Chapter 29 - A Bump In The Road

Rose constantly rolled over in her bed that night, trying to force herself to sleep. The more she tried though, the more agitated she got, and thus the less chance that she would get to sleep. Not to mention the fact that her mind was racing back and forth with endless thoughts.

She sighed and sat up, "This is ridiculous," she muttered.

"Can't sleep, can you?" Yami's spirit appeared before her, sitting on her desk chair.

"How'd you guess?" she asked.

He shrugged, "I can sense you," he said. "Ever since I met you I've noticed this mysterious, ancient presence about you, and now I know why."

Rose sighed, "Yeah but what's bugging me is how I ended up here 5000 years in the future with no recollection of anything. I mean, at least you know how you got here, you're spirit was locked inside the puzzle until Yugi solved it, but I've got no clue. It frustrates me that my memory only goes back a few years. And the fact that I have my own body compared to you is another mystery altogether."

"Hmm," Yami nodded, "well, how about instead of focusing on what we don't know, we have a look at what we do know," he suggested.

"Alright," Rose said, "So what is it that we do know?"

"Well we know that back in Egypt I was Pharaoh, and we were somehow close friends as Arthur explained, though I'm not sure where your place was in the palace." Rose nodded, urging him to continue. "We also know that when that great evil arrived, I apparently saved the world from destruction, and sealed my spirit inside the millennium puzzle doing so. As I recall, Arthur said you were with me when this happened, so I would assume that whatever happened to you during that time was something similar, as when I returned 5000 years later, so did you." He had obviously spent some time thinking about this already, Rose realised. It was a very plausible explanation however, she just wasn't sure how she could have been involved in helping him rid the evil that threatened to destroy all of Egypt, perhaps the world even.

"That's quite possible," Rose said, throwing the idea around in her head, "I just wish I remembered more about my life in the 21st century," she slumped back against her bed head.

"Let's not worry about that now. At the moment we just have to focus on stopping that biker gang from collecting more souls, and hopefully Pegasus will help us find more answers."

"Yeah," Rose said, "And we'll take these guys down," she said with a grin.

"Together," Yami nodded, smiling. "Now get some rest, tomorrow is a big day."

...

Just over 24 hours later, their plane touched down in San Francisco, and they were met by a limousine.

"Oh yeah!" Joey said, "The glitz and glamour continues!" He had spent most of the flight drooling over their own private Jet, and Rose assumed that Joey's excitement would not deflate any time soon. She laughed and shook her head as he bounded over to the sleek black car. They jumped in the limo and continued on their journey to Industrial Illusions headquarters.

After they had been travelling for quite a while, Tristan had resorted to silly car games to pass the time.

"Punch buggy green!" he said, punching Tea on the arm, before crossing his fingers so that she couldn't punch him back. Of course there was nothing physically stopping her.

"Ow!" She said, turning to glare at him. "There isn't a car for miles you idiot!"

"Oops," Tristan grinned. Tea just rolled her eyes. Rose turned to Yugi, he hadn't said anything for a little while, and was staring out the window.

"Are you alright Yug?" she asked him.

After noticing that Rose was talking to him, Yugi sighed, "Well I've been better," he said, turning to her, "How about you?"

"Well I've been worse," Rose said with a chuckle.

"Aren't you guys worried about what Pegasus said on the tape?" Yugi asked, "Someone's following him. And I have a feeling it's the same biker gang that stole the egyptian god cards from my grandpa's shop."

"Me too," Joey said, suddenly looking grim. Tea mentioned that they could be walking straight into a trap, and Rose said that they'd just have to be the first ones to reach Pegasus.

A moment later, the car stopped.

"Hey what's the deal?" Tristan asked. The driver got out of the car, and Joey questioned where he'd be going.

Rose scratched her head, "I'm confused, where are we?" she asked. They looked out the window to see only a run down gas station. Tristan didn't sound too happy about that, and the rest of the gang agreed. They watched as the driver disappeared from their view, all of them quite confused.

"So what do we do now?" Joey asked.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until he comes back," Tea said, "maybe he just went to the bathroom."

"Eugh," Rose said, pulling a face. "I'd hate to see what the bathrooms in there are like."

They sat and waited, but unfortunately the driver hadn't returned, and they were getting restless in their seats.

"Oh come on! It's been like 20 minutes," Tea said, sitting up to look out the front windscreen. In turn, they all complained about what could be taking the driver so long. Joey then suggested that they go check on him, and the rest of the gang agreed. They all got out of the car and carefully walked over to the gas station, inspecting the parameter.

"Hello?" Tea called out. The only answer was the whistle of the wind.

"Looks like business isn't exactly booming," Tristan joked. They all inspected the building looking for any sign of life, but they couldn't find anybody.

"Guys, there's nobody here," Joey pointed out, kicking a stone on the ground.

"Then where could he be?" Tea asked.

Rose walked out to the road, looking into the distance. "Hold on guys," she said, holding a hand up. They all looked at her confused, and asked what was wrong.

"Don't you hear that?" she asked. There was a feint rumbling in the distance. After a moment, Joey noticed it too, and then Yugi, who ran out to the road to join Rose. The rest of the of the gang then followed, and they spotted the source of the sound in the distance, a dark blur on the horizon.

"Whoever it is, we've got to flag them down," Tristan said. Soon a group of motorbikes materialised from the blur and grew closer.

"Let's just hope the natives are friendly," Tea said, as the gruff men approached on their vehicles. Upon noticing that the group of teens were standing in the middle of the road, blocking their path, the bikers stopped in front of them.

"You kids shouldn't be roaming around these parts," one of them growled.

"Yeah, you never know who might drive by," another one snickered, a smirk on the edge of his lips.

Joey pushed Tea and Rose behind him protectively, "Hey, you guys gotta problem?" he asked, standing with strong confidence.

"The gas station's closed, so just move on," Tristan said, moving to stand next to him.

"Yugi."

"What's wrong Pharaoh?" Yugi asked.

"This looks dangerous, let me take over." Yugi nodded, and the Millennium Puzzle lit up. The next minute, Rose looked beside her and saw the Pharaoh standing there confidently.

"What do you guys want anyway?" Tea asked from behind Joey.

"Didn't I tell you to get lost?" Tristan said, after they hadn't moved.

"I don't believe they're taking your advice," Yami said camly.

"I guess the spiky haired kid is the smart one," one of the bikers said.

"What now?" Tristan asked.

"I got an idea guys, run!" Joey yelled. They all turned and started sprinting towards the car. Unfortunately though, the bikes could go faster than any of them could run, and the gang became surrounded before they could reach the car.

"What should we do?" Tea asked, as the gang around them revved their engines.

"Whatever we have to!" Tristan said, balling his hands into fists.

Rose's Millennium Heart lit up, and she stepped forward, an excited glint in her eye, "You want a piece of us you punks?" she said with a smirk.

"Lookie here, we got a feisty one," one of them snickered, revving his bike once again.

"Rose, what are you doing?" Tea said, sounding overly worried.

"Alright girlie," one of the bikers said, "Let's dance." They each pulled out a metal bar and instantly started circling the group of teens. They all looked around them, watching the vehicles speed past.

"Rose! Get behind me!" Yami called out after Tea had already done so.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," she said, stepping forwards, still sporting the same smirk. One of them came towards her, with his weapon raised high in his grip.

"Rose!" Joey called out in alarm, trying to reach her to pull her out of the way. Just before the bar hit Rose however, it stopped in mid air, before flying out of his hand. Rose laughed.

"Whoa!" everyone gasped, having no idea what had just occurred.

"Rose, how did you do that?" Joey asked, shocked.

Rose turned around and smiled, "It's something I learned back in that warehouse."

"Of course!" Yami said, remembering what had happened after Joey fell from the stairs.

"Look! Above us!" Yugi yelled urgently. Rose looked up and saw another section of the stairs had broken off and were hurtling towards them. Before Rose could let out a shriek, the Millennium Heart lit up and projected a bright light between them and the broken stair pieces. When the pieces hit the shield of light, they bounced off and fell to the side, far away from them.

"The millennium heart can conjure up a sort of force field," Yami said. That's when Joey noticed the hint of a gold shine in front of Rose, before it disappeared.

"Geez, don't scare us like that Rose," Joey said, letting out a breath of relief.

"What just happened?" One of the bikers asked, sounding unsure of what to do.

"Hold on, who's that?" another one said. They all turned and saw another person on a motorbike heading towards them. This new biker pulled out a couple of Duel Monsters cards and threw them at the unsuspecting group. The bikers all fell one by one from their vehicles as the new motorcyclist attacked them.

"What's going on?" Tea asked, confused.

"Let's ask questions later," Tristan said, and they all started running back to the car.

"Joey, come on!" Rose said, noticing that he wasn't following. Joey had stopped to look at the card that the biker had used to take the group down. He jumped aside as another motorbike flew past him, hitting one of the gas pumps.

"That's not good," Joey said, before turning on his heel and bolting towards the car.

"Joey get in!" Tea called out urgently. Joey jumped in the car and they sped off, only just missing the explosion from the gas tank. It almost rattled the car as it sped in the opposite direction.

Tea turned away from the explosion, breathing a sigh of relief. "So wait, who just saved us?" she asked.

"Mai did," Joey piped up with a grin, "I saw her."

"Mai?" Tristan asked. That was obviously not the answer he was expecting. Neither was it what anyone else was expecting. They simply shrugged it off though, and relaxed in their seats now that the ordeal was over.

Or so they thought.

Okay i was too excited for this so you get 2 updates tonight! who loves me? :D

I really appreciate all the feedback I've been getting for this story, so thank you all so much! I was worried initially that id get hate for messing with the original story line, so its great to hear such positive feedback!

As I've mentioned before, as a writer hearing feedback always gives me motivation to keep going, so if there weren't reviewers this story probably would have stopped 10 chapters ago, so thank you!

Hope you're all enjoying it :D

PharaohsThrone :)