. Especially as Man Eater Bug advanced on the bookcase that stood beside the doorway.

There was an almighty crash as the book case toppled. Books and trinkets went sailing across the floor as the wood groaned, cracking along its middle. Man Eater Bug advanced on the remains, shredding its claws through the sturdy wood, leaving long grooves into even the stone floor beneath them. Wood and metal filled the air with deadly shards. But the only other occupant of the drop zone paid it no heed. Instead Bakura leaned against the far wall with his head down. He didn't even look up as a metal shard as long as his hand whistled through the air, striking the wall a mere centimetre from his ear. The makeshift dagger quivered, its tip buried into the sandstone.

"You useless piece of crap." Bakura seethed as his finger's tightened around the smooth gold. "Find Yugi Motou!"

Nothing

"Find the Millennium Puzzle!"

Nothing

Not a god damned thing. Not even a drop of reaction that could reveal an ounce of information as to where the midget and his bauble could be.

The door looked like it had been hit by a shrapnel bomb, as more and more wood and metal embedded into the previously sturdy door. Man Eater Bug hissed as wickedly sharp teeth ground together, its knife blade fingers lobbing and more shrapnel got stuck in the door. The pieces where getting longer and more deadly by the moment, escalated by Bakura's rising temper.

Bakura was angry. He was seething, livid, pissed at everything. At the Millennium Ring, the tombs, the wizards, and most specifically he was pissed at Yugi. Stupid brat, if he had given them five more minutes Bakura knew that he and Yami could have come up with a dark game. Conners had stepped out into the open, it would have been so easy. Yes he was completely ignoring that he hadn't thought of that idea at the time. But if that idiotic light had just given them a few more minutes then... Bakura could have!

Why did he care about this? Why was he trying to find the runt in the first place? The only purpose that light had in life was the Pharaoh. Bakura had even tried to kill him on more than one occasion. So why on Earth was Bakura stuck in this forsaken hell, getting all worked up over something that didn't matter in the slightest? So what if Yugi was missing or dead. It didn't matter!

There was no solid furniture left in the room now and Man Eater Bug turned his attention to the books that covered the floor. An ancient and probably priceless leather bound volume was instantly felled as it collided with the sharp edge of the long since destroyed desk. The spine split upon impact and the pages flew everywhere, ripped apart as soon as they came into Man Eater Bug's range.

The only reason why Bakura had even bothered to hang around was because Yami actually thought that he could boss Bakura around like he was still Pharaoh. Well he wasn't, and some short little twerp could not boss him around!

Who was he kidding? Yami hadn't ordered him to do anything. Nobody had, yet here he was, fighting with his worthless Millennium item... alone. Bakura glared at the Millennium ring, his breathing harsh and ragged in the destroyed room. Man Eater Bug's head swivelled around from the beautiful engraved, gold inlaid leather book cover it had been hacking apart. The once tough material fluttered to the ground like the finest of rice papers, the gristly sinew destroyed. The illusionary body flickered as Bakura's attention slipped away before disappearing completely as Bakura's drive for keeping it there dissolved.

Almost like coming down from a high, the anger slipped from Bakura's grasp like water into parched earth. It seemed to leave him with nothing as his bones suddenly felt hollow, leaving Bakura unwilling to remain standing.

He sank down onto the floor, his feet falling to rest against the ruined chair. The abused wood groaned under the slight weight, threatening to give out. But Bakura ignored it as he ran his hands through his hair, clenching his fingers. Bakura's nails dug into the tender flesh of his scalp, sending sharp shooting pains into his system. They where ones that Bakura relished however, and he focused on the feeling, using it to drown out the internal pain.

This was asinine, pathetic. This was Ryou. But no matter how hard Bakura tried to ignore it, Bakura couldn't deny the pan he was feeling. Pain that he shouldn't have been feeling, and under any normal circumstances he would have run anyone who suggested it through. Bakura slumped forward, his elbows digging into his knees, his fingers practicality sinking into his skull in an attempt to actually have a rational thought.

Bakura could remember the last time he had felt this kind of emotion. This slow aching pain that radiated from his core. The one that came from the knowledge you would never see a person again. Last time the results had been cataclysmic in a far too literal sense. Looking up, Bakura surveyed the room before him, taking in the damage to his domain. The amount of time and work that Ryou and Bakura had spent cleaning this room had completely gone to waste. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. But Bakura hadn't noticed before, all he had seen was red.

Yet as he sat here, that anger was beginning to swell once more. No matter what Bakura tried, his thoughts gravitated to the fight in the game shop, and Yami's final words after being sent here. Over and over again the events repeated themselves on a continuous loop, and Bakura couldn't shake them. Even as they added fuel to the fire.

Bakura's fist flew into the wall as he leapt to his feet. The stone crumbled underneath Bakura's fist, spider web cracks spreading out from the small dent. Dust settled along Bakura's knuckles, and he hissed as he felt the bones shift and snap underneath the skin. He swore, loud and without filter at the pain, holding the damaged limb to his chest as he launched a kick at the chair remains. It sailed into the offending wall, the remains of the once sturdy wooden chair shattering into a hundred pieces.

Whirling around Bakura glared at the remains of the table, seeing the ring dangling from an upturned shard of wood that stood vertically along the split along the centre. "I asked for one thing!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, grabbing the ring by its cord, preparing to throw it as well. The ring swung along the cord, shining in the torch light to rest against Bakura's raised arm. "To find that little royal pain in the arse! Is that too much to fucking ask!"

As the edge of the cord began to fall free of Bakura's grasp, he nearly jumped a foot in the air as the metal warmed up against his skin. In mid throw, Bakura reached up with his broken hand, grunting as the damaged knuckles where forced to move and grab the ring in mid flight. The ring dangled right in front of Bakura's eyes as the cord slipped to a far more comfortable position on his wrist. Bakura stared at the metal as if it had suddenly turned pink.

The triangle centred inside the ring was glowing faintly. If Bakura hadn't been staring at it he probably wouldn't have noticed it. His eyebrow rose however as he felt a faint current of magic beginning to reach his mind. It was foreign magic, but so similar to Ryou's that Bakura recognized it instantly. Normally Yugi's energy burnt like a star, but instead it was faint so faint, barely brushing against Bakura's mind as it was funnelled in by the Ring . It was flickering, wavering to the point where Bakura knew it was going to disappear without a moment's notice. Nor did the pointers that hung from the lower ring do more than shudder, giving no hint as to where Yugi could be.

But what did that matter? If the ring was beginning to respond to Yugi then something had changed. Bakura didn't know what, and in all honesty, he didn't care. Bakura slid the worn leather around his neck, feeling the comfortable weight settle. He cupped the ring in his unbroken hand, holding it up into the light, leaving the pointers to move. "Find the Millennium Puzzle!"

All at once the ring went from zero to a hundred as it began to shine a brilliant gold, light erupting from the eye in the center. The pointers swirled in a large circle; once, twice, thrice until it came to a shuddering halt to the left. They hung there, dead still, suspended in mid air even as the glow flashed brighter before dimming down and inward.

As the outward energy, dissipated, Bakura could feel it beginning to press against his mind. Gentle whispers came from the ring, layering in his mind forming more pictures than words. Specifics that slowly formed the location he had been searching for. Rolling, rocking, grass covered hills. Thick, damp forest where the trees blanketed even a ray of light. A large stone castle that towered in a quiet setting, yet seemed to belong there. Even from a distant image Bakura could see the remainders of magic clinging to the masonry, the very stones where steeped in it.

The results seemed anti climatic after the days of fighting and struggling, but it meant so much more. Scotland... The puzzle was in Scotland, completed and whole. If the puzzle was whole that meant that Yami was there was well. There was no way that the wizards had figured out the puzzle this quickly. Not when it had taken Yugi, the one destined to solve it, close to a decade to solve the thing. So if the puzzle had been solved, then Yugi was, at the very least functioning enough to solve it. Functioning meant alive. And alive meant Ryou might actually speak to Bakura again.

Win.

Wasting no time, Bakura left the destroyed room, leaving the disaster behind him. Barely knowing where his feet where taking him, Bakura nudged the link he shared with Ryou, using that to find his way to his landlord. Ryou had managed to make good time. Or Bakura had been stuck in his room for longer than he had thought. Bakura could barely recognize where he was, despite having wondered the caves in all the free time he had. There was a lot of loot buried down here, hidden treasures from years of tomb keeping. Bakura had barely made a scratch in the amount, and already he had a fortune for the ages.

It was another left and a good five minute walk before Bakura finally caught up to where Ryou and Malik where. An extended wall blocked Bakura's sight, but he could hear them both before sight became an issue.

Bakura slowed his steps as he approached the corner, seeing Ryou and Malik a few feet away. Ryou was on his knees, his face a flushed mess of tears. Malik, Bakura noticed wasn't much better as he knelt beside Ryou, an arm thrown haphazardly over Ryou's shoulder. It was almost comical, in Bakura's new found good mood, to see Malik sobbing like a little girl. Malik was trying to keep it under-control, but Bakura could see the way he shook. Once they got this show on the road, Bakura was going to make sure that he never lived this moment down.

"Are you guys done? Or shall I fetch a mop?"

Ryou and Malik sprang apart, flinging themselves at least a foot in the opposite direction as Bakura stepped into the light. Ryou tripped over his foot on the way down, his feet becoming tangled underneath him, landing roughly on his rump. Malik managed at least a drop more decorum, but not much more as he stumbled against the far wall, clutching at his chest.

"What the hell Bakura!" Malik snapped, his cheeks bright red with embarrassment and anger as he roughly ran his arms against his cheeks in a desperate attempt to clean his face. Probably in hopes that Bakura wouldn't notice.

Too late for that.

"What?" Bakura asked innocently as Ryou sat up once more, his glare icy, demanding to know what was going on. He was still mad at Bakura from before, and this wasn't helping matters in the slightest. But Ryou never said anything, just watched his other through dark, puffy, hurt eyes. Bakura almost lost his train of thought as Ryou's side of the link slid open, and his lights residual anger and pain washed over him. Bakura ignored it however, it wasn't his fault that Ryou didn't know what was going on. So instead Bakura's expression went from blank to disdainful, his lip curling into a sneer. "So are you lot going to finish moping any day soon? We do have work to be doing."

Malik growled, his fist clenching angrily. Bakura's straight face broke as a smirk sprung across his face. He couldn't keep it down any longer. But it only seemed to annoy Malik even further as he advanced towards Bakura. "You heartless Bastard" Malik hissed as Bakura dodged the fist that was sailing towards his nose.

Bakura danced to the left as Malik whirled around. "How dare you crack a joke right now? Pass this off as nothing!" Bakura caught the fist this time, his fingers curling around Malik's to keep him there as the blond fought for control of his hand.

"Well it sure beats sitting here crying like some whiny princess when there's things to be done." Bakura taunted as he pushed his arm forward, bending Malik's wrist back onto itself. Malik grimaced at the pain, but didn't say a word in complaint as he tried to gut Bakura with his eyes. "Places to go, buildings to demolish, people to torture... you know, productive things." Malik's eyebrow rose to the ceiling at Bakura's comment, and his arm went limp in Bakura's hold, no longer tense and trying to break Bakura's jaw.

'What are you talking about Bakura?" It was the first thing Ryou had said since Bakura had appeared, and Bakura couldn't help but notice how tired he sounded. There was no energy, no life in Ryou's voice. It sounded like he had given up completely.

Letting go of Malik, Bakura walked over to his light, reaching down to grab onto Ryou's wrists. With little effort, he pulled Ryou onto his feet, wrapping an arm around the back of Ryou's neck, pulling him close. Ryou did nothing to help, not even reach towards Bakura's arm to try and loosen the awkward pressure along the back of his neck.

Bakura leaned closer, pressing his lips to Ryou's ear. "It worked" He whispered, feeling Ryou shiver slightly from the funny feeling. Ryou's eyes grew huge, as Bakura guided his hands to the ring around Ryou's neck.

"It worked?" Ryou questioned, his voice breathless as he held the ring up. His brown eyes flickered from the ring to Bakura then to Malik. The latter was frozen, a goofy grin spread across his face as he stared back. "Where!"

"Scotland" Bakura said with a shrug, "So anyone up for a search and destroy road trip?"