A/N: Aw, the reviews for the last chapter were so sweet. We all love Yuugi! Unfortunately he doesn't show up in this chapter... I meant to, but as you've noticed this chapter isn't as long as normal because I got really sick and couldn't write for several days. In the interest of not being late, the chapter ended up being a little shorter instead. However, I actually ended up liking some of the scenes I was able to put in... I remain full of surprises, I think, even when I'm sick. Enjoy!

Light.

Sweet, burning, consuming light.

He writhed in glory as the shadows screamed in pain and fled, struggling to hold onto him yet at the same time yearning to get away from their natural enemy. The light was so painful, so hot, so intense that it set everything he was on fire - and he loved every moment of it. Cold was banished like it had never been, his bones slowly warming from the inside out. Lines were being drawn as he remembered where he began and the shadows ended: light scouring the very essence of darkness from his soul.

With every passing second (and for the first time, he was aware of the concept of time and what it meant, though why it was important still eluded him) it grew even stronger.

If he could have cried, he would have.

If he could have begged for more, he would have.

If he could have sought revenge against those that had dared taken this sweet light away from him...

Well, that he would have.

The end of his imprisonment was coming...

And he would be ready.

GMA

Jou was awake and very, very not happy. For about the hundredth time, he squirmed, trying in vain to break free of the disgusting grey fibres that he was wound up in. Apparently the spider duel monster that had attacked them had decided that it was too much effort to actually kill them. It had instead chosen to wrap him, Shizuka, Bakura, Honda and Otogi from head to toe in more webbing and left each of them attached to a branch strong enough to hold their weight hanging upside down, like flies waiting for the spider to come finish them off. The comparison had crossed his mind more than once during the past three hours he'd been conscious.

Bakura was the only other person who had come to, and Jou was actually a little relieved that Bakura was tied up, because when the psychotic yami woke up, he'd lost it a little. There had been some harsh words spoken in what he suspected was Egyptian, and judging by the fact that he'd never heard them before, he figured Bakura was cursing a blue streak. Occasionally the torrent of language was interspersed with Ryou's name, and that was almost worse than the cursing, because that one word - "Ryou" - was spoken with so much pain and self-loathing that it hurt to listen to. He was privately relieved that he'd been tied with his back to the other teen because he didn't think Bakura would have appreciated anyone seeing him like that.

"This so did not go the way we had planned," he muttered to himself, sparing a thought for his missing lover. Where was Seto? Was the man alright? Had they been wounded or worse, captured and taken to Pegasus? He winced at the thought and wished that he knew how to summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon into the real world. Even if it made him pass out, it would have been worth it to have had a way out of the damn webbing that they'd been wrapping up in. His head was starting to throb from all of the blood rushing to it and his ankles had gone numb, but there was no end in sight.

Something chittered out in the middle of the forest and he stiffened. "Bakura!"

"What?" the yami hissed behind him.

"There's something out there." Jou hoped that the panic and alarm weren't showing up in his voice as much as he thought they were, but he suspected that it was a lost cause. After the close encounter with a gigantic spider straight out of his nightmares, he had no inclination to ever see another duel monster that wasn't a dragon, especially if it was coming while he was tied up and incapable of defending himself.

Bakura actually growled. "What the fuck do you want me to do about it?" he demanded.

"I just thought you might like to know?" He swallowed the scream that wanted to escape when something burst out of the bushes in front of him. Jou closed his eyes, fully prepared for whatever it was to attack, and it took him a moment to register that he was being... laughed at? Cautiously, he opened his eyes and found himself staring at a little green woman with butterfly wings that looked kind of familiar. She smiled at him, more sweetness than edge, and suddenly he knew. "You're Fairy's Gift!"

Fairy's Gift beamed. "Anzu-chan sent me to make sure that you're okay!" she chirped, blinking enormous eyes at him. "You look okay! I'll let her know! Bye bye!"

"WAIT!" Jou bellowed when she started to turn away. He didn't know how much longer he could take being upside down and helpless. "Come back! Get us down from here!"

"Down?" The duel monster blinked at him in confusion.

"Cut the fucking webbing," Bakura snarled, losing what little patience he possessed.

"Oh! Okay!" Giggling, she held out her wand and leapt forward. The tip of her wand, which was shaped like a four-pointed star, proved to be sharp enough to slice easily through the webbing. Jou yelped as he plummeted the ten feet to the ground below head first. He discovered the sole redeeming factor of the webbing when he struck, which was that it acted as padding and prevented him from being hurt by the collision. Fairy's Gift hovered over him and drew one of the points of her wand down the webbing. It split apart beneath the tip like butter, and by the time she had finished freeing the others, Jou was on his feet wiping frantically at his arms, legs, face and hair to get the rest of the stuff off. His skin was left feeling sticky and he shuddered with disgust.

The force of the fall had jarred Shizuka, Honda, and Otogi awake. In less than ten minutes, the four of them plus Fairy's Gift were following the ravaged trail that Bakura had left when he stormed off to what remained of their campsite. It proved to be a sorry sight. Carefully gathered firewood had been scattered and broken, the buckets tipped over and crushed, and all of their backpacks had been searched through and most of their things were now missing. Bakura was muttering under his breath as he searched for the knives they'd had the night before, but unsurprisingly, their weapons were gone.

"They took everything of use," Shizuka said, her fingers still working through a couple of spectacular tangles. She looked down at the sorry state of her backpack and sighed.

"How do you think the others made out?" Honda asked quietly, wincing as Otogi probed at the bump on his forehead.

Jou sighed and grabbed one of the few bottles of water that had survived. "We need to find them," he said, twisting the top off and taking a long drink. "Obviously they split us up so that we would be easier to bring down. Seto, Mokuba, Mariku and Malik probably got attacked, too." It didn't seem necessary to point out that it was likely Malik had been captured as well. The duel monsters had come for Ryou, so it was safe to assume that they would have gone for Malik as well.

"Bakura, where are you going?" Otogi demanded suddenly.

"To the castle," Bakura snapped, dropping what remained of his and Ryou's backpacks on the ground. Before they left, he'd secreted a small set of knives in the lining of Ryou's pack when his lighter half wasn't paying attention. That, plus the set of lock picks that he carried in his pockets at all times, were all that he had left. It wasn't much, and it felt dreadfully inadequate considering who he was about to face, but at least it would be something.

"I know you're concerned about Ryou but we have to find Seto and the others first," Jou told him. He cringed when Bakura turned the full force of a poisonous glare on him but managed to stand his ground. "We'll have a better chance at getting in if we have Mariku and Seto and you know it."

"We're wasting precious time by stopping to look for them," Bakura retorted, his dark eyes blazing with rage. "You know that Mariku will be heading for the castle if they've taken Malik and Seto and the brat will probably be following him. What makes more sense, mutt? Going towards the reasonable, realistic meeting place or wandering around the forest hoping to stumble across each other while those bastards do fuck only knows to my hikari?" He took a step towards Jou, who finally gave in to the sense of self-preservation that was screaming in the back of his mind and stumbled backwards. Put like that, he wasn't sure how to argue, and Bakura knew it, judging by the triumphant smirk on his face.

"Okay, you're right," Shizuka said, intervening before her brother had the chance to respond. She licked at a scrape on her palm and narrowed her eyes at Bakura. "But if we head towards the castle, you have to make sure you don't run ahead and do something crazy, Bakura. You can't help Ryou if you end up captured or worse. You're going to have to remain calm. Can you do that?"

Bakura just sneered at her in response and twisted away, stomping off in a direction that Jou wouldn't have guessed the castle would be in - but he wasn't about to second guess Bakura. The yami could follow his bond to Ryou, which meant that he likely had the best idea of just where the castle was. He shot a grateful look at Shizuka as Honda and Otogi both stood up. None of them were overly happy about the idea of walking into a possible trap, but unfortunately, Bakura did have a solid argument for heading towards the castle. And truth be told, as much as Jou wanted Seto, he was deeply worried about Ryou, Yuugi and Malik, not to mention concerned about how long Bakura and Mariku would be able to cope without their lighter halfs around.

"Let's go before we lose him," said Otogi. There were streaks of kohl under his eyes and his clothing was badly wrinkled. It was probably the worst that Otogi Ryuji had ever looked. But he didn't seem to care and Jou's opinion of him raised a few notches. "We should stick together right now. If Bakura gets ahead of us, we risk getting lost."

"Yeah." Jou sighed and started walking in the direction that Bakura had gone. Shizuka fell into step beside him and he took a moment to give her an impressed, thoughtful glance. The delicate way she handled Bakura was reminiscent of Yami to the point where he was wondering if she was spending far too much time around the Pharaoh. She seemed to have an intrinsic (and possibly insane) belief that Bakura and Mariku would not harm her regardless of how angry they got, so Bakura when he was having a temper tantrum didn't seem to have an effect on her nerves. It was the kind of poise and calm that Jou wished he could emulate. When Bakura got pissed, he always backed off in a hurry.

Shizuka must have caught his stare because she smiled and took his hand. "Don't worry, Nii-chan. I'm sure that the hikaris are fine. They are all much stronger than they appear."

"Like you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She laughed and flipped her auburn hair over her shoulder. Fairy's Gift was flying by her side and the duel monster gave a happy squeal and reached out to grab a few strands. "I suppose you could look at it that way, but not really. I have shadow magic just like you. The hikaris need to have their own brand of strength in order to be able to deal with the darkness. Not only their yamis, but from the Shadow Realm as well." Shizuka glanced ahead to where Bakura could just barely be seen terrorizing a path through the forest. "Except you'd never know it from just being around them because most of the time they don't need it."

He processed this information silently and got the feeling that it was not widely known. "Who told you that?" Like he really needed to ask.

As predicted, her eyes twinkled and she replied, "Isis. Who else? She told me once that she noticed it happening around Malik after they left the tombs. When things got really bad, he would have power she didn't recognize to protect himself." Her gaze grew distant for a split second. "Isis said she thinks it has to do with controlling, or at least being on par with, the darkness."

Jou considered that and decided that yeah, he could see it. All three of his friends had their own core of inner strength, even if it might not seem like it on the outside. It was one of the reasons that he knew Yuugi would still be fine when they finally found him again, but hearing that they would have an extra something to fall back on was still comforting. "I'm glad for that," he said quietly. "Now if we can just keep Bakura from losing it completely until Ryou comes back to work this mysterious power on him, we'll be good."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Shizuka muttered, wincing as Bakura came to a stop and hissed something in Egyptian at a bush that had dared to grow in his way. Jou froze as the bush actually moved, as in, it literally split apart and stayed that way while Bakura stomped through it.

"Did that bush just…" Honda trailed off and gingerly rubbed the bump on his forehead. "I', sorry, how hard was I hit yesterday?"

"Either we're all hallucinating or we all just saw that bush move, right?" Otogi said in an eerily calm voice. Jou, Shizuka and Honda all nodded in unison. Otogi sighed, his shoulders slumping, and pushed past Jou and Shizuka to march straight over the bush. He slowed briefly when he got closer, his emerald eyes scanning every branch and leaf intently, just waiting for one of them to give even the slightest hint of movement. When nothing happened, he tentatively prodded one of the branches just to make sure before crossing the middle of the bush, same as Bakura, and making it safely to the other side.

Twisting back to face them, he waved a hand. "Come on then. I think it's too scared of what Bakura might come back and do to it to risk moving."

"I know the feeling," Jou muttered, rubbing one of his shoulders as he stepped forward. There was no way he was letting Shizuka go first, and Honda didn't look steady enough on his feet to be walking, much less be able to react should something go wrong. In spite of the fact that Bakura and Otogi had crossed safely, he approached the bush with caution and didn't relax until all three of them had joined Otogi on the other side. By that time, the petite brunette had gone further ahead in an effort to not lose track of Bakura.

"Hurry up!" he called, appearing beneath an overhanging vine. "Bakura's yelling at a patch of ivy now."

"Yelling at a patch of ivy," Honda repeated in disbelief. "Why the hell did I get into the same car as him again?"

"His method may be crude, but it's working, isn't it?" Otogi asked with a crooked smile, doubling back to hook his taller lover's arm around his shoulders in order to provide the staggering Honda with some extra support. "I think this whole damn island is actually alive. If Bakura weren't here, I don't want to think about what might happen."

They soon found out, as it turned out. It wasn't that difficult to catch up to Bakura again - all they really had to do was follow the path of frightened greenery, which led them straight to the semi-psychotic yami like he'd been dropping breadcrumbs behind him, and the fact that he had stopped moving only served to help. He was staring up at a large tree with a peculiar expression on his face, almost as though someone had asked him a particularly difficult question that he had no idea how to answer, and his normal reaction of 'tell me or I'll make you tell me' didn't apply. Jou glanced at him somewhat nervously before he looked up at the tree, wondering what was so different about it that it had captured Bakura's attention so intently. As far as he could tell, it looked like a fairly normal tree. Granted, it was huge, easily the size of three or four other trees put together, and the branches were surprisingly low-hanging, giving him a claustrophobic sensation, but other than that...

And then he felt it. His back stiffened and a low gasp escaped. "Seto."

Bakura cast him a smirk. "Felt it, did you?" he drawled, sounding saner than he had since Fairy's Gift had freed him from the webs. "I wondered when you'd figure it out."

"What... you mean... Seto's up there?" Jou pointed to the tree and realized that his hand was shaking. Huh.

"What?" Shizuka squeaked, taking a step back so that Honda and Otogi were between her and the tree. Neither boy seemed to appreciate her new position.

"It would seem that Otogi's bitching actually has a grain of truth in it," said Bakura, twisting back to face the tree. He ignored Otogi's indignant yelp in favour of moving closer to the tree and laying one of hands flat on the trunk. Without Ryou and the Ring, he was unable to summon a monster, even his partner, but that didn't mean he couldn't use a little bit of pure shadow magic. As soon as Seto and Mariku were awake, this island was going to regret it. "You might want to back up. This may get dangerous."

If Bakura was giving them that kind of warning… there was a general stampede in the opposite direction. Jou stopped once he was a good fifteen feet away and turned to watch. At first it seemed like nothing was happening, but then a loud cracking noise echoed through the forest and the tree began to shudder. His eyes widened when he spotted the thin ring of shadow magic that Bakura was forcing through the trunk. The yami was literally cutting their opposition down. In less than five minutes, Bakura took a step back, the shadow magic disappeared, and, instead of falling over, the tree sagged and dissolved.

"An illusion," Shizuka breathed. "How marvellous."

That wasn't the word that Jou would have used, but then he stopped paying attention to the conversation entirely when he spotted the three trussed up forms that had been left behind where the tree had once been. He rushed forward and found himself leaning over the body of his unconscious lover. Painful-looking bruises and scrapes covered Seto's skin, and vines had been tied around him so tightly that the skin on his hands and ankles was swollen. Jou gritted his teeth at the sight and took the small knife that Bakura was holding out. It was the work of seconds to slice through the vines and free Seto, Mokuba, and Mariku. By that time, Mariku was awake and pissed. Very pissed. He and Bakura promptly held a private conversation in Egyptian that had Otogi casting doubtful looks in their direction.

"I would not want to be Pegasus right now," he muttered, helping Mokuba to sit up. The younger boy looked dazed and his legs gave out when he tried to stand.

"What are they planning?" Jou asked, looking worriedly at Seto when the man failed to awaken. There didn't appear to be anything worse than surface wounds, but…

Otogi just shook his head as Mariku stood up and Bakura turned to leave. "You don't want to know."

"Hang on," protested Jou. "Seto's not - "

"Then give your priest the kiss of life and move it!"

"There's no need to be in such a rush, Bakura." The sound of Seto's commanding voice froze the white-haired boy on the spot. Jou sat back on his heels in relief as Seto opened his blue eyes and sat up easily. He spared a comforting smile for his pup, running a quick but observant gaze over him to make sure that he hadn't been injured, before he twisted to look at Bakura and Mariku. "Running in there with no plan is exactly what they want. Nothing will happen until the Millennium Puzzle has been solved so we have a little bit of time. Your hikaris will be better served if we stop and think about this instead of letting your tempers rule your heads."

Resentment flashed in Bakura's eyes. "You better be right," was all he said.

Seto gave him a measuring look and, with Jou's help, stood up. "I am. Now, come back over here, you two, and let's work this out so that it can be finished once and for all."

GMA

They had been too far away and now they were too close. Anzu felt her pace slowing almost against her will until she had stopped walking altogether. The aura around Illusion Castle was darker than anything she had ever felt before in her life, and every instinct was screaming for her to turn tale and run, to just get away before it was too late. She swallowed hard, her eyes darting from the determined Isis to the castle, realizing that it was already too late; they had come this far and Isis was not going to turn back, not when they were so close. That meant she had to keep going as well. Steeling herself, she crossed the last few feet and placed a hand against the cold stone, inwardly shuddering at the icy feel.

"How will we get in?" she asked, amazed at how steady her voice sounded. They'd come through the end of the forest after a nightmarish night just as dawn broke, and it had been one of the most difficult journeys that she could remember. She hoped that Isis had a plan that wouldn't result in too much fighting, because honestly, she wasn't sure that she had much of a battle left in her. Fairy's Gift had not returned and she could feel her energy seeping away by the minute.

"No need to worry. We're expected," Isis explained, turning to point. Anzu twisted to look and saw there was a cloaked figure waiting for them about twenty feet away, just barely visible in the day's lengthening shadows. Instinctively, she tensed, but Isis placed a comforting, warm hand on her shoulder. "They're a friend."

"You're sure?" Anzu said softly. Tired though she may be, there was no way she was going to allow someone to attack Isis this late in the game.

"Very sure." Her smile not quite reaching her eyes, Isis stepped forward, crossing the damp brush until she was close enough to the cloaked figure to be able to speak without worrying about being overhead. "Good morning," she greeted politely. "You know why we've come. Are you ready?"

The figure failed to react for a long moment, and Anzu had the sense that she and Isis were being studied at length, perhaps to make sure this wasn't a trap of some kind. Finally, one of its arms rose and she saw with shock that the hand attached had long, slender fingers capped by carefully polished nails. A surprised gasp escaped her as long, curly blonde hair fell out from beneath the hood and determined violet eyes met her gaze. Kujaku Mai smiled grimly and said, "I was born ready."

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