Chapter 9

Plan of Death

Bursting through a door to his lair, Ushio is a lot more pissed off than ever. "I have a bigger problem now. Those three stooges have proven to be a lot tougher than I thought!"

With all three girls wrapped in blankets after being retrieved from the river that the musketeers had knocked them into, Rebecca said after taking a sip of warm cider she just received from Malik as she clutch her damp teddy bear close, "Yeah, so what boss?"

"Don't 'so what' me, girly. Now I'm thinking that we are going to have to kidnap that bratty prince at the opera tomorrow night." With Anzu, Vivian and Rebecca exchanging glances with Malik, Ushio continued, "Now listen, in order to get to the prince, we're going to need to snuff those three out like a flame one-by-one."

And so, at the palace, Yugi and Ryou are happily relaxing in their shared bedchamber with the three musketeers at their posts outside the three doors of the chamber. With his diary out, Yugi hummed the song that he and Yami listened to on their way back to the palace as he scribbled and wrote their names on one page. Swooning at the thought of his beloved musketeer and with a deep sigh, Yugi said as he wrote, "Yami Sennen and Yugi Mutou." with x's and o's on the page around the heart their names were in.

Seeing how Yugi drew and wrote things on the page, Ryou said with a warm smile, "You must really love him, prince."

Holding the journal close to his heart as he stared up at the ceiling, Yugi said with a sigh, "More than anything in the whole universe."

Letting out a sigh, Ryou said, "To be honest, I think I might be falling for his albino friend, Bakura."

Turning toward his best friend, Yugi reply, "I figured there was something going on between you two by the way you were blushing when two of the musketeers were taking you home."

"Even though this is supposed to be a forbidden love, I don't care because in many stories and fairytales we've read growing had forbidden loves in them and the couple got together in the end."

"Indeed." Yugi reply again as the two leaned their backs against each other and thought about their beloved musketeer.

Outside the bedchamber, at one of the doors, Marik is just marching back and forth at his post when he heard a door to the library open. Looking behind him, Marik didn't see anyone. "I must be acting paranoid." Marik said to himself.

Just before he was going to continue with his march in front of the door, someone had came up from behind Marik and quickly covered his mouth with one hand and held a dagger to his neck. "If you value your life, you will come with me now!" his kidnapper whispered harshly in his ear before slightly forcing him to start walking. Not scared of losing his life, Marik grinned from under the hand that is clasped over his mouth as he caught a glimpse of his kidnapper from a hall mirror and teasingly let this look-alike walk him out the palace.

After a few minutes of leaving the palace and walking toward a dark alley way, Malik, the one that had taken Marik out removed his hand from his mouth and the dagger from his neck and before Marik could face him properly, Malik used the hard handle of the dagger and hit it on the head where it'll knock out the musketeer. "One down, two more to go." said Malik now that part one of his part of the plan complete.

Back at the palace, while Bakura is standing guard at his post, three feminine shadows appeared behind him with one holding a cloth covered in Chloroform and quickly place the cloth over his mouth and nose to get him to breathe in the sweet yet knock out substance. With the effects of the Chloroform taking over Bakura, being the strongest out of all three, Vivian caught him.

With Anzu helping her with carrying the albino musketeer, Rebecca said as they start to drag Bakura away, "Two down, one left."

At his post, Yami had noticed that something is off when he no longer heard the footsteps of his fellow musketeers and best friends from their own posts. Only leaving his post for a moment, Yami went to check on the others only to find their posts are empty. "Something's wrong here." Even though he knew he was breaking his orders as a musketeer, Yami went to look for Bakura and Marik.

Stepping outside the palace, having no luck of finding traces of his friends, Yami suddenly heard an evil laugh coming from one of the statues to his left. Turning to the direction he heard the laugh come from, he saw a shadow figure until it stepped into the light, taking Yami completely by surprise; "Captain Ushio!?"

"Well well well, if it ain't the one musketeer." said the captain wickedly.

"Captain Ushio, what's going on?"

"I'm just taking care of a certain pest."

Seeing the confused look on the tri-colored musketeer, Ushio continued with a wicked tone, "I plan on kidnapping the prince, but you three have proven to be a lot tougher than I thought when I first assigned you and your friends as musketeers for the prince, I've come to realize that I would need to pick you three off in order for me to get rid of the prince."

To hear that he wants to kidnap Yugi, Yami asked to clear his confusion, "Why are you doing this, captain?"

"Simply because I want to become king."

Knowing that he is after Yugi's crown, Yami's memories of before he and his friends ended up in France returned to him. Remembering that he had lost his family and chance of becoming Egypt's pharaoh thanks to a plaque that ran through the country, Yami replaced his confusion with a serious look that shown that he won't allow anything to happen to his prince and steal his rightful place on the throne. "There's no way I'll let that happen!" he exclaimed as he drew his sword. Knowing he may never become Egypt's pharaoh, Yami knew that he will do everything in his power to not allow Yugi to lose his chance of becoming France's king.

Laughing wickedly, Ushio gave the daring musketeer an evil grin and reply, "I'm afraid you won't be able to do anything after I'm done with you!" Before Yami could act, Ushio knocked him out after hitting him on the head really hard. With the third musketeer out, Ushio took out shackles with a chain attached to it and place the shackles on his wrists.

Picking up the knocked out man and slinging him over his shoulder, Ushio carried him to a covered cart he had prepared. With Yami in the back of the cart and covered by the black drape, Ushio drove the horse-drawn cart to the place he had in mind for Yami; the Mont Saint-Michel, an old house of torture that has the reputation of floods flowing inside and drowning anyone that is in the dungeon.

And so, while Ushio is close to approaching the place, Yami slowly regains consciousness, siting upon his knees and holding his pounding head from where Ushio hit him only to find that he had a pair of shackles on his wrists. Feeling the cart stop after a few minutes after waking up, Yami saw Ushio's silhouette outside the drape.

Removing the drape, Ushio gave the musketeer a wicked grin and Yami could only glare at the captain. Taking the chain attached to the shackles on his wrists, Ushio all but gently pulled on the chain and led Yami inside. Coming to one of the entrances to a small dungeon, Yami leaned over slowly to look down when he felt Ushio 'accidentally' push him down. "Oopsie," Pausing for a moment until he heard Yami land roughly, Ushio let out a chuckle as he climbed down the ladder. "I have such butter fingers."

And so, roughly taking Yami by the front of his shirt, Ushio pinned him against the wall and chained him to it after removing the shackles. Satisfied with Yami now being chained to the wall, Ushio stepped back and said evilly, "Well then, Yami, it looks like this is the end of the line for you."

Pulling himself as far from the wall as the chains would allow him to, Yami reply, "Don't forget that my friends could be right behind us!"

Rolling his eyes at his cocky attitude, Ushio reply smugly, "I'm afraid they won't be coming to help you out."

"What do you mean?" Yami asked.

"The albino thief and the sandy-blonde torturer are about to put under halos."

To hear that his friends could be getting killed at the moment, Yami started to feel his knees shake at the fear of losing them after everything they went through together after losing their homes in Egypt. "Face it, Yami, it's all for one and you are on your own! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get to the opera and finish my business with your little prince." Just before climbing back up the ladder, Ushio turned toward the saddened musketeer as he collapsed against the wall, "Oh I almost forgot, they say the tide comes in faster than horses. So enjoy your brief stay here."

As Ushio howl with laughter while taking his leave, Yami couldn't help but be overwhelmed with sadness of not only losing his best friends, but also feel that he had failed and let his beloved prince down. So he just stood against the wall and silently cry to himself with the tears flowing down his cheeks like fast-flowing streams.