As Joey was falling deeper and deeper into unconsciousness, Bakura clicked a few buttons on the phone before taking a seat on a nearby chair. "Get an icepack," he said as Malik raised an eyebrow. "His head is burning up, we need to cool it down. Go." Watching the teen shrug and move off, he let the phone ring, waiting for a response.

In Japan however, the one Bakura was calling was doing exactly what he normally did when someone called his phone home from Egypt. Namely ignoring it, while typing away on his computer in his office. After about 5 rings however, he was forced to admit that in the end, he would have to just answer the damn phone. Maybe if he was lucky it was something worth while for once...

Kaiba looked from his computer to the phone with narrowed eyes, another thought coming to mind as he glared at it. That, or someone had decided to kidnap his brother. Again. Still glaring as it rang, the CEO finally caved and snatched it off the hook. One of these days, he told himself. One of these days, he would get a secretary. For his house.

Yesssss...

"What is it," he said with his usual 'I could care less about YOU' tone. "I'm busy." Glancing at the caller ID, he rolled his eyes. Great. This was the same number that 'seer' Ishtar had called him from. Just lovely.

The voice on the other end growled, and he raised an eyebrow. Well now, that certainly wasn't Ishizu. In fact, he thought as the man on the other end spoke, it didn't sound familiar at all. "If you hang up on me Seto," he said with a snarl, Kaiba frowning at the use of his given name, "Ra so help me I will murder your brother."

Kaiba frowned, the words having instantly gained his attention as he finally recognized the tone and voice from a year prior. "You'll do no such thing to my brother, Bakura!" It was that cheating albino from his Battle City tournament... Well if this wasn't just cheery. "What do you want," he bit out as the thief on the other end chuckled.

"It's about that mutt, Joey," he began, the laughter cutting off as soon as he began speaking. "I need some information, and something tells me that you have it, Kaiba."

The CEO frowned, moving to turn the computer off. "Before I even address what you want with the mutt, how about you explain how you're even alive?"

There was a pause on the other end, and Kaiba mentally cursed himself. Something told him that he shouldn't have known that. Like he shouldn't have been able to read the hieroglyphs on the 'Winged Dragon of Ra' card before. And, now that he thought about it, still could. Still cursing himself mentally, he listened as the thief skipped over that particular fact and continued. "If I were you Kaiba, I wouldn't worry about how I'M alive, but how to keep your boyfriend the Mutt from dyING."

He froze. Dying? He was dying? "What..?" Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself before continuing. No weakness; this was his rival after all, since that Mutou kid turned in his cards to 'focus on school work'. He was both surprised and unsurprised when Joey did the opposite. He'd thought the mutt had been too moronic to see the advantage in actually graduating.

Of course, he later found out that the reason he was still taking part in tournaments during school hours was so that he could actually eat. Shaking off these thoughts he glared at the phone, idly wishing that it wasn't impossible for the image to appear on the other end. "Besides the fact that we have nothing to do with each other outside of tournaments and to a minimal extent school, how about you clarify that last point for me?"

There was a scoffing noise on the other end, before Bakura's all too serious voice crackled through. "Your boyfriend," he said with emphasis, "Is DYING. And without your help, he WILL. Is that a good enough explanation for you, you pompous brat?" It was fairly evident that the thief didn't like talking to him. Good. It was also fairly apparent that he didn't like Kaiba at all. Even better, he thought, before frowning when Bakura added the last bit.

Though he had no answer, he spoke anyways. Seto Kaiba always got the last word after all; there were no exceptions to this rule. "I don't share words with thieves, Bakura. But I suggest you make sure there's a room ready for when I arrive in three hours." With that, he hung up the phone, before sighing.

What had he done this time... Rubbing his head in a weakness that the teen refused to show anyone, even his brother, at the best of times, he eventually clicked a single button on the phone again with a sigh. "Roland," he said as the phone picked up, and the familiar voice came over on the other end. "I need you to prepare the jet for flight." There was a silence, and he nodded. "Good. And don't let Mokuba know about this."

Ten minutes later, he was in the air.

As the sound of a jet came over head, Malik went upstairs to watch as Kaiba's all too familiar (And expensive) 'Blue Eyes White Jet' landed behind the house. It was a good thing that the building was built so far out of the city; things would have been far more difficult otherwise. Watching as the CEO hopped out of the jet with his briefcase, he frowned. Not a spark of worry in the teen's face, only the usual, icey cold stare that he was never seen without.

Apparently even death and dying couldn't shake the 'great Seto Kaiba'. He stepped back as Kaiba came towards him, briefly recalling Joey's condition again. In the time that Kaiba had taken to fly there, he and Bakura had essentially tried everything short of throwing Joey into the Shadow Realm. And still, even when they finally had an inkling of an idea on what was happening, he deteriorated. Each breath he gave was completely black with shadows, and though his fever was now gone his core temperature was borderline hypothermic. And yet, he thought as Kaiba walked past, the teen had been clearly sweating. Turning to the CEO, he frowned. "I'm sorry for calling you out here, but we really had no one else to contac-"

"Where is he, tomb keeper?" Malik tensed at the blunt question, but shook it off. He really should have expected. "Downstairs, follow me" he said, muttering something in Egyptian.

The CEO's glared intensified, but he said nothing as he followed the Egyptian to the basement. Idly he realized that it was likely too quiet; he normally would have made some snide remark on the house by this point. However, the fact was that he had no time for that. Not to mention the clearly foreign words he'd heard Malik say had been as understandable as Japanese to him- if he were to say anything, he'd likely end up mentioning that. And such things were just. Too. Troublesome.

Entering the rec. room in the basement, it took him a while to see Joey. The teen was shaking, his twitching having increased to a seizure-like vibration that shuddered at a constant pace. A shadow of his former self, no pun intended. Pale, and as silent as the grave. He dropped the briefcase on the couch opposite the one Joey lay on, staring at the sight before finally speaking. "What is going on here," he said slowly, unable to tear his eyes away from the nearly endless stream of shadows streaming from the... His 'mutt's mouth. "And explain fast, or I'm taking him back to Japan." There were no hospitals he could take him to, but there was always something that could be done, anything. Always...

"Well," Bakura started with a hostile tone to match the look on his face, "If we knew what was going on ourselves, we wouldn't have bothered calling, would we?" He watched as the CEO turned to him, his own glare in place before continuing. "We need to know just what kinds of stress and negativity he's been exposed to in the past few years..." He smirked, before adding to the statement. "Excluding obvious Egyptian related events, of course."

He scoffed, clenching his fists as he turned to face both of the teens with narrowed eyes. "You're more idiotic than I thought- though I suppose it's to be expected when neither of you even glance in his direction save for the opportunity to gain a pawn out of it." His frown deepened, glare intensifying as he continued. "I would have thought you'd call in the the mutt's geek-squad. I certainly don't see what I would know to help in this situation, and something tells me you two aren't helping much yourselves." Loathe as he was to admit that, he added mentally. But the fact was, the mutt was careful around him as it was, without asking questions about just why he'd been walking around half dead that day.

Malik sighed, arms crossed. "They're still getting over... Tch." He frowned- worse came to worse, they'd have to force Atem awake, a situation that would hopefully not end in blood. "You're closer to him than most of us are. And the hell we're going to wake up the 'Geek Squad'," he said, quoting the last part as he shook his head. "Look, we just need to know about anything major that happened recently! Then you're free to go," 'asshole', he added mentally.

"Hn." The CEO glanced at Joey from the corner of his eye, hiding his shock as the stream of shadows escaped regardless of whether or not the blond inhaled or exhaled. Dimly, he noted that his nails were likely going to break the skin of his palms if he kept clenching his fists. In the end however, regardless of if he'd ever associate with these two in the past, there was little choice in the matter. "Don't think this has to do with some hidden relationship involving me with the mutt. I just don't like leaving corpses in places I've stayed at recently," he bit out with a well placed lie. "The fact is, I doubt that anything I'm even about to mention has much to do with this, considering that last I checked, this moron wasn't having seizures two months ago. But," he said as he crossed his arms, loosening the fists he'd been clenching with a hidden wince, "I suppose I'll tell you two anyways, provided you fix whatever the hell is going on here."

It was an interesting ability he had, the pair thought to themselves. Without ever raising his voice, the CEO could make it seem as though he was yelling, when in reality his voice barely surpassed the level of average speech. Briefly, if only for an instant, they shared a knowing glance. There was something between the two, that was certain. Otherwise, it was likely the CEO would have simply called in an ambulance and left them to hang. Turning their attention back to Kaiba however, they listened with grim curiosity as he relayed his own observations.

"Around two months ago, the mutt was kicked out of his house, if you could call it that. From what I gleaned from records during the last tournament I held, most of the moron's life has been spent paying off gambling debts for his father, only to be given thanks in the form of the same man's fist." Kaiba's expression visibly soured at the mention of the scum that called itself Joey's father, but refused to let it distract him from continuing with at least half of the truth. "Shortly after this happened, he dropped off the map, before appearing a month ago at a minor tournament I started. He didn't win of course, seeing how I was participating, but the second place prize was more than enough for him to live on after that, seeing how he bothered to return to school afterward... But there were a few things off about the Mutt's playing." Very off, he thought to himself. So much that when the mutt had refused to continue taking partial refuge at his house it had shocked him.

Kaiba's scowl deepened as he banished that thought, continuing on. "Each time he drew a card, his hand would twitch. I of course, ignored this," he said, arms still crossed. "However, each time a card was summoned or activated, he visibly shuddered. In fact, two weeks after the tournament began, I was wondering how the moron could still play- he'd gotten paler, and was twitching if he took so much as a step towards a deck of cards." It was a miracle that the teen hadn't collapsed in their duel actually... More than once, he'd been afraid of losing by default instead of through the actual game itself. A pathetic loss, it would have been. A loss that in no way proved either ones true talent.

A part of him wished he had now. "Besides all of what I just said, I don't have a clue as to what's going on. Though if any of that rubbish actually helped somehow, I suppose it wasn't a complete waste of breath." He held his usual stare, watching as the two disappeared into thought before Bakura gave him a partially grateful if not mostly amused (To put it disturbingly) look.

"Actually," he said with an oddly 'Jackal' like expression of thanks. "That actually helped considerably. You say he shuddered and twitched when even a step was taken towards cards- And cards hold a direct link to two things, the Shadow Realm," he said, slowly turning to Malik, "And the 'Ka'..." His tone grew serious, the slight smile vanishing as he spoke. "Malik- The mutt's been to the shadow realm before, correct?" As the blond nodded, he scowled. "Hn. Well isn't this just wonderful then..."

Kaiba unfolded his arms, frowning. "What," he bit out, glaring at the pair. "What the hell are you talking about?" The lack of knowledge on current matters unnerved him, ate at him beyond anything he ever did. He hated it, not knowing the details of a situation. The lack of control for the matter at hand, and the theft of his ability to prepare for what would happen next.

And he wanted it back NOW. "Kaiba," Malik said as he glared back at the teen. "Calm down, we're trying to figure it out!"

"Then explain to me just what is 'Not good' about this, besides the obvious, Tomb Keeper!" He watched as Malik flinched lightly, Bakura sending a narrowed glare at him as the CEO clenched his fists. Even without raising his voice, it was as though he'd yelled at them anyways. His tone was harsh, more so than normal, and if the 'wet' on his hands was any indicator, he'd finally cut into the flesh of his palms.

Across from him, the thief remained silent, before his expression shifted into a smirk. "Now... Why is it that you're so concerned whether he lives or not, 'Seto'?" He grinned as the CEO tensed with that name. "I thought you didn't have anything to do with the mutt outside of card games as you said." He'd pieced most of this together; that much he was sure. However, Bakura told himself, he still wasn't completely sure how to fix this... And something told him that waking Atem would only waste time at this point.

Kaiba, for the moment, merely continued to glare at the thief King, un-clenching his fists again before any 'real' pain hit. "I already told you thief, I don't. But as I said, leaving corpses in places I've recently been, particularly those that I have little influence in, tends to look badly on me. Particularly after finishing off a tournament where that 'corpse' participated into the finals." Truth be told, he mentally added, he'd completely lost track of the mutt at the end of the tournament. Although Joey had returned to classes, he failed to stay behind afterward in any way. The CEO had offered him a place to stay shortly after the blond had been dumped on the streets, that was true- but the fact remained, once the tournament was over, he'd vanished completely save for 'important' things like the school building.

He couldn't even figure out where the Mutt was working after that. The CEO's attention was snapped back into focus as Bakura scoffed, crossing his arms. "Is that so? Last I recall, you were living oddly close together..."

He also scoffed, recognizing an attempt to gain a rise when he saw it. Besides, he reminded himself, 'this' Bakura didn't even exist until after Joey had dropped off the map. Strange and unrealistic as it was to create 'two' of one person. "Don't try to distract me thief, you'll find yourself sorely disappointed." Kaiba resumed his glare, staring Bakura down with eyes that could freeze the hottest flames in hell. "Now tell me what this business about shadows and 'ka's is."

"Hn!" Bakura frowned as he explained, silently berating the CEO for his 'idiocy' on the matter. "A 'Ka', you selfish twit, is one of six fragments in the soul. It was essentially said to be a monster however, being one of the... Darker aspects of the human spirit. And yet, in the end, it was also the 'true form' of a being, the body they would take in the afterlife." He gave a cruel chuckle, smirking. "Says a little something about the human race's opinion on things, doesn't it?" Despite the grim situation at hand, he continued to smirk, ignoring the CEO's steadily intensifying glare. "What's happening to the Mutt," he said as his tone and expression became sever again, "Is being triggered by an onslaught of negative events and emotions from both the past and recent activities. Most likely, the catalyst would have been his battle in the shadow realm against Marik..." As he said this, Malik winced, frowning.

"It seem's I'm the cause for everything..." As he said this, Bakura paused, before pulling him close with his arm and lightly pecking the side of his cheek. Ignoring the 'tic' that was likely appearing by Kaiba's head, the thief continued on.

"The Shadow Realm, might I add, is home to Kas that have been ripped from the body before death. A place where they are known only as 'duel monsters', trapped within it for eternity..."

As a dark grin came into place with those words, Kaiba continued frowning. "Again with this 'Shadow Realm' business," he said as he scoffed. "I don't completely buy it, but given the mess that's underway at the moment something tells me I have little choice." Watching as the two in front of him continued cuddling slightly (Mostly it was Bakura rubbing Malik's back and whispering something in Egyptian. Which he understood), he scowled. "And please... I get enough of this from the nerd patrol. Tell me what's going on, NOW."

"Hn!" Bakura turned, frowning before the expression quickly turned into a sick grin. "You want to know what's going on? I just told you! Your 'boyfriend' is dying, of a little something called 'Shadow Poisoning'!" The grin grew, twisted as Malik simply glared at the CEO his partner addressed. "Exposure to the Shadow Realm managed to jump-start something that shouldn't happen until his actual death. I don't know the specifics 'Seto', nor do I know exactly how to reverse it, but I can tell you this. Until we find out how, it's not going to leave, so if I were you, 'Priest'," the grin faded into a smirk, eyes narrowing slightly as a spark of confused recognition appeared in the CEO's eyes with that last title, "I would listen to what we have to say, and live with the bonuses involved."

Kaiba continued scowling, before turning to look at Joey. "That's all very 'touching', but-" He froze, looking at the bedridden teen with wide eyes. The twitching had stopped, his body almost completely motionless. All it did, however, was make it more easy to watch as his jaw moved in a seeming attempt at speech, a silent scream of pain as he tried to open his eyes...

But under the lids, nothing but shadows were there, strands of the powdered substance seeping from the crack between them. "How long do you expect him to last in this condition," he finally said, voice tense as he shook slightly.

Malik swallowed, eyes growing wide as well as he looked around the CEO at Joey. "Not very long..." He looked to Bakura nervously, the thief simply furrowing his eyebrows in thought. There was little time, if in the minutes they'd been speaking his entire eyes had been evaporated...

He smirked darkly, mentally praying to any Egyptian god and goddess listening that this would work. "Well Kaiba... It looks like we're going to take a trip to the 'Shadow Realm'..."

Beside him, Malik frowned. "Are you crazy?" He'd just gotten back from there, he told himself. It was probably sheer willpower that kept him awake at the moment, if he went BACK to that place now...

As though reading his mind, Bakura scoffed. "Please, you're not coming with me Malik- you're too weak right now, and we don't need anyone dragging us behind." Though the comment sounded more than insulting, the former tomb keeper nodded. A certain look in the thief's eyes, a glimmer if it could be called that, was all he needed to know the true intent behind the comment.

Kaiba, however, balked at those words, turning from Joey to stare at the thief. "Excuse me," he said with a slightly incredulous undertone in his voice. "And what, provided I even believe all of this, would possibly possess me to even consider going there?"

"Well," Bakura said with a smirk. "I'm certainly not going alone," he said, watching as Malik went upstairs to get some rest.

He gritted his teeth, fists clenching yet again. "And what do you plan on doing in there? Having a vacation?" His anger quickly became evident, his usually calm, if not stone cold expression becoming slightly tinged with red as the emotion began to spark in his eyes, as well as his voice. "How about bringing up an actual solution, rather than trying something as hare-brained as going to the so-called cause of the problem!"

"Well it's either this or wake up the pharaoh," the thief bit out with a growl, "And his solution would more than likely end up killing the mutt anyways!" Actually, he thought, it probably wouldn't kill him so much as they wouldn't find out what it was until the bird was calmed down... By which point Joey would most likely be dead anyways.

The CEO held back a retort, taking another glance at Joey before turning back to Bakura with an expression of distaste. "Fine," he said, the thief blinking as the teen gave into the idea. "But if this makes things even worse than they already are," he said with an unusually murderous expression across his face, "You'll find out just how much KaibaCorp. can influence in this world before you crumble." He hoped to hell however, that it didn't come to that.

Bakura did nothing but nod, smirking as he looked past the CEO at Joey. "Grab the Mutt... We leave now." And right as he did just that, the thief turned to the wall, his hand held outwards in a fashion similar to Atem's. "SEN!" The rift opened, Kaiba watching with wide and disbelieving eyes as it grew in size before 'swallowing' the three whole.

And then, all he saw was darkness.

All he felt even, was darkness. The CEO shivered, quickly growing pale as he turned about in the pitch black scene around him. There was nothing. Nothing at all in this place, and it was completely silent. For the first time in a while, he felt completely and utterly frightened, as though every other emotion was being sapped away by the world around him. His heart beat pounded, blood rushing through his veins as the sound echoed in his ears.

So cold... So very very cold, he thought to himself as he shivered, before a blinding light caught his attention from the belt at his side. "What..." Numbly, as though controlled by a separate force, he grabbed the source of the light and blinked. This card..? He'd have expected one of his dragons, with all that the tri-colour haired, leather wearing game nerd was going on about in the times they spoke. Instead, the card he held was only just slightly related to it, a card meant for sacrifice really. He stared, dimly aware of the pressuring darkness around him as he frowned. None of this was possible. None of it. And yet... "I summon," he heard himself say, voice sounding unsure for the first time in at least 8 years, "Paladin of White Dragon."

He didn't completely know what he'd expected, but it hadn't been this. A blinding light as opposed to shadows surrounded him, the CEO covering his eyes before opening them in shock. Where it had only been darkness was now a vast, empty wasteland that resembled something from his brother's old cartoons. Kaiba looked himself over, blinking as he felt the armor his summoned card granted him. "Tch," he said as he frowned. He looked like a convention going nerd... "Where the hell am I..."

This entire scene had to be a hallucination, he told himself. Joey's illness, the 'second Bakura' who acted almost completely different, the flight to Egypt... All of it. None of this could possibly be real, he told himself as he crossed his arms with a scowl. This was the last time he took coffee from Mokuba, he thought, before slowly walking off in the direction he was facing. Or possibly any coffee if it was after 3 in the morning, he thought to himself, dully noting that the 'ground' he was walking on was nonexistent.

As he pondered these things, the CEO didn't even consider the fact that something could be watching him...

The moment they had entered, Bakura noted, Joey's form was surrounded by shadows. The teen, though unconscious for the moment, was completely covered by them as tendrils flailed around uncontrollably in some twisted joke of a cocoon. As the thief looked around however, he frowned. Well wasn't this just lovely, the billionaire managed to loose himself. Turning to the 'mutt', he decided to content himself with watching the shadows.

He quickly regretted this however, as the teen apparently regained consciousness in those few moments, and a smothered, blanketed version of himself could be faintly seen. It, rather he, spasm-ed, attempting to break free of the cocoon with a scream of pain that caused Bakura to jump back from the volume. "HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The thief plugged his ears, watching with dull interest as the shadows surrounding him only served to 'tighten' in response, condensing as they attempted to do some unseen thing to the teen.

The screaming continued. "AAAAAAAAAUUUUUHHHHH!" Well, Bakura thought with a frown as the cries increased in volume, the mutt had certainly regained his voice and energy for some reason. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" A few 'tics' appeared, his eyebrow twitching as the Egyptian attempted to block out the noise. For the love of any god or goddess listening, if he would just shut up already...

Oddly enough, he did just that. The thief paled, unplugging his ears. That was much too fast for comfort, he told himself as he moved over to inspect the still writhing and 'reforming' mass of shadows surrounding Joey. Far too fast, in fact, and he idly wondered if it was 'Set', the god of chaos who randomly decided to answer his prayers- an answer he would rather not receive from that particular deity really...

He watched as the shadows receded, letting out a small sigh of relief as the form revealed began to breathe. Well, he thought with a sigh, at least this spared him the troubles of dealing with a temperamental chicken... Although, he decided as he smirked at the teen's body, he would now probably have both a chicken AND a priest at his heels, not to mention anyone else who saw this.

The body was armored of course. That was to be expected, with his 'fighter' personality, and well defended past. But it was small, short even, about the size of most 'Level Up' type monsters at their first form. In fact, the thief added to his thoughts with a grin, he wouldn't be surprised if Joey's ka was actually the same height as Yugi was, rather, had been. Still, he decided as he crossed his arms and snickered at the sight before him, the mutt would definitely not like this, considering that the body covered in armor was also covered in a pale orange fur of sorts. But where was the sword, he idly thought to himself as he looked at the sheath on the dog's side. He hardly expected there to be no weapon...

"YES!" Bakura jumped as a voice called from elsewhere in the area, eyes instantly locating the source as it hovered above Joey's still sleeping form. "FREE AT LAST," the shadowed, almost ashen being cried, and the thief paled as it turned his attention towards him. Well. That wasn't Joey. He stepped back, cursing as the dust creature looked down at him. "Oi, who the hell are you?" Awww fuck.

Meanwhile in the world of the living, a certain 'chicken' was wincing in his sleep, blankets twisted around him as he rolled over multiple times. A nightmare, anyone could guess by simply looking at him. But what it was, was the question.

A question he would not answer any time soon, as he watched his berserk and instinctual form attack and slaughter the hallucinatory forms of all he knew. Tea was first, running after him, along with Mana, the girl from his past. Then Tristan, Joey, Duke, Mahad... And just as he watched 'himself' approach Yugi, tears streaming down his face, the dream stopped. 'It's alright,' a voice called out. Atem paled as it sounded behind him, knowing that sound all to well.

"Yugi..."

There was a laugh, and the voice answered. 'Not quite. But you're close. It's alright, Atem.' He stood, unable to turn around as the voice continued, comforting hands placed on his shoulder. 'You don't need to hide everything away... Ok?'

"But-" He was cut off, the voice continuing, and he had a feeling that its owner was currently giving him a rather childish frown.

'But nothing. From now on, I want you to live honestly! No more pretending to not be affected by what's happened! Cry when you're sad, shout when you're angry, and laugh when you're happy... But don't hide it! Or all of this,' he said as the false corpses of his friends littered the imaginary ground, 'Will actually happen...'

Atem bit his lip, tears forming again as he allowed the voice to chastise him as another with the same sound had done before. "But I... I know that it was beyond their control... I can't..."

There was a laugh. 'I never said to punish anyone! Besides, you said you know right?' It paused, before continuing with it's innocent tone. 'Just admit your feelings... Don't hide them, admit them, face them, and then conquer them!'

The former pharaoh gave a sad smile as he looked down at the ground, eventually speaking. "Yugi... Where are you..?"

To his surprise, the voice answered. 'I don't know. It's dark here...' As the voice faded and he returned to consciousness, he heard only a few more words.

'Help...'

The teen awoke with a jolt, clammy and shaking before the events of the evening caught up to him in a flash. "Dear Ra," he whispered, holding his head in his hands as he attempted to steady his breathing. "What did I do..." He stumbled out of the bed, looking out of the bedroom window with wide and horrified eyes. "What have I done..?"

Unlike in the dream, this time he received no answer.