A/N: Bujeezus Safari hates me. Okay, so here's what happened. So I logged onto my account on the computer and I was planning on updating with chapter two. I had the file all saved in OpenOffice so I opened Safari and BOOM. An error message. So I shut down the computer and turned it back on, and I tried Safari again. No luck. RAAAGE. I had to go on my brother's computer account to upload chapter 2 OTL. Though I FIXED IT TODAY! YAY! So here's chapter three! BWUAHAHA. Me and my sick Haxorz skillz. Oh and I have another little note.

Sorry if Atem is OOC. ;;A;; Forgive us! -bows- we tried our best! Like... He was waaay more OOC before Usagi-squared re-wrote it (*showers her with LOOOVE*) so. Thank her and her amazingness. She also made everyone else in character...and she does an AMAZING KAIBA 333 Like...Seriously.

Disclaimers: We do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

R&R! P.S. Thanks for the fav's/watches/reviews!

In the week that followed after Yugi's demise, a cover story was fabricated fairly swiftly to hide their tracks. Ryou had, at first, been more than surprised when Atem brought the subject up of course. More so when he insisted that news of Yugi's death be delayed rather than brought forward- but when it came down to it, the logic was sound. The fact was, without a corpse, nothing could be proven. To call in Yugi's death officially would more than likely get them locked up for the night in a hospital... A jail cell at the worst.

So, Atem took to hiding around the house during the few moments that Rishid came back, coming out to help Ryou look after Malik; who had, as the albino told the former Rare Hunter, managed to catch a cold from him when he arrived. Malik had thankfully neglected to mention to Rishid that he'd invited two people over... Though Atem and Ryou decided to ignore the exact reasoning behind that.

Regardless of how quiet it was for some through the week however, the following Saturday found Atem and Ryou sitting with Malik at the kitchen table again, the latter looking much better as he asked for seconds of eggs- only to glare at Atem in a silent, if not one-sided challenge as the taller one also requested more eggs.

"Guys... I don't think we should be eating that much..." Ryou scratched his forehead, looking at the pair in disbelief as they plowed through dish after dish of food. "If Rishid notices just how quick the food is disappearing..."

"Psh, he's not going to care." The albino looked at Malik with a frown, crossing his arms as said blond turned with a smirk. "Please- I can easily convince him that nothing's wrong... And if he does figure out that Atem's here, then we'll just have to pretend he's someone else." He turned to look across the table at the former pharaoh, who was currently looking back at Malik half-way through eating another bite of eggs. "It's not like the chicken could do without a lesson in humility."

The normally passive gaze changed, as it tended to happen when his Ka form was involved, to a fairly annoyed frown. "I told you, I am NOT A CHICKEN." The paper he was holding rustled slightly as his fists clenched, and he proceeded to turn back to the page he'd been looking at.

"Whatever, chicken."

"RRRRRRRRG-"

"In any case," Malik said as he continued to smirk, "Can you even read Arabic? Because I know that English is a lost cause for you."

Atem blinked, but took the change in subject gladly. "...No... But from what I can tell, this man," he said as he pointed at the front page image, "Is not at all pleased."

The blond looked over the table at the paper, skimming the article before laughing. "Hah! 'That man' as you call him just got arrested for falsely accusing two kids of theft. Moron..."

"Ah." It was fairly obvious that he didn't completely get it, but he put the paper aside and smiled none the less. "I'm assuming you're feeling better then?"

"Better than ever, chicken," Malik said with a grin. Atem in the meantime looked as though he was about to flip the table over as the one across from him laughed loudly.

Ryou threw his hands between the two, crossing them in an 'x' with a shout. "Hey! That's enough! ...Atem-san, now that Malik's healthy, why don't we go over the plan?"

"Plan?" Malik blinked, leaning back on his chair with a raised eyebrow. "You planned this without me?"

The teen across from him shrugged, smiling. "I assumed you would want this done as quickly as possible... I didn't think you would mind."

"...Hn..." He blinked again, before shrugging as well as he looked to Atem with a stubborn grin. "If it gets things done faster... Right, on with the plan!"

Atem's smile grew, and he sat up from the partial slouch he'd been in on the seat. "all right Normally, entering the shadow realm only happens during shadow games; where one or the other involved pull the realm to them, creating a pocket of space for themselves. Depending on the result, the looser will find themselves trapped in that pocket of the realm, unable to be freed by outside hands. However," he added as Malik's frown grew with the last part, "In the case of people who die within the realm, as a result that isn't directly tied to the games, their soul simply wanders the realm itself, a vast wasteland inhabited by the Ka beasts that make up the duel monsters we know today; fragmented souls which, in the time of death, took permanent residence in that realm."

He leaned forwards, smile vanishing. "This is the plan; Thief King Bakura as he is called was originally sealed, completely, into the Millennium Ring. At his time, it was already host to a fragment of Zorc Necrophades, something that had been placed without my notice in the final battle that resulted in my own sealing as well. Because of Zorc's ties with the Shadow Realm, he was essentially able to create an escape route through our Shadow Game, 'The Millennium World' as it was called."

The others frowned, and Malik interrupted. "If the game had no effect on things, then why did he bother creating it? If Zorc was just as trapped as Bakura was, then why bother?"

"...Most likely for vengeance, as well as to be rid of any possible loose threads." Atem looked up for a brief moment in thought, before giving the other two a semi-innocent look of knowledge. "If you think about it, even in my time as Pharaoh, I was known as a 'King of Games'. So what better way to be rid of me than a game mirroring the past that I had forgotten? Had I remembered everything, I would have been a threat to his existence in the ring; after all, I killed most of him already, it wouldn't be hard to be rid of the rest of him. However, because I didn't..." He trailed off, waving his hand. "You understand. Needless to say, while Bakura is in there, so is Zorc. We need to be prepared for the worst case scenario."

Ryou swallowed, taking a seat with the other two nervously. "And... What is that scenario Atem-san..?"

He sighed, looking down at the table with a frown. "Re-possession. As it was, Zorc never had full control over Bakura's soul. He was too stubborn, and Zorc's own fragment was too weak. So while he was able to manipulate a few things, he could never completely affect him. But in the Shadow Realm..." His eyes gained a dark look to them, and he looked up to meet Malik's own wide ones. "...Zorc holds most of his power there. This is different from a Shadow Game, where he pulled the shadows out to do his bidding. At that time, he was still rooted in the physical world, and therefore had no extra power. The same goes for when he was sealed with Bakura's soul as 'Yami Bakura'; since his body was still based in this realm, he couldn't reclaim any lost powers. But now..."

"Now he's simply escaped into the Shadow realm..." Malik's eyes grew wide with realization as he realized what Atem was getting at. "...And if he gains his powers from that realm..."

Atem finished for the teen, his tone grave. "Then he could easily overtake Bakura completely. And since Bakura's soul includes a Ka, he would be able to form that fragment of Bakura into any body he wished, before escaping into the real world."

While Ryou went whiter than he already was, Malik slammed a palm on the table, growling. "Damn it! Why didn't you tell us this before? If we'd known that your passing wouldn't do anything to stop this then-"

"I didn't know," he said as he cut the blond off, frowning. Atem looked down at the table, before continuing. "And I never realized just how much I didn't know until I reached the Fields of Aaru in the afterlife... But the fact is, this changes nothing. Even if Zorc has latched onto Bakura's soul, it is still possible to recover him. Difficult yes. But still possible." He pulled a deck of cards from his pocket, spreading it out on the table. "These are all spell cards I've gathered for the trip; but for the next step, I need you two to pick an armoured monster from your decks. What we are essentially going to do is open a gate into the Shadow Realm without activating the laws of a Shadow Game. By doing this, we can explore as much of the realm as we wish, with no worries for time. However," he added with a stern if not commanding tone, "It is still dangerous to simply stand there. Much like the games themselves, the realm is toxic to the living, and will slowly eat away at your energy until death. This is where your monsters will come in."

He looked over at Ryou, who held out the card he'd picked from his deck. "By summoning the cards within the realm," the teen said as he turned to look at Malik, "We will be granted their protection. In a sense, you could say that..." He trailed off, frowning slightly as he tried to explain. "Well, we will essentially 'become' the duel monster, gaining their armour for protection in the realm." Ryou looked back at Atem, who merely nodded.

"As Ryou said; the monster you pick will act as an 'armour' of sorts within the realm. I myself won't need one; I've already died, and therefore am already merged with my Ka. For you two, however, it is necessary to borrow the Ka of another being, in this case the ones in your deck." He stood up, picking up his dishes to put in the sink. "Once you've picked your card Malik, let me know. We'll leave for the Shadow Realm as soon as everyone is ready."

Malik blinked, eyes narrowed with slight suspicion before he nodded. Rather than leaving the room however, he pulled a card from his pocket, Ryou blinking at it oddly. "...That one?"

Atem also blinked, owlishly almost, as he moved from the sink to look at the card. "Makyura the Destructor... That should work quite well actually. Though..." He scratched the side of his cheek, before laughing quietly. "I didn't realize you kept that card..."

He frowned. "Just because I never used the deck myself doesn't mean that I didn't put it together. 'Marik' might have been the one to use this card, but it was and still is mine."

"Er, I didn't mean anything.."

The teen snorted, standing up and crossing his arms. "Whatever, it's not like I care anymore." He turned his head away for a moment, before looking at Atem. "I have my card, so lets get moving already!"

"Right, right.. Just hold on..." He gathered the spell cards, picking one off the top and holding it to himself. "Iw, 'Soul Release!'" Malik stared as Atem told the card to essentially 'come' to him in Egyptian, tendrils of ethereal light puncturing his body. As the leather-clad body he'd been residing in fell to the floor, Malik and Ryou quickly stepped back to give Atem some space. "Ack... I'd forgotten how cramped this would be..."

Ryou stared incredulously as Malik rolled his eyes. "You managed to forget that you're actually 12 plus feet tall? Great, we'll never get through this..."

The bird laughed nervously, a few feathers shaking. "It's quite easy actually..." He coughed, dropping the smile and holding out an arm as he reached past the two teens before him. "Now then.. 'SEN'!"

Open, Malik thought to himself for a brief moment. Brief, because, as soon as Atem had said this, his and Ryou's attention both had been drawn to the area his hand had been. A rip of sorts appeared in the room, before expanding downwards in the same manner as a rip in a piece of fabric. Or reality, as he supposed it was doing now. The two looked up at Atem, who nodded his head forwards. "After you two; once I enter, the gate will close."

Nodding silently, Ryou jumped in first, Malik frowning as the albino did so. Taking one last look at Atem, he leapt in, summoning his card as he blindly swam through the pitch black darkness he found himself thrust into. "I summon Makyura the Destructor!"

There was a change almost instantly. Rather than complete darkness, he looked around at the almost bright realm with shock, landing silently on some sort of floating rock. Malik looked himself over, blinking at how well the armour from his card was fitting him before turning to face the 'countryside' as it was. The sky, or the ground even, was a bright shade of violet, with clouds of varying shades darker or lighter scattered around them. As far as he could see, barren rock-like islands floated around... But other than that, there was nothing.

"Hnhnhnhnhn!" Or was there? He squinted, watching as what looked to be a white dog, a jackal, his mind told him, chased after a small, barely visible child in rags. A chuckling noise could be heard from where they were, and the blond had to blink a few times as, before the pair vanished all together, the jackal tackled the small child only for it to vanish into a black, melting cloud of smoke.

There was a 'thump' noise from beside him, and Malik looked up as Atem's bird-like visage stood above him. "You took long enough... Did you see that just now?"

Atem blinked, looking towards where Malik had been looking. "You mean the two that were chasing each other just now?"

"No, I mean the other ones.." Malik rolled his eyes, before glaring back up at the bird. "They're the only ones here other than us! Well... They were at least."

He shrugged, before looking back down at Malik. "It's normal for it to seem empty; generally, with new arrivals so to speak, duel monsters tend to clear the area, at least until they know more about them. As for those two..." The bird paused, before shrugging again. "While I can't say I recognize what card they correspond with, I can definitely tell you to expect more incidents like that."

Malik sighed, crossing his arms while somehow avoiding any scratches from the blades attached to his forearms. "Great... ...Hey, where's Ryou?"

"Hn? Didn't you follow him?"

There was an awkward silence, before Malik growled. "Great! We've lost him!" He sighed, somehow managing to scratch his head without impaling it on one of the blades. "Which reminds me- if this place is so empty, how are we going to find Bakura?"

"With this." Atem's arms vanished underneath the 'chest fluff', obviously searching around for something before coming out with a card in hand. "Lead Compass!" The bird held the card out, he and Malik watching as a large metallic arrow materialized from the card before pointing towards their right and glowing faintly.

Malik smirked, turning to Atem. "Not bad for a chicken- let's go!" He leaped off the rock in the direction the arrow pointed in, Atem taking off after him as they walked seemingly in mid air.

"I AM NOT A CHICKEN!"

Ryou looked around the area he'd fallen in, slowly getting to his feet as he brushed some dirt of the robes of the 'Lady of Faith'. "Malik?" He looked around nervously, frowning slightly as a distant chuckle could be heard. "...A...Atem?" The chuckling grew louder, and he turned abruptly as a bodiless voice echoed around him.

"Hnhnhnhnhn... Nhnhnhnhnhn..." Nothing was there, nothing at all. He swallowed, scared eyes looking around the stone arch on the rock he wandered around on, and he continued to shout for the others.

"Malik? Atem? ...Anyone..?" He shivered, robes swishing slightly as he pulled his arms close. Oh why hadn't he picked a more sensible form of armour for this? He was practically defenceless like this... "...Guys?" His voice almost squeaked that time, pitch raised to mirror his over all feeling at the moment.

And the constant chuckling wasn't helping. "Hnhnhnhnhn..." At last another sound was heard, but regardless it was no comfort to the teen. Slowly, hesitantly, he turned around to look at the puddle of black on the ground behind him. Drip... Drip... Drip... Ripples appeared each time a drop fell, and a thin black mist appeared to evaporate upwards from the puddle each time this happened. Ryou slowly allowed his gaze to move upwards, an audible gulp escaping him as he took a step back, heel stopping only when he hit the edge of the rock.

Above, sitting on the top of the stone arch, sat a gleaming white jackal shrouded by the mists of the shadows. The jackal's face was unnatural in appearance, a wide and seemingly jester-like grin on his face, and his eyes narrowed into slits. To add to the image however, his fur stuck up at all ends, and Ryou almost had difficulty identifying his hair from clumps of fur that stuck upwards to defy gravity. He decided, however, that there were more important matters at hand when he spotted the source of the dripping.

The jackal, though mostly white, had something black clutched between his forelegs. The legs themselves were stained the same colour, and from the object he held that misted away, a steady set of black droplets fell. He squinted slightly, before almost stepping back again out of shock. A loud gasp escaped him as he clapped his hands over his mouth. A child... He was holding... A child... His eyes quivered as he watched the beast continue to chuckle, the child itself soon fading into nothing but a black mist that vanished into the jackal's being.

"Hnhnhnhnhn... A little white mouse has gotten lost in the realm of shadows," the voice said, Ryou just realizing now that it came from the jackal. It stood, turning his menacing grin towards the teen and continuing to laugh. "Such terrible luck, for the little mouse..." The grin widened, a task that he thought impossible as the jackal's face came closer to his. "You could get eaten."

He finally found the strength to speak, moving around the currently floating jackal in an attempt to get away. "Who..." He took a shuddering breath, arms held close as he found himself backing against the stone arch. "Who are you?"

The grin remained in place as the jackal landed, cocking his head. "Who am I?" It took a step forwards, seemingly vanishing into a white mist before appearing in a lounged position behind the teen. "I am me of course... And yet," he said as he chuckled at Ryou's instant reaction to jump away from the rock, "I am not me." The chuckling continued on, and he moved his face so that he was nearly nose to nose with the frozen teen. "A curious case, wouldn't you say? Even the shadows agree!"

Ryou's eyes turned, as though outside of his control, as the jackal's shadow suddenly flared and spread to form a shape reminiscent of the small child he'd seen clutched in his grasp earlier. A slit appeared in the shadow, widening to form a grin as it nodded in an eerily cute manner. He snapped his attention back to the jackal himself, gritting his teeth as he worked up the courage to press harder. "Do you... Do you have a name?"

"Everyone has a name," the creature stated matter-of-fact-ly, his shadow faltering as he moved to float around the teen. Ryou shuddered involuntarily at the being, silently wishing the others would hurry up and get him. This thing was... Frightening, confusing... In fact, that grin and his manner of speech almost had him flashing back to Alice in Wonderland. And something told him that 'Alice' wouldn't have survived the Shadow Realm. "But for a being such as myself, it would appear that no one elected to tell me it. They won't even tell me the day, or who you are-" He vanished into a mist again, appearing a few feet away in a sitting position as he looked to Ryou with the grin in place. "Though that's to be expected, isn't it? Ahahahaha!" The jackal paused, his grin becoming more dark somehow. "What's your name... Little mouse?"

He took another step back, stuttering slightly as he gave his answer. Anything to make this thing leave him alone, anything at all... Briefly, he recalled Atem's short description of the importance of a 'name' earlier in the week.

'With a name, even the weakest of monsters can take you in the Shadow Realm. For the name holds power, and memory. That is why, until I could remember my own name, I was unable to face Zorc, or remember my past.'

The teen swallowed, before coming up with a false surname. "T... Tozokuo Ryou..." He frowned, fists tightening on his sleeves as he gained a less frightened looking expression. "And I... I am no mouse!"

"Hnhnhnhn... Ahahaha... AHAHAHA!" Ryou tensed as the jackal burst into laughter, jumping into the air to float around behind the teen. With his head just beside his ear, he dropped his voice to a menacing, and somewhat familiar whisper. "Tozokuo Ryou... Your name is but a half truth, the given is true but the former is just the opposite..." He tilted his head in towards Ryou, before continuing with a hissed and less than humorous tone. "Are you lying to me, Bakura Ryou?"

He jumped, backing up to the point where he was somehow standing above the ground and off the edge of the rock. Ryou stared at the jackal with wide eyes, shaking as he attempted to control his breathing. The jackal, merely laughing, instead opted to follow him again, moving to position itself above the teen. "How..." He swallowed, looking up with fear evident in every bit of his body. "How did you know that!"

"Hnhnhnhnhn... How indeed..." He grinned down, the shadows playing around his form eerily as Ryou gave a small whimper at the image. "I'm afraid I don't completely know, little mouse..."

Wanting nothing more to do with the beast, Ryou finally did what he probably should have done when he'd first run into the jackal, taking a few steps backwards as it began to laugh again. "Stay away from me," he whispered, shaking his head before turning around to run from the creature. "STAY AWAY!"

As he ran, the jackal merely gave a sad chuckle before fading into a mist, his voice eventually following him. "Now now, little white mouse..."

"I only speak the truth."